Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/936

 Born near Syracuse, New York. She is descended from old Revolutionary stock of Massachusetts. About 1876 she began her first regular work with Henry G. Hayes, one of the corps of stenographers with the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C, at a time when very few women were engaged in practical stenography in Washington. She was engaged in this work for thirteen years. After several years of the most difficult work in the Capitol, she desired to work as official stenographer for one of the Congressional Committees and decided upon the Committee on Military Affairs, of which General Rosecrans was the chairman. Her first work was a report on heavy ordance which was being made to the committee by General Benet. When finished her report was accepted by the committee, and she had no furthr difficulties to overcome because she was a woman. Miss White served with Clara Barton in the Red Cross work for the relief of the flood sufferers in Johnstown, and while here she received her appointment to the Pension Bureau as an expert workman gained through civil service examination.

Wife of the late Edward Henry Harriman, the great railroad magnate. She takes a position among men through her ability as a business woman. During her husband's life she was his constant adviser and shared in all his great enterprises. He frequently spoke of the regard which he had for her judgment and ability, and after his death it was found that his will in a few simple words had placed most of his great estate in her hands, and directed that she should have control and management of more than one hundred million dollars. Mrs. Harriman was the daughter of a wealthy financier of Rochester, New York, and before her marriage her name was Mary Averill. The management, not only of this vast estate, is in the hands of Mrs. Harriman, but the completion of their home at Arden, on the crest of the Ramapo Hills, an estate half in New York and half in New Jersey, of forty-six thousand acres. Mr. Harriman wished to give employment to the country people and he had laid out this estate on the most extensive plans. This is being carried out in strict accordance to his wishes. Mrs. Harriman is essentially a woman of sound common sense and judgment. The tasks that confront her she is handling with energy and courage. She is devoting much of her time to the shaping of the career of her only son, Walter, a student at Yale, whom his father had already apprenticed to the railroad.