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Miss Ina Shepherd, of Birmingham, Alabama, is the only woman who holds the place of secretary to a clearing-house association in this country. She has held this position for the city of Birmingham for over five years, handling the clearings of eight banks, amounting to between ten and fifteen million dollars a month. She is a fine musician and a most accomplished woman.

One of the most noted, cultivated and clever families of women in Illinois is that of the late John Dean Gillett and his wife, Lemira Parks Gillett, of Elkhart, Illinois, who were among the oldest settlers of Logan County (1842). The family consists of seven daughters, who were reared in the lap of luxury up to the day of their father's death. At that time each took charge of the estate left her by her father, and has since managed it personally in an intellectual, business-like and successful manner. As girls, these daughters were carefully educated along classical lines, their only business training having been that given by their father. It is therefore somewhat unusual that they should one and all have taken upon themselves the care of their vast estates, and with the result that to-day each personally directs her entire estate and business interests in the most successful manner.

The eldest daughter, Emma Susan Gillett, educated in New Haven, Connecticut, was married in 1867, when quite young, to Hiram Keays, of Bloomington, Illinois. She was left a widow after three years of married life, with one son, Hiram G. Keays. In 1873 she married Richard J. Oglesby, three times elected Governor of Illinois, and once to the United States Senate. The issue of the second marriage was three sons and one daughter. Her second son, John Gillett Oglesby, was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois at the age of twenty-nine, being the youngest Lieutenant-Governor ever elected in the state. Mrs. Oglesby came into her inheritance after Governor Oglesby had retired from politics, and within a quarter of a mile of the village of Elkhart, Illinois, erected her beautiful home called "Ogleshurst." For seven years she lived there, organizing and putting into shape her property, and since the death of her husband, Governor Oglesby, she has lived in Rome, Italy, her home being one of the most interesting and she being one of the most popular entertainers of the American colony at Rome.

The second daughter, Grace Adeline Gillett, Jacksonville, Illinois, was married in 1885 to Hon. Stephen A. Littler of Springfield, Illinois, one of the most indefatigable political workers of the day. Their handsome and well appointed home was the scene of many magnificent banquets given by Mr. Littler to his political friends. Mrs. Littler's presence, personal charm and grace of manner, as well as her beauty, won her many friends. Her love and personal care and munificent gifts to the suffering infants and children of her tenants, and the working classes about her, won for her the love, respect and admiration of all