Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/945

902 Born August 14, 1814, in Cohockton, New York. Her father, Horace Fowler, was an able writer. Her brothers, O. S. and L. N. Fowler were among the first to study and believe the doctrines of Gall and Spuzsheim, and to develop an interest in the science of phrenology. Their sister Charlotte became deeply interested in this subject, teaching the first class in phrenology in this country, and joining her brothers in New York City they established the Fowler-Wells Publishing House. O. S. Fowler entered the lecture field, and L. N. Fowler established a branch of their house in London, leaving Charlotte to manage the large and complicated business in New York. In 1844 she became the wife of Samuel R. Wells, one of the partners in their business. On her husband's death, in 1875, she was left sole proprietor and manager, and later when this business was made a stock company, she was its president. She was vice-president and one of the instructors of the American Institute of Phrenology, which was incorporated in 1866. She was one of the founders and later one of the trustees of the New York Medical College for Women, which was founded in 1863.

Harriette M. Plunkett was a pioneer in the work of sanitary reform in the United States. She was born Harriette Merrick Hodge, February 6, 1826, in Hadley, Massachusetts, and this town, though a community of farmers, had the unusual advantage of an endowed school, "Hopkins Academy," which afforded exceptional opportunities to the daughters of the town, and there Miss Hodge received her early education. Her great interest in sanitary matters did not develop until after she became the wife of Honorable Thomas F. Plunkett, who in 1869 had a very important share in the establishment of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, the first state board established in this country. Mrs. Plunkett became convinced that if the women of the country would inform themselves what sanitary reform was needed in housing and living, and see that it was put in practice, there would be a great saving and lengthening of lives, and making lives more effective and happy during their continuance. To promote that cause she wrote many newspaper articles, and in 1885 published a valuable book, "Women, Plumbers, and Doctors," containing practical directions for securing a healthful home, and though interrupted in her work by the necessity of reading the studies of a college course to her son, who had become totally blind, this accomplished, she at once resumed her pen and returned to subjects of sanitation, though at the same time producing other articles, educational, aesthetic, and political, for various magazines and journals. One article, on the increasing longevity of the human race, entitled, "Our Grandfathers Died Too Soon," in the Popular Science Monthly, attracted wide attention. Her great interest in the prevention and healing of diseases also brought her before the public, and she is probably most widely known in connection with the establishment and growth of a cottage hospital in Pittsfield, Mass., called the House of Mercy, started in 1874, and of which she was the president. It was the first