Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/423

418 her first marriage, William Brewster Wood, survives. Her second husband is Professor William Walter Jefferis, the well-known scientist and mineralogist. She has published one volume of verse, entitled "Faded, and Other Poems" (Philadelphia, 1891), which she brought out at her own expense, and the proceeds of the sale of which she devoted to charity. It is a volume in memory of her daughter, who died young, and who was greatly interested in charitable work among the sick and poor children of Philadelphia. Mrs. Jefferis has done much charitable work. She has resided in Philadelphia since her early childhood.

JEFFERSON, Mrs. Martha Wayles, wife of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, born 19th October, 1748, in Charles City county, Va., and died 6th September, 1782, in Monticello, the President's country home, near Charlottesville, Va. She was the daughter of John Wayles, a wealthy lawyer. She received a thorough education and was a woman of strong intellectual powers, great refinement and many accomplishments. She was married at an early age to Bathurst Skelton, who died and left her a widow before she was twenty years old. Her hand was sought by many prominent men, among whom was Thomas Jefferson, the successful suitor. They were married 1st January, 1772, and set out for Monticello. Five children were born to them. In 1781 Mrs. Jefferson's health failed, and her husband refused a European mission in order to be with her. Her fifth child was born in May, 1782, and she died in the following autumn. Her husband's devotion to her partook of the romantic. Two of their children died in infancy. Mrs. Jefferson was a woman of mark in her time.

JEFFERY, Mrs. Isadore Gilbert, poet.

born in Waukegan, III., in 184 -, where her parents lived for a time. For many years their home was in Chicago, Ill., where her father had extensive business interests. She is of English parentage. In a letter to a friend Mrs Jeffery says: "Those who knew my sainted parents will accentuate the utmost words of praise a loving daughter's heart could prompt Noble and true in every possible relation, their record in life is a priceless inheritance to their children. They made a perfect home for fifty years, and when Mother was taken suddenly away in 1878, Father, then a hale and hearty man of unshaken intellect, said he couldn't live without her, and died within the year. No briefest notice of me would seem anything to me, that contained no reference to the parents who were my confidants in all things up to the day of their departure." Although she has written ever since girlhood for a large number of papers and periodicals, Mrs. Jeffery' has never published a book. She writes for the joy of it, and would do so always, if there never were a dollar's return therefrom. She became the wife, in 1878, of M. J. Jeffery then superintendent of the American District Telegraph and Telephone Service of Chicago. One morning, about two years after their marriage, while driving to business, he was injured in the tunnel by a runaway team, and brought home to a time of suffering that forbade any active life for three years. When he finally began to get about on crutches, the faithful wife, who had watched and waited beside him so long, accepted the responsible position of stenographer in the office of the Chicago " Advance," which she occupied for nearly six years, to the praise and satisfaction of all concerned. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Jeffery is a childless one, though both are intensely fond of children.

JEFFREY, Mrs. Rosa Vertner, poet and novelist, born in Natchez, Miss., in 1828 Her maiden name was Griffith, and her father was a cultured and literary man, a writer of both prose and verse. He died in 1853. Rosa's mother died and left her an orphan at the age of nine months.