Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/540

Rh into her father's workshop and to preach to them, playing at church. In the winter of 1883 she had a deep religious experience. Encouraged by her pastor and aided by the Universalist Church, of

which she was a member, she entered the divinity school of Lombard University, in Galesburg, Ill., in September, 1884. There she was graduated 20th June, 1888, with the degree of B. D. During two years of that course she aided herself financially by singing in a church quartette choir as contralto. In June, 1886, she preached her first sermon in Muncie, Ind. In June, 1887, she began to preach in Swan Creek, Ill., twice a month. In October, 1887, she engaged to preach also in Marseilles, 111., filling those appointments alternately until May, 1888. After her graduation she settled in Marseilles. There she was ordained to the ministry of the Universalist Church, 21st September, 1888, and there she remained as pastor for two years, receiving many new members, performing every church ordinance, and declining a call to a mission in Chicago and calls to important city charges. Resigning her place in Marseilles, Miss Shaffer became the wife of Nathan G. Newport, a merchant of Wauponsee, Ill., 15th October, 1890. She became the pastor of churches in both Wauponsee and Verona, and soon a new church was erected in the former place through her efforts. Mrs. Newport is a pleasing and impressive preacher. She is an energetic worker in all things that tend to the upbuilding of the church

NICHOLLS, Mrs Rhoda Holmes, artist, was born in Coventry, England. Her maiden name was Rhoda Carlton Marian Holmes. The first ten years of her life were passed in Littlehampton, Sussex, where her father was vicar of the parish. The family then moved to Hertfordshire, where her youth was passed in quiet.

She showed no talent for art in childhood, and entered the Bloomsbury School of Art in London merely to acquire the usual accomplishments. She there tried for the Queen's scholarship prize of £40 a year for three successive years, and to her surprise she won it and received the unusual compliment of a gift of £10 from the Queen, to whom her drawings had been sent for examination. Then Miss Holmes began to study for a career. At the end of a year she went to Rome, Italy, where she studied the human figure with Cammerano and landscape with Vertuni, and attended the evening classes of the Circolo Artistico. In the winter of 1881 she enjoyed special privileges. In Rome she exhibited her works and received personal compliments from Queen Margherita. From Rome she went to South Africa, near Port Elizabeth, where she and her mother remained a year among the Kaffirs and ostriches of the Karoo desert. She made many studies of Kaffirs, of desert scenes, and of tame and wild animals. In Venice she became acquainted with Burr H. Nicholls, who is an American, and they were married the next year in England. They came to the United States in the spring of 1884 and settled in New York City. Mrs. Nicholls at once began to exhibit her work in the exhibitions of the Society of American Artists, and she has been a successful contributor ever since. In 1885 she won a silver medal in Boston, Mass., and in 1886 she won a gold medal from the American Art Association for her picture in oil, "Those Evening Bells." Every year she has added new laurels to her wreath. As a water-color artist she excels. She has been elected vice-president of the New York Water-Color Club. Her range of subjects is very wide, and in every line she succeeds. Besides her water-color work, she has done much work in oils.

NICHOLS, Mrs. Josephine Ralston, lecturer and temperance reformer, born in Maysville, Ky, in 1838. She was attracted to the temperance movement by an address delivered in Maysville by