Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/557

552 published poem appeared in the "Congregationalist" when she was sixteen, and it was commented upon by that paper as a most remarkable production for one of her years. From time to time many poems from her pen appeared in the different journals of her State. After her graduation she visited Ohio, where she met and became the wife of Harrison Gray Otis. When the Civil War broke out. he entered the Union army as a private, served honorably throughout the contest, participating in many engagements, was twice wounded in battle, received seven promotions, and was twice breveted for gallant and meritorious conduct. After the war Mrs. Otis and her husband lived for some years in Washington, D. C. In 1876 they removed to California, where Colonel Otis assumed the conduct of the Santa Barbara "Press," which he continued for several years. In 1879 he accepted the position of United States Treasury Agent in charge of the Seal Islands of Alaska, which position he resigned in 1882. One year Mrs. Otis spent with her husband in St. Paul's Island, and then they returned to Santa Barbara. Having disposed of his interest in the "Press," Colonel Otis purchased a share in the Los Angeles "Times," of which he now owns the controlling interest; holds the position of president and general manager of the "Times-Mirror" company, and is editor-in-chief of the "Times." Mrs. Otis is connected with the paper as a member of its staff, and also has her special departments, among the most popular of which are "Woman and Home" and "Our Boys and Girls." As a prose-writer she is fluent and graceful. Her choice is in the domain of poetry. She has published one volume. "Echoes from Elf-Land" (Los Angeles. 1890). Her home is in Los Angeles.

OVERSTOLZ, Mrs. Philippine E. Von, musician, linguist and artist, was born in St. Louis, Mo. She is of German-Spanish descent. Through the affluence of her highly-cultured parents she was enabled to enjoy rare advantages of education and full development of the talent she possessed.

In early childhood she had a studio well equipped for the pursuit of art, and it is yet the only private studio in St. Louis. At the age of eight years she won medals and other premiums for pencil-drawings and several studies in oil, and she continued to win premiums offered to young artists until her thirteenth year, when a serious illness caused by the injurious effects of oils prevented further application in that branch of art. The study of vocal music was next taken up. In instrumental music she commanded a knowledge of harp, piano, organ, violin, mandolin and banjo, and her proficiency was marked. She had an aptitude for language, and in Germany she was pronounced an exceptional German scholar fur one born and bred an American. In late years her talent for modeling has been displayed, and without any instruction she has achieved success. Busts of herself in bronze and marble have been made by the distinguished sculptor, Ruchstuhl, and exhibited in the Paris Salon. Those will be displayed in the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893. In tier husband Mrs. Overstolz ever found help and encouragement in both art and literature. One of his legacies to her was a large library and a very fine collection of paintings, valued at one-hundred-thousand dollars, which has been widely exhibited in large fairs and expositions and is now requested for the World's Fair in 1893. Mr. Overstolz was a member of the oldest living German family in the world, whose ancestry was direct from the Roman family named Superbus, and whose home, "The Tempel-Haus," on the banks of the Rhine, No. 43 Rhein-Strasse, Cologne, Germany, has ever been retained by the royal rulers of Germany to commemorate the victories won in battle by the heroes of the name, and to do honor to their memory for sen-ices to the country. Recently Mrs. Overstolz undertook the study of medicine as an additional provision for herself and live children against possible adversity.

OWEN, Mrs. Ella Seaver, artist and decorator, born in Williamstown, Vt, 26th February, 1852. Her father, Asahel Bingham Seaver, born and brought up in Williamstown, was a descendant of Robert Seaver, an Englishman, who came to America in the seventeenth century. Her mother, whose maiden name was Aurelia Adams, was also of English descent. Mrs. Owen is one of two children. Her brother, Harlan Page Seaver, lives in Springfield, Mass. When she was an infant, her father moved to Burlington, Vt., where he was a successful teacher in the public schools for many years. From early childhood she was fond of pencil and color-box. and, as she grew older, she had the best instruction in drawing and painting the town afforded. Fond of study, she was ambitious to receive a college education and prepared in the high school, studying Greek. When, in 1872, the University of Vermont, in Burlington, opened its doors to women, she was ready to enter, and was graduated in 1876, taking the degree of A. B. After teaching a few terms in the Clark Institution for the Deaf, in Northampton, Mass., she decided to go to the Cooper Union Art School, in New York. Before that move she had decorated small articles, which had begun to find sale at home. It was in the beginning of the decorative craze, when the term "hand-painted" was expected to sell anything to which it could be applied. She looked about and found such inartistic things on sale in the stores in New York that she offered some of her work, and was gratified to have it readily taken and more ordered. She found herself able, besides spending four hours a day in the art-school, to earn