Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/613

608 and became an omnivorous reader. Her own literary talents were early shown, and, in spite of all the work and cares of her busy home life, she found time to jot down her fancies in rhyme or prose. Her first poem and prose sketch to see the light were published in the Cincinnati "Ladies' Repository-" She contributed poems to the New York "Tribune." Her story, "The Harwoods," next appeared, and her pen-name, "Effie Johnson," began to attract attention. She wrote many sketches under that name. She had been from childhood interested in temperance work, and one of her early stories, "The McAllisters," was a temperance history based on the lives of persons known to her. The National Temperance Publication Society published that book, with her full name attached, paying for the manuscript. The book was very successful. She published in rapid succession a dozen or more books, among which are "The Jeweled Serpent," "Harry the Prodigal," "The Fatal Dower," "Alice Grant," "Rose Clifton," "Woman First and Last" (in two volumes), "Drifting and Anchored," "The Two Paths," "Hope Raymond." "Aunt Chloe" and an "Illustrated Scripture Primer" for the use of colored children in the South. Her many volumes have been widely read, especially in the southern States. She is now living in Mount Upton. N. Y.

RICHMOND, Miss Lizzie R., business woman and insurance agent, born in Lacon, Ill.,

19th November, 1850. Her father, Samuel Lee Richmond, a distinguished jurist on the circuit bench of Illinois at the time of his death, was a native of Vermont. When a child, his father's family removed to northern Ohio. He studied law in Kentucky and Ohio, and was admitted to the bar of both States. He married in Ohio and settled to the practice of his profession in Lacon, Ill., where he became prominent. Hi t mother's family is of old New England stock. Miss Richmond has accomplished much in her present home, Peoria, Ill. When she started as an insurance agent, a business woman was hardly heard of in the place. Men discovered that a woman could attend to business and be a lady, and her entrance into business life has opened the professional offices to women. There is hardly an office in Peoria now that has not at least one woman connected with it in one capacity or another. It was uphill and hard work, and some of her competitors insisted that she would not succeed, while others extended the hand of fellowship. She has succeeded, in spite of all predictions to the contrary. She manages a large business in the most efficient manner. She is recognized as one of the most successful business managers in Peoria.

RICKER, Mrs. Marrilla M., lawyer and political writer, born in New Durham, N. H., 18th March, 1840. Her maiden name was Young. She is of farmer parentage and New England stock. She was educated in the public schools of her native town and afterwards was graduated from Colby Academy. New London, in 1861. For several years thereafter she was a successful teacher in the public schools of her native county, where she attracted the attention and became the wife of John Ricker, a farmer, in May, 1863. He died in 1868, in Dover, N. H., leaving her childless, but with an ample fortune. In 1872 Mrs. Ricker went abroad and spent two years on the continent, mostly in Germany, during which time she acquired a knowledge of the German language sufficient to be able to speak and write it fluently. She has always been fond of travel. She takes pleasure in athletic games, delights in fast horses, likes good living, but has very little taste for exclusively fashionable society. She does not care for children, and has no fixed religious belief, but is agnostic in religion. She is kindly dispositioned, always charitable, and especially so to the criminal classes. For many years, although retaining her home in New Hampshire, she has been accustomed to spend her winters in the District of Columbia, where she may always be seen in and about the courts, and usually in the criminal court room, where she takes a lively interest in everything that occurs. After close application to the law for three years, under a tutor, she was, 12th May, 1882, after a severe examination by the committee appointed by the court, admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, and the newspapers reported at the time that she surpassed in legal knowledge the twenty-five young men who were examined with her. She has always been considered a careful and critical English scholar. On 11th May, 1891, she was, on motion of Miss Emma M. Gillett, admitted to the bar of the United Suites Supreme Court. Soon after her admission to the bar, in 1882, she was appointed by President Arthur a notary public for the District of Columbia, and in 1884 by the judges of the District supreme court, a United States commissioner and an examiner in chancery, both of which offices she continues to exercise. She has long been known as the "Prisoner's Friend," from her constant habit of visiting jails and prisons, applying for releases and pardons, and supplying prisoners with reading matter, writing material and other comforts. Quite early in her legal career she was instrumental in making a test of the "poor convict's act," in the district, under which the several court judges, and especially the judge of the police court, had been in the habit of sentencing petty offenders to a short term in jail, and supplementing it with a tine, which, of course, a pauper criminal