Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/625

620 Her ancestor, Robert Fletcher, emigrated from England and settled in Massachusetts in 1630. The family has given to the world such women as Grace Webster, Hannah Emerson, Valinda Young, Elizabeth Trumbull, Julia Fletcher, known as "George Fleming," and others distinguished in the varied walks of literary, religious or scientific life. Mrs. Rogers is a versatile and graceful writer, though she has never aimed at book-making. Of late years her time has been largely given to benevolent work She is an official member of the American Humane Association and a director in the Association for the Advancement of Women. She holds various offices in the smaller organizations in her city. She is recognized as a woman of strong character, impressing those with whom she comes in contact that the latent forces of her nature, if called into controversial effort, are capable of strong and untiring resistance. Ever ready to oppose wrong, the suffering and needy find in her a champion and a friend. Taking active interest in all the reforms that are for the elevation of mankind everywhere, she is in every sense a representative woman of the day.

ROHLFS, Mrs. Anna Katharine Green, poet and novelist, born in Brooklyn, N. Y., 11th November, 1846. Her maiden name was the pen-name by which she is known throughout the world. She is the daughter of a lawyer, and from him she inherits the legal turn of mind shown in her famous novel "The Leavenworth Case" (New York, 187S), and in other productions.

In childhood she wrote innumerable poems and stories. Her family removed to Buffalo, N. Y., when she was a child, and in that city she was educated and reared, until she was old enough to enter Ripley Female College, in Poultney, Vt. Soon after her graduation she published her novel, "The Leavenworth Case," which at once attracted the attention of the literary world. Her successes brought her many invitations from publishers to furnish them books, and she was so busy with her novels that her poetical ambitions, which were her chief ones, were temporarily held in check. Notwithstanding the call for prose works from her pen, she published in 1882 a volume of verse, "The Defense of the Bride, and Other Poems," and in 1886 she brought out a second volume of poetry, a drama, entitled "Risifi's Daughter." After living in Buffalo for some years, the family returned to Brooklyn, N. Y. On 25th November, 1884, she became the wife of Charles Rohlfs, formerly an actor. Since their marriage they have lived most of the time in Buffalo. They have three children. Her published works include, besides those already mentioned, "The Sword of Damocles" (1881), "Hand and Ring" (1883), "X. Y. Z." (1883), "A Strange Disappearance "(1885), "The Mill Mystery" (1886), "7 to 12" (1887), "Behind Closed Doors" (1888). "The Forsaken Inn" (1890). "A Matter of Millions" (1890), "The Old Stone House" (1891), "Cynthia Wakeham's Money" (1892) and has dramatized her first novel. Her "Leaven worth Case" is used in Vale College as a text-book, to show the fallacy of circumstantial evidence, and it is the subject of many comments by famous lawyers, to whom it appeals by its mastery of legal points. Her stories have been republished throughout the world, in various languages, and the sales of her books have reached enormous proportions. She has visited Europe, where she supervised the translation of some of her books into the German language. She is a prolific author, but all her work is well done. ROLLINS, Mrs. Alice Wellington, author, born in Boston, Mass., 12th June, 1847. She is a daughter of Ambrose Wellington, who taught her at home until she was fourteen years old. She then studied in different schools in Boston, and finished with a year of study in Europe. In 1876 she