Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/69

64 she won a prize of $30 for a quatrain contributed to the "Magazine Of Poetry." She has published verses in the "Century,* "Atlantic, "Independent," "New England Magazine," "Wide-Awake" and many other publications, and has issued two small volumes for private sale in aid of one of the college funds which is under the control of the Wellesley alumna.

BATES, Mrs. Margaret Holmes, author, born in Fremont, Ohio, 6th October, 1844. Her maiden name was Ernsperger, and after five generations on American soil the name preserves its original spelling and pronunciation. Mrs. Bates' father was born and bred in Baltimore, Md. He went with his father's family some time after he had attained his majority and settled in northern Ohio. From Ohio he removed to Rochester, Ind., in the fall of 1858. The mother's family, as purely German as the father's, were Pennsylvanians. As a family, they were scholarly and

polished, running to professions, notably those of law and theology. In Mrs. Bates' childhood she showed great fondness for books, and. as a school-girl, the weekly or fortnightly "composition" was to her a pleasant pastime, a respite from the duller, more prosaic studies of mathematics and the rules of grammar. It was her delight to be allowed, when out of school, to put her fancies into form in writing, or to sit surrounded by her young sisters and baby brother and tell them stories as they came into her mind. In June, 1865, she was married to Charles Austin Bates, of Medina, N. Y., and since that time her home has been in Indianapolis, Ind. Fascinated for several years after her marriage with the idea of becoming a model housekeeper, and conscientious to a painful degree in the discharge of her duties as a mother, she wrote nothing for publication, and but little, even at the solicitations of friends, for special occasions. This way of life, unnatural for her, proved unhealthful. Her poem, "Nineveh," is an epitome of her life, and when health seemed to have deserted her. she turned to pencil and tablet for pastime and wrote much for newspapers and periodicals. Her first novel, "Manitou" (1881), was written at the urgent request of her son. It embodies a legend connected with the beautiful little lake of that name in northern Indiana, in the vicinity of which Mrs. Bates lived for several years before her marriage. "The Chamber Over the Gate" (Indianapolis, 1886), has had a wide sale. Besides her gifts as a writer of fiction, she is a poet, some of her poems having attracted wide attention.

BATTEY, Mrs. Emily Verdery, journalist, born in Belair, m ar Augusta, Ga.. about the year 1828. She began her career as a journalist soon after the close of the Civil War, writing first for several Georgia newspapers, and traveling and corresponding for the "Ladies Home Gazette " of Atlanta, under the editorial guidance of her brother-in-law, Col. John S. Prather, an ex-con federate cavalry officer. Mrs. Battey went to New York in 1870, securing editorial positions at once on the "Tablet." the "Home Journal" and the "Telegram" and occasionally writing for the "Star," the" Democrat." the "Herald" and "Harper's Magazine." The "Sun." under the management of lion. Amos J. Cummings and Dr. John B. Wood, frequently printed reports, special articles and editorials from Sirs. Battey's facile pen. In 1875 she became a salaried member of the staff of the "Sun," which position she held until 1890. While filling that position Mrs. Battey wrote for several syndicates, as well as special articles for newspapers in various parts of the country, signing various pen-names. She is not and never has been one of those workers who desire to acquire notoriety. Her aim has always be-en to do earnest work, and that work has always been excellent. The story of her career she tells in a lecture "Twenty Years on the Press." Her long experience on the New York press has made her well acquainted with leading women of the world, social, literary, political and religious. No woman knows better than she the history of the founding and progress of the various important women's clubs, guilds, temperance and religion-societies and associations of the United States. The fruit of this wide knowledge has ripened for the delectation of those audiences that have heard her lecture, "The Woman's Century." She is a highly cultured and charming w< >man. Her home is now in Georgia and Alabama, with her relatives of the Verdery family. Childless herse-lf. she has devoted her earnest life to her family ties and the study and assistance of her own sex.

BAXTER, Mrs. Annie White, business woman, born in Pittsburgh, Pa., 2nd March, 1864. She is of American parentage and of English and German extraction. She spent her early school-days in Newark, Ohio. Her parents removed to Carthage, Mo., in 1877, where her education was finished. She was graduated from the high school department of the Carthage public schools in 1882, and in July of the same year, she went to work as an assistant in the county clerk's office under George Blakeney, then clerk of the county court of Jasper county. Mo. She continued to perform the duties of that position with increased efficiency and remuneration under Mr. Blakeney's successor until November, 1885, when she was appointed and sworn as a regular deputy clerk of the county court, with power and authority to affix the clerk's signature and the county seal to all official documents, and to perform all other official acts under the law. The elevation of a woman to a