Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/731

726 was elected State Librarian of Mississippi, and has filled the position satisfactorily. As she was less than twenty years old when elected to that responsible position, she can doubtless claim to be the youngest woman ever chosen to fill an office of so high a grade. She is in every essential a southern woman, and in her career she has shown a wonderful degree of the energy and progressiveness which have enabled the women of the South to adjust themselves so readily to the new conditions following the overthrow of the social structure of the South

TUPPER, Mrs. Ellen Smith, apiarist, born in Providence, R. I., 9th April, 1822. Her father,

Noah Smith, removed to Calais, Me., in 1828. Her mother died early and left a family of children, for whom Ellen cared. She studied diligently and followed the course of study of Brown University with her brother, Rev. lames Wheaton Smith. She became the wife of Mr. Tupper, a man of great spirituality. Her ill-health made it necessary for them to move west soon after their marriage. They settled in Washington county, Iowa In 1876 she again took up pioneer life in Lincoln county, Dak. She died very suddenly in 1888, in El Paso, Tex., of heart trouble, while visiting a daughter. Three of the women whose names appear elsewhere in this volume are her daughters. They are Mrs. Wilkes, Mrs. Galpin and Miss Tupper. Another daughter, Margaret Tupper True, is a leader in educational and philanthropic work in her home in El Paso, Tex. One son. Homer Tupper, lives in Rock Valley, Iowa. Mrs. Tupper KM for many years known as the "Queen Bee," because of her prominence as an authority in the culture of bees. For ten years prior to 1876 she was constantly writing on the subject, addressing conventions and caring for her fine apiary of Italian bees. During much of that time she was editor of the "Bee-Keepers' Journal." For several years she was a non-resident lecturer on bee culture before the State Agricultural College of Iowa. A teacher she always was, although her actual employment in that capacity was for only a few months during the war, when she used to ride to school with one child on her lap and another behind her saddle. When, in the early Iowa days, she had to teach her own little ones, the children of the neighbors were invited to join. She was completely democratic in her spirit; indeed, it would be difficult to find one who had more absolutely escaped the consciousness of social lines. Born of a family running back into the New England stock on all lines, surrounded by refinement and luxury during her early life, she entered into the spirit of her pioneer life in both Iowa and Dakota, never recognizing hardships when they came, and entering into hearty comradeship with every neighbor. Mrs. Tupper was a scientist, a business woman, a lecturer, teacher, neighborhood nurse, citizen and mother, and above all a lover of her kind.

TUPPER, Miss Mila Frances, Unitarian minister, born on a farm near Brighton. Iowa. 26th January, 1864. Her mother was Mrs. Ellen Tupper, famous as the bee-culturist of Iowa. Miss Tuppers childhood was unusually free. She was very fond of outdoor sports, which have left their mark in her physical strength. She was particularly thoughtful as a child and studious, without much school discipline or incentive.

During her years of residence in Des Moines, Iowa, she had the advantage of a public school, but when she was twelve years old. the family removed to the wild prairies of Dakota. There she found plenty of time and opportunity for continued physical culture, riding a great deal, chiefly to and from the post-office, which was three miles from her home. She had much time for reading, but, excepting two terms in a winter school taught by an older sister, there was no opportunity for mental culture outside of her