Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/748

Rh Zerelda had only limited opportunities for education, only enjoying six months of study with a cultured Baptist clergyman. She assisted her father in his practice and became interested in medicine. She read works on hygiene, mental philosophy and other elevating subjects, and was acquainted with many prominent men. In 1836, in December, she became the wife of Hon. David Wallace, soldier and jurist, and then Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana. He was a widower of thirty-seven, with a family of three sons. In 1837 he was elected Governor of the State, and in 1840 he went to Congress as a Whig. During his term Mrs. Wallace spent some time in Washington, D. C., with him. She urged him to vote against the Fugitive Slave Law, and she shared all his reading in law, politics and literature. Six children were born to them. They reared their family carefully, cultivating their particular talents, and developing all their powers in every way. Mr. Wallace died in 1857, and he left his family no estate beyond their homes. Not wishing to accept assistance from her relatives, who tendered it freely and in full measure for all her needs, Mrs. Wallace opened her home to boarders and supported the family until they were able to care for themselves. Two of her daughters died, one in youth, the other after marriage. All her living children have succeeded in life. Her husband's children by his first wife included General Lewis Wallace, the soldier, jurist, scholar, statesman and author of the immortal "Ben Hur." General Wallace never refers to her as "stepmother," but always as "mother." She is a member of the Christian Church and has often spoken in its mission meetings. She was one of the crusaders and joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in which she has done a good deal of valuable service. She spoke before the Indiana legislature in advocacy of temperance, and was soon after a pronounced woman suffragist. As a delegate to temperance conventions she has addressed large audiences in Boston, Mass., Saratoga Springs, N. Y., St. Louis, Mo., Detroit. Mich., Washington, D. C., Philadelphia, Pa., and other cities. Her physical and intellectual powers are yet full. Her mental characteristics are of the stripe usually labeled "masculine." She is living in Indianapolis, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

WALLING, Mrs. Mary Cole, patriot, born in Pike county, Pa., 19th June, 1838. She is a lineal descendant of the patrician families of Stephen Cole, of Scotland, and Hannah Chase, of England. She was known during the Civil War as "The Banished Heroine of the South." Her parents moved to Cass county, Ill., in 1850, where, in the same year, she became the wife of Captain F. C. Brookman, of St. Louis, Mo., who shortly after fell a victim to yellow-fever.

The young widow went to Texas, where she became the wife of C. A. Walling. She was the mother of four children, in a happy and luxurious home, when the alarm of war was sounded, and her husband joined the Confederate army. The wife's patriotism and love for the Union was so pronounced that, in 1863, she was warned by the vigilance committee to "leave the country within a few hours." The heroic woman, with four little children, the oldest a mere baby, ordered the family carriage, and, with a brother eleven years of age for a driver, started through the wilds of Texas for the Union lines, with no chart or compass for her guide save the north star. The brave woman engineered her precious load for twenty-three days, and her joy at the first sight of the flag she loved so well repaid her for her trials. Upon learning that seven of her brothers were in the Union army, where they all fought and died, she determined to lecture in defense of the Stars and Stripes, and was so cordially received that, upon being introduced to a large audience in Cooper Institute by Horace Greeley, he declared her "The greatest female speaker of the age." She delivered speeches in nearly all the large cities of the North. On 10th May, 1866, the United States Senate passed a resolution according to her the privilege of addressing that honorable body, which distinction was unprecedented in the history of our country. Before that distinguished body she delivered her famous argument on reconstruction. Surrounded by her children in her Texas home, as a fist literary task, she is writing an autobiography of her ante-bellum days and and her subsequent trials and successes.

WALSWORTH, Mrs. Minnie Gow, poet, born in Dixon, Ill., 25th July, 1859. Her family has given many persons to literary and professional pursuits. Her grandfather, John L. Gow, of Washington, Pa., was a man of fine literary tastes and a writer both of poetry and prose. Her father, Alex M. Gow, was well known as a prominent educator and editor in Pennsylvania and Indiana. He was the author of "Good Morals and Gentle Manners," a book used in the public schools of the country. Before Minnie Gow was ten years of age, her poetic productions were numerous and showed a precocious imagination and unusual grace of expression. She is a graduate of Washington Female Seminary. On 4th December, 1891, she became the wife of Edgar Douglas Walsworth, of Fontanelle, Iowa, and their home is in that town. She has been a contributor to the New York "Independent," "Interior," "St. Nicholas," "Wide Awake," "Literary Life" and other periodicals.

WALTER, Mrs. Carrie Stevens, educator and poet, born in Savannah. Mo., 27th April, 1846.