Bristol New Hampshire’s Tailor, Stock and Dairy Farmer, Activist, Suffragist: Mary Ann (Powers) Filley (1821-1910)

Mary Ann (Powers) Filley. Photograph from New Hampshire Women. A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches, COncord NH, 1895

Mary Ann (Powers) Filley. Photograph from New Hampshire Women. A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches, Concord NH, 1895

Mary Ann (Powers) Filley was passionate about causes. She was eager to try new careers. She was quick to adopt and promote what mattered to her.

At the age of 11, Mary Ann Powers had lost her mother, and as eldest girl had to take on many “motherly” responsibilities, caring for her younger siblings. Her father did not remarry right away, but when he did it allowed her time to attend an academy, at least for one year to get additional schooling.

She left home and moved to New Jersey to gain expertise in the tailor trade. She lived for a while with her maternal aunt in Lansingburgh, New York. It was there she met her future husband, Edward Augustus Filley, who she married at the age of 30. They immediately moved to St. Louis, Missouri where his business was based.  She gave birth to several children there. Continue reading

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Raymond New Hampshire Businesswoman, Teacher, First Woman Legislative Committee Chairman: Emma Louise (Tucker) Bartlett (1859-1933)

Mrs. Emma L. Bartlett (1859-1933) one of the early women legislators of NH and the first chairperson.

Mrs. Emma L. Bartlett (1859-1933) one of the early women legislators of NH and the first chairperson.

Emma Louise (Tucker) Bartlett, according to NH legislative historian Leon Anderson‘s 1971 booklet, New Hampshire Women Legislators, was “of Raymond, 63-year-old operator of an insurance business and mother of four [and a Democrat]” was one of the three women in the 1923 New Hampshire Legislature.

He adds that she was a “one-time teacher and Deerfield native, [who] became the first woman committee chairman. She headed the House Public Health Committee along with membership on the Forestry Committee.”

Mrs. Emma Bartlett was elected in what I call the “second wave” of women legislators of the General Court of New Hampshire in 1923. In the “first wave,” Dr. Mary L.R. Farnum, and Miss Jessie Doe had been elected the first women lawmakers in the State of New Hampshire. In 1923 Emma Bartlett, along with Mrs. Gertrude (Moran) Caldwell and Mrs. Effie Earll Yantis were elected. Continue reading

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New Hampshire’s First Lady, Artist, Author, Trustee: Rachel Leona (White) Adams (1905-1979)

A 1958 photograph of Sherman Adams and his wife Leona (White) Adams.

A 1958 photograph of Sherman Adams and his wife Leona (White) Adams., as they arrive for a congressional hearing.

Rachel Leona White was born in 1905 in Mount Holly, Rutland Co. VT. Her father was a house painter and decorator (her grandfather was a carriage painter) in a rural area of Vermont. She had a great interest in the arts. She was a refined, talented, and always loyal woman, much admired by her family, friends, and citizens of New Hampshire.

As Rachel (White) Adams, she was an artist and author, publishing an autobiography, “On the Other Hand” in 1963. While living in Washington D.C. from 1953 to 1958, she had helped organize an international group of wives of diplomats and White House staff members, to promote friendship and understanding among women. She was a member of the New Hampshire Commission on the Arts from 1965-1971, and she served as a trustee of the New Hampshire Youth Orchestra. Continue reading

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Nashua NH’s Long-Time Merchandiser, Business and Civic Leader, and Choirist: Gertrude May Batchelder (1891-1974)

Gertrude May Batchelder, daughter of Fred L. & Annie (Lampron) Batchelder of Nashua NH. Photograph probably taken in 1910.

Gertrude May Batchelder, daughter of Fred L. & Annie (Lampron) Batchelder of Nashua NH. Photograph probably taken in 1910.

This photograph of Gertrude May Batchelder was probably taken around her high school graduation of 1910 in Nashua NH. She was an only child, born in Somersworth, New Hampshire, attending schools in the Portsmouth NH area, until 1905 when her parents removed to Nashua. Her father was a train engineer for the B&M railroad.

About 1909 she started working for the H.S. Norwell Company of Nashua NH, that was owned and managed by the founder, Harry Slater Norwell. He established the business in 1878. When the H.S. Norwell Company was purchased in 1912 by Sceva Speare, and renamed the Speare Dry Goods Co., Inc., Gertrude Batchelder was kept on the sales staff. The company was housed in the Oddfellows Building on Main Street in Nashua NH.

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Chichester New Hampshire Preacher, Educator, Organizer: Anna Merrill (Seavey) Smith (1835-1899)

Photograph of "Anna Smith, the preacher," taken at D.F. Tripp, Photography, Merrimack Block, Main Street, four doors north of Phenix Hotel, Concord, NH.

Photograph of “Anna Smith, the preacher,” taken at D.F. Tripp, Photography,
Merrimack Block, Main Street, four doors north of Phenix Hotel, Concord, NH.

She was both a wife and daughter of a Methodist minister. She was well educated, having graduated from both Pittsfield Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, to prepare herself for her life’s work. She in turn, became an educator, and following the Civil War, she not only taught in local New Hampshire schools but she also went to South Carolina, teaching the newly freed slaves to read and write (through the Freedman’s Relief Association).

After her marriage, as she traveled with her husband from one church post to another in New Hampshire, where she energetically organized religious Auxiliaries and Districts. She was a preacher of Methodism, espousing beliefs important to her, her family, and community. Continue reading

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