FRY, Mrs. Elizabeth Turner, philanthropist, born in Trenton, Tenn., 22nd December, 1842. where she resided with her parents until the death of her father, James M. Turner. In 1852 her widowed mother, with five children, among them Elizabeth, moved to Texas, settling in Bastrop. During the succeeding years of her life she attended school in different places, making one trip back to Tennessee, where she entered an academy for a term. Upon returning to Texas, she taught for a time in Bastrop, the remuneration going towards paying her tuition in special branches. In 1861, while on a visit to her sister, Mrs. O'Connor, who resided in Corpus Christi, she met, and one year later became the wife of, Lieut. A. J. Fry. The young couple moved to Seguin, where Mr. Fry engaged in general business on a large scale. Having accumulated a fortune, he moved with his family of three sons and one daughter to San Antonio. Mrs. Fry from her earliest youth possessed much religious reverence. She professed faith when but fifteen years old and joined the Methodist Church. For three years she faithfully followed its teachings, but, as she grew older and read more, she analyzed her feelings to find that the Christian Church opened the path. Accordingly she was baptized in that faith. She is a woman full of energy of spirit and mental endurance, which has been the secret of her success, both as a philanthropist and a Christian. She has taken an active and aggressive part in all temperance projects. In the Prohibition campaign in Texas, in 1889, she followed every line of defense and gained admiration for her pluck and willingness to express publicly her strongest views. Several years ago a hull-fight on Sunday was a public sport in San Antonio. The public and offices did not seem to suppress it, and finally Mrs. Fry deckled to take the matter in hand. On a Sunday, when the ti^ht had been an in mined and flyers were floating into every door, she determined
ELIZABETH TURNER FRY.
to do what she could to prevent it from taking place, and accordingly circulated a flyer addressed "To All Mothers," setting forth the wickedness and degeneracy of such a sport, and the necessity of its suppression for the sake of husbands, sons and humanity. The bull-fight did not take place, and there has never been one on Sunday since that time in San Antonio. Being blessed with a goodly share of wealth, charity has flowed from her hands Unrestrained. She is a prominent member of ten beneficent societies, and keeps up her voluminous correspondence without aid, besides distributing quantities of temperance and Christian literature. She is a woman suffragist from the foundation principle. Her sympathies were always with the Union and against slavery. She now holds a commission as a lady manager from Texas to the World's Fair, besides being vice-president of the Queen Isabella Association. She was selected as a delegate to the national convention of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, in Boston, in 1891. With all these responsibilities, she attends to her many household duties.