President. When nominated for the latter office, among the many testimonies to her work and ability was the following by Mrs. Mary L. Oilman, Past Department President: "Mrs. Ralph has ably filled positions of honor in this department, and, as has been stated, could have held the highest office years ago had not her duty to an invalid soldier father seemed to her more imperative. She deserves this recognition in coming forward again. She has always manifested great interest in the work, and we appreciate her valuable services. She is highly respected as a noble woman wherever known. She has always been ready to help in any emergency; in the past her services were such that we feel assured that if elected she will be a worthy leader."
Mrs. Ralph was chosen and, at the convention a year later, was unanimously elected Department Senior Vice-President; in accordance with the custom of the conventions this insures her election as Department President in 1905.
Mrs. Ralph joined the Ladies' Aid Association of the Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts soon after it was formed, in 1882, serving on the committee that drafted the constitution and also as recording secretary of the association. After holding the office of secretary for three years, she declined a re-election. A valuable silver service, suitably inscribed, was presented her in 1886, accompanied by an engrossed testimonial expressing the regard of the members and their appreciation of her work. She is now (1904) serving her fifth year as President.
The object of the association is to co-operate with the Board of Trustees in promoting the interests of the Soldiers' Home, assist in furnishing a library, and provide, as far as possible, such articles as are necessary for the comfort of the inmates. The appointment of finance committees to solicit memberships and the issuing of appeals through the papers and by circulars were the first methods adopted to enlist co-operation and financial support. Women who had rendered service in hospitals and elsewhere during the days of the civil strife, representatives of the old Soldiers' Home organization, members of the Woman's Relief Corps and of other organized charities in Massachusetts, have united their efforts in promoting the work of the Ladies' Aid Association.
Every week since the home was opened, the hearts of the inmates have been cheered by their visits, and by the books, flowers, fruit, and numerous other gifts that they have distributed. The entertainments given by the association for the financial benefit of the home have been well patronized. The Ladies' Aid table, with its several annexes, furnished by invitation of the executive committee of the Soldiers' Home Carnival in 1883, netted five thousand four hundred ninety-five dollars and ninety cents to its treasury. The kettledrum arranged for the evening of February 14, 1884, which was attended by five thousand persons, and was recognized by the public and recorded in the press as a brilliant social event, added fourteen hundred dollars. A part of this sum was expended in the purchase of a lot in Forest Dale Cemetery, Maiden.
In referring to the work of the Ladies' Aid, Mrs. Ralph, in an address given at a church gathering in Somerville in 1900, said in part: "The association has borne the entire expense of caring for the cemetery lot, which amounted to more than one thousand dollars from 1896 to 1899, inclusive. Through the efforts of the late Mrs. E. Florence Barker, condemned cannon were secured from the War Department and mounted on the lot at a cost of one hundred and twenty-five dollars. The monument of granite was the gift of Mrs. Lyman Tucker, who was an active member from the date of organization until her life's work was completed, and who remembered the association in her will.
"In 1885 new steps to Powder Horn Hill, Chelsea, where the home is located, were built at a cost of four hundred and five dollars and forty-five cents, and in 1887 new floors were laid in the home, for which over one hundred dollars were appropriated. General Horace Binney Sargent Hall has been furnished for religious services and entertainments. The association assisted in furnishing the additional building erected in 1890, and in 1898 refurnished the surgeon's office with desk, chair, and other supplies. In 1899 clocks were placed in three of the larger rooms. Assistance has
