in travel abroad for the purpose of studying
the methods of the London and Paris schools
of dramatic art and of obtaining additional
material for lectures.
Miss Soule is a member of the First Uni- versalist Church of Boston, and is an enthu- siastic leader in the work of the Sunday-school. She is a member of the Daughters of Maine Club and an honorary member of the Boston Proof-readers' Association.
MARY F. EASTMAN was born in
Lowell, Mass. She was the third
child of Gardner K. and Mary F.
Eastman. Two brothers had died
in childhood. A sister, Helen Eastman; who
was two years younger than herself, and who
was her lifelong companion, died in 1902.
The Eastman and Flanders families, from
which Miss Eastman sprang, were both of
English origin. Their early representatives in
this country were among the sturdy pioneers
who settled at Salisbury, Mass., about 1640.
The earliest ancestor in America, on one side,
was Rodger Eastman; on the other, Stephen
Flanders.
As noted by the author of " The History and Genealogy of the Eastman Family in America,*' Mr. Guy S. Rix, of Concord, -N.H., '* Rodger Eastman and the other first settlers in Salis- bury and adjoining towns were Puritans; and under the tyranny of the Tudors and Stuarts many left their native country to enjoy civil and religious liberty."
The immediate ancestor of Rodger East- man was John Eastman, of Romsey, County Southampton, England, whose will was proved in 1602. A noteworthy fact in the other- wise conservative will of three hundred years ago is that his wife Anne is appointed by him residuary legatee and executrix. Consider- ing the very limited amount of education available to women in those days, especially in matters of business, the trust would seem to mark her as a woman of superior education as well as of practical ability.
While the descendants of Rodger Eastman and his associates were b?coming " townsmen, '^ "commoners," "freemen," and legislators — sturdy workers and men of affairs as well — at intervals the lurid light of conflict illumined their sky. By a wily foe their houses were set in flames, women carried into captivity, and families scattered.
When a son of Rodger Eastman died, in administration of his estate "his brother was appointed guardian of his only son and of his mother Deborah, who was then in captivity to the Indians." Yet a valorous spirit pos- sessed them, and the settlement began to ex- tend into Connecticut, along the sea-coast, and, in the third generation, up the Merri- mac valley.
Captain Ebenezer Eastman was the first settler of Concord, N.H. He was a man of resolute courage, and had six sturdy sons. As he had also considerable property, he soon became "the strong man of the town." It is of interest to note that from this simple Salis- bury stock came the intellectual acumen of Daniel Webster and the spiritual vision of John G. Whittier.
Daniel Webster was born at Salisbury, N.H., 1782. He was the second son of a small farmer and justice of the county court, Ebenezer W^ebster. His mother was Abigail Eastman, fifth in line of descent from Rodger Eastman, original settler, ancestor of the subject of this sketch.
Fifth in the line of descent from Stephen Flanders, "original settler'* at Salisbury, Mass., was James Flanders, Esq., of Warner, N.H., who was Miss Eastman's great-grandfather. He was a prominent citizen, and represented his constituency in the House and Senate of New Hampshire for twenty-four consecutive years. His loyalty to conviction appears in the fact that at one period he refused to take the oath of office to support the Constitution unless he could add the words "except in so far as it recognizes human slavery." This tied the legislative body up in a debate which lasted three days, at the end of which time he was allowed to take his seat.
The same quality conspicuous in James appears in his son Philip, the maternal grand- father of Miss Eastman.
He was a farmer, and was the father of sixteen children. He was held in the highest
