Vice-President; and in the convention of 1901, endorsed by Hubbard V. Smith Post, Corps No. 82, and many others, she received a much
larger vote. In December, 1901, Mrs. Hamilton was for the fourth time elected President of Corps No. 82, but before the date set for her installation she was stricken with severe illness, which compelled her resignation. While in the hospital, slowly recovering from a successful surgical operation, she was cheered and comforted by official words of sympathy from the Department convention of 1902 and by the visits and offerings of many friends, the remembrance of which she will ever cherish. Having been again elected President of Corps No. 82 in January, 1903, Mrs. Hamilton resumed active corps work, contributing to a successful year and to her re-election and entrance upon her fifth year as President in January, 1904. Mrs. Hamilton was also elected a delegate to the National W. R. C. (Convention of 1903.
She is a member of Banner Lodge, No. 89, Daughters of Rebekah, and has served two terms as Chaplain, but, while fully in sympathy with the order, has given little time to its work because of her devotion to the W. R. C. and to the Woman's Auxiliary of the Athol Young Men's Christian Association. Of that auxiliary she was President four years in succession, while the association was struggling to live, the auxiliary contributing its full share to the success of the struggle. Mrs. Hamilton is also a charter member of the Athol Woman's Club, organized in 1900; and at the first meeting of the club .she read an original paper on "The Relation of the Home to the School," which elicited favorable cotument.
In Athol's first general observance of "Old Home Week," in 1903, Mrs. Hamilton took an active part, serving on important committees and presiding over the W. R. C. float, on which the several States and Territories of the Union were represented by children with flags and decorations. On the organization of the Athol Associated Charities Mrs. Hamilton was chosen vice-president and a member of the committee to draft a constitution and by-laws. At Athol's union Memorial Day service in 1904 Mrs. Hamilton read a poem on Memorial Day, written by Mr. Hamilton. In 1904 Mrs. Hamilton served the W. R. C. as Department Aide, also as a member of the committee on entertainment of the National Convention in Boston and of the committee on finance.
At the Athol service of mourning for the beloved President McKinley she read to an audience of one thousand, in the Academy of Music, Mr. Hamilton's poetic "Tribute to William McKinley," with impressive effect. Notwithstanding all her public work Mrs. Hamilton's home has not been neglected. A model housekeeper and home-maker, she has received from her husband most cheerful support in all her philanthropic work.
Their only child, drew Foster Hamilton, who was graduated from Amherst College in 1901, entered the Law School of Harvard University in 1902.
Mrs. Hamilton is a registered voter on school matters in Athol, though feeling that the slight privilege thus acquired is little more than a farce. She was converted to belief in equal suffrage by her husband, and is a stanch Republican in politics, but not naturally an aggressive suffragist.
Mr. Hamilton was clerk for a merchant who left his business with his employees to serve in the Civil War. He was impressed with the spirit and lessons of the conflict, and his associate membership in Post No. 140, G. A. R., attests his desire to perpetuate its lessons. Mr. Hamilton has been a director of the Athol Young Men's Christian Association from its organization, having also served as president and treasurer. He is a member of the Pocquaig Club; a Past Grand of Tully Lodge, No. 130, I. O. O. F., which he has served many terms as Chaplain; a Past High Priest of Mount Pleasant Encampment, No. 68; member of Canton Athol, P. M., and of Banner Lodge, No. 89, D. of R.; and for thirty years has taken an active interest in local public affairs. He has been a frequent contributor to the local press, and his letters to the Springfield Republican in support of the administrative policies of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt have elicited much comment and some interesting private correspond-
