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REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND

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 Universalist Church of Boston, and is an enthusiastic 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, flied 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 Salisbury and adjoining towns were Puritans; and under the tyranny of the Tudors and Stuarts many left th(>ir native country to enjoy civil and religious liberty."

The immediate ancestor of Rodger Eastman was John Eastman, of Romsey, County Southampton, England, whose will was proved in 1602. A noteworthy fact in the otherwise conservative will of three hundred years ago is that his wife Anne is appointed by him residuary legatee and executrix. Considering 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 becoming "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 possessed them, and the settlement began to extend into Connecticut, along the sea-coast, and, in the third generation, up the Merrimac 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 Salisbury 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 Webster. 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 Manders, 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 grandfather of Miss Eastman.

He was a farmer, and was the father of sixteen children. He was held in the highest