GANNETT. Mrs. Abbie M., author, born in North Brookfield, Mass., 8th July, 1845. Her girlhood was passed in that town. Her love for the country and her early associations is shown
ABBIE M. GANNETT.
in her dainty volume of poems, "The Old Farm Home" (Boston. 1888). She taught school a few years in Massachusetts, Michigan and St. Louis, Mo. She became the wife of Captain Wyllys Gannett, of the latter place, a nephew of the distinguished Unitarian clergyman of Boston, and himself a writer of sketches of travel and sea stories. Captain Gannett served through the Civil War in the 24th Massachusetts and the 55th Massachusetts colored regiment. After living a few years in St. Louis, the Gannetts went to Boston, where they made their home for a short time. For many years they lived in Maiden, Mass. They have three children. Mrs. Gannett, while devoted to her home interests, has yet found time to do able outside work. She is well known in the womens' clubs as a reader of thoughtful essays on current themes. She has tilled the Unitarian pulpit on a few occasions and has served on the Maiden school board. Her essays, poems, sketches and stories have had a wide publication, many of them appearing in the leading magazines and periodicals. She is deeply interested in the welfare of women and their higher education. Her paper on "The Intellectuality of Women," printed in the "International Review" a few years ago, excited wide comment. Mrs. Gannett is philanthropical in her labors. She espoused the cause of the neglected Anna Ella Carroll with enthusiasm. By a series of articles in the Boston "Transcript" and other papers she has done as much as any one woman to bring her case to public notice. She joined the Woman's Relief Corps and attended the Grand Army of the Republic encampment in Minneapolis to advocate that lady's cause. She won recognition for her and was appointed chairman of a national relief committee to raise funds for Miss Carroll. The effort was successful. Not content with that, Mrs. Gannett visited Washington and argued Miss Carroll's case before the military committees of both Senate and House.
GARDNER, Miss Anna, anti-slavery' agitator, born on the Island of Nantucket, 25th January, 1816. Her father, Oliver C. Gardner, was related to most of the prominent families in Nantucket, among whom were the Cartwrights, and through them Miss Gardner is descended from Peter Folger, the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin, and she is thus related to Lucretia Mott, Maria Mitchell and other distinguished men and women. Through her mother, Hannah Mackerel Gardner, she can claim descent from Tristram Coffin, the first magistrate of Nantucket. Seven generations of her ancestors lived in Nantucket. Miss Gardner's literary tastes and talents were inherited from her mother, who was known for her love of classical poetry. On her father's side, also, she received a literary strain, as the Cartwright family has produced poets in each generation. Slavery and its horrors were early forced upon Miss Gardner's attention. She became a student, a teacher, a lecturer and a worker in the cause of human liberty and equal rights. She was a regular reader of the "Liberator" when she was eighteen vears old In 1841 she was instrumental in calling an anti-slavery convention upon her native isle, which was largely attended. In that meeting Frederick Douglass made his first appearance as a public speaker. He had been exhorting in the Methodist Church and was unprepared for the call made upon him. Nevertheless, he responded and electrified his audience. .Miss Gardner spent many years in
ANNA GARDNER.
teaching the freed men in the South. Her work was done in North Carolina, Smith Carolina and Virginia. She returned to the North in 1878, and in Brooklyn, N. V., she was injured by a carriage
