and was graduated. She had set her mind upon teaching, but by a chance recommendation of Timothy W. Brosnan, then district master-workman of the Knights of Labor of Minnesota, she began
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EVA McDONALD VALESH.
newspaper work, and printer's ink has clung to her lingers ever since. A shop girls' strike had been in progress. Many of the girls, who were engaged in making overalls, coarse shirts and similar articles, belonged to the Ladies' Protective Assembly, Knights of Labor, into which Eva had been initiated but a short time before. She was not personally interested in the strike, but she attended all the meetings of the strikers and repeatedly addressed them, urging the girls to stand firm for wages which would enable them to live decently. The strike was only partially successful, but it opened an avenue for the talent of the young agitator. In March, 1887, she began a series of letters on "Working Women" for the St. Paul "Globe." These were continued for nearly a year and attracted wide attention. She began to make public speeches on the labor question about that time, making her maiden effort in Duluth in June, 1887, when not quite twenty-one years of age. After the articles on the work-women of Minneapolis and St. Paul ceased.she conducted the labor department of the St. Paul "Globe," besides doing other special newspaper work. She continued her public addresses in Minneapolis and in St. Paul, and she was a member of the executive committee that conducted the street-car strike in Minneapolis and St. Paul in 1888, and subsequently wrote the history of the strike, publishing it under the title of "A Tale of Twin Cities." During the political campaign of 1890 she lectured to the farmers under the auspices of the Minnesota Farmers' Alliance. She was elected State lecturer of the Minnesota Farmers' Alliance on 1st January, 1891, and on the 28th of the same month, in Omaha, she was elected assistant national lecturer of the National Farmers'
Alliance. Miss McDonald became Mrs. Frank Valesh on 2nd June, 1891. Mr. Valesh, like his wife, is a labor leader. He has been a prominent member of the St Paul Trades and Labor Assembly for years and is president of the Minnesota State Federation of Labor. During the last year Mrs. Valesh has turned her attention more especially to the educational side of the industrial question, lecturing throughout the country for the principles of the Farmers' Alliance and in the cities for the trade-unions. By invitation of president Samuel Gompers she read a paper on "Woman's Work" in the national convention of the American Federation of Labor in Birmingham, Ala., 12th December, 1891, and was strongly recommended for the position of general organizer among working women. Home duties prevented her from accepting the position, though she still manages an industrial department for the Minneapolis "Tribune" and contributes an occasional magazine article on industrial or political matters.
VAN BENSCHOTEN, Mrs. Mary Crowell, author, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. She was educated in Brooklyn and New York City. In youth she displayed dramatic and elocutionary talents, and gave many entertainments in aid of charities. Her maiden name was Crowell.
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MARY CROWELL VAN BENSCHOTEN.
At an early age she became the wife of Samuel Van Benschoten, of New York City, and they removed to Evanston, Ill., where they now live. Their family consists of a son and a daughter. She began to publish poems and short stories in her early years, and she has contributed to the Chicago "Times" "Tribune," "Inter-Ocean" and other journals. She was one of the charter members of the Illinois Social Science Association, and one of the first secretaries of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She is a member of the Illinois Press Association and of the Chicago Woman's Club. She is
