Representative women of New England/Emma J. M. Ripley
EMMA JANE MAREAN RIPLEY, philanthropist, wife of Sewall C. Ripley, president of the Thomas P. Beals Company of Portland, was born in Durham, Me., April 8, 1848, the daughter of Charles Livermore Marean and Mary Sherwood Drink- water Marean. She comes from patriotic stock. Her maternal grandfather, Perez Drinkwater, second, served as Lieutenant on the privateer "Lucy" in the War of 1812, and was a prisoner in Dartmoor Prison, England, for thirteen months. His father and her great-grandfather, Perez Drinkwater, was an officer in the Revolutionary War.
Mrs. Ripley is a graduate of the Casco Street Seminary in the city of Portland, where the most of her life has been spent, and has been an attendant of the Second Parish Church, the Payson Memorial, from her childhood. She is a prominent member of the Ladies' Circle and the Missionary Auxiliary. The poor of the city know her, for she never turns
a deaf ear to their appeals nor sends them away empty-handed. She not only gives liberally to recognized charities, but helps with generous and wise consideration families and individuals who need assistance. Her quiet deeds of charity are as numerous as those which are generally known. For fourteen years she has represented the church as director of the Diet Mission, in which she holds the offices of room committee and ward visitor. This society supplies food and dainties to the impoverished sick of the city. Mrs. Ripley has also been a working member of the Woman's Auxiliary of the Y. M. C. A. for many years and a member of the Female Samaritan Association, which is the oldest charitable association in Portland, and celebrated its seventy-fourth birthday on March 4, 1901. She is one of the oldest members of the Portland Associated Charities as well as a ward visitor. She belong^ also to the Portland Provident Association, and is a worker in the Fraternity House, a social settlement. Mrs. Ripley is likewise a member of the Conklin Parliamentary Club, the Cresco Literary Club, the Woman's Literary Union of Portland, the Equal Suffrage Club, the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, the. Elizabeth Wadsworth Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, of Portland, Me., and the National Society of U. S. Daughters of 1812, State of Maine.
Guy Livermore Ripley, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Ripley, died at the age of twenty years, four months. A handsome memorial to him has been placed in the Portland High School.