Representative women of New England/Marion H. Brazier
MARION HOWARD BRAZIER, journalist, of Boston, is the daughter of the late William Henry Braziery a veteran of the Civil War and member of the Grand Army of the Republic. According to family tradition Mr. Brazier was descended from Sir Henry Brazier, who lived many years ago in Lincolnshire, England. The maiden name of Miss Brazier's mother was Sarah Jane Sargent. She was daughter of David Sargent (the fourth of that name in direct line) and his wife, Elizabeth I. Fille-brown, and was a descendant in the ninth generation of William Sargent, of Maiden, Mass., who came from Northampton, England, in 1638. William is said to have been son of Roger and grandson of Hugh Sargent, of Northamptonshire, England.
Two of Miss Brazier's ancestors on the maternal side—namely, David Sargent and Abraham Rand—were soldiers of the Revolution, the last named serving three years in the army. His mother, Anne Devens, wife of Thomas Rand, was "probably daughter of Philip Devens" and nearly related to the family to which Judge Devens belonged.
Another patriotic ancestor, John Hicks, of Cambridge, was slain by the British in the retreat from Lexington, April 19, 1775. The Hon. Charles Saunders, former Mayor of Cambridge, first president of the Sons of the American Revolution, is also a descendant of John Hicks and second cousin to Miss Brazier.
Marion H. Brazier was born in Charlestown on the day that California was made a State, and was graduated from the Bunker Hill Grammar School at the close of the Civil War. This completed her schooling, but not her education, which has come through her c^)n- tact with the world, her ambition leading her to associate with her superiors in intellect, to keep up to date, and never to look back. After Miss Brazier had filled positions of trust as accountant and cashier for a number of years, her health became so seriously impaired as to demand a change " of scene and occupation. She crossed the continent in 1888, and while in Santa Fe a sudden inspiration came to her to write of the scenes in that picturesque city. Thus it happened that, in the room where General Lew Wallace had written "Ben-Hur," Miss Brazier wrote her first article for publication. While in California her pen was kept busy in supplying the local and New England papers with breezy specials on many topics. She was for a long time society and club editor of the Boston Sunday Post, regular contributor to the Boston Transcript, editor of a New York society magazine, and space writer for innumerable newspapers. She is a journalist of the wide-awake type, and has been the biographer of many noted people.
Her writing has been largely devoted to patriotic matters. The Patriotic Review, founded, edited, and published by Miss Brazier, is a fine example of historical literature. It has a good circulation and a host of appreciative readers. Miss Brazier is at present (1904) society editor of the Boston .Journal and a regular contributor to the Sunday Hirald and the Globe. She holds membership in the following organizations: New England Woman's Press Association; Charity Club; Actors' Church Alliance; Daughters of Veterans; U. S. W. V. Auxiliary; Daughters of New Hampshire and of Massachusetts; Woman's Club House Corporation; and in the National Society, D. A. R., in which she has founded two chapters — Bunker Hill and Paul Jones. Through her efforts the naval hero of the American Revolution is honored in Ma.ssachu.setts, and a handsome schoolhouse bears his name in East Boston.