Representative women of New England/Susan Breese Snowden Fessenden
SUSAN BREESE SNOWDEN FESSENDEN was born December 10, 1840, at Cincinnati. Her father, Sidney Snowden, was related through his mother to President Woolsey of Yale, President Cutler of Western Reserve, S. F. B. Morse, of telegraph fame, to Commodore Breese of the United States Navy, and to many other literary and scientific men. Mr. Snowden was a man of letters, remarkable for his fine rendering of Shakespeare, for his use of English, and for his eloquence. He died at the early age of forty-two. His wife, Eliza Mitchell, lived to the age of eighty. She was the daughter of Jethro and Mercy (Greene) Mitchell, both of well-known Quaker families. Jethro Mitchell was a native of Nantucket and a cousin of Maria Mitchell. He went to Cincinnati about 1830, and many of his descendants still live in that city. Through her grandmother, Mercy Greene Mitchell, Mrs. Fessenden claims descent from John Greene, of Warwick, from Roger Williams, from Governor Caleb Carr, and from other founders of Rhode Island.
At seventeen Mrs. Fessenden (then Susan Snowden) was graduated from the Cincinnati Female Seminary, being the youngest member of her class. Fond of study from her earliest years, she had also shown great power for giving out what she had learned. She began to teach in the seminary immediately after graduating, and continued to teach there until her marriage. She was married March 10, 1864, to John H. Fessenden, of Concord, N.H. Her three children—Cornelia Snowden, Elizabeth Mitchell, and William Chaftin—were born in Cincinnati, and until they had completed their education the mother's chief interest was in them and in her home life. "A genius for motherhood" is her children's description of her. In 1871 Mrs. Fessenden removed from Cincinnati to Sioux City, la. There she remained for eleven years, always taking an active interest in everything pertaining to that young and growing town. Its educational affairs were dear to her, its schools became clubs for study. Its philanthropic affairs, work for young girls, and plans for helping the poor and tempted were always in her mind. Just as in her earlier years she had not hesitated to express herself strongly on the abolition of slavery, she now hail strong convictions regarding woman's enfranchisement, help for the laboring classes, and prohibition of the liquor traffic. She wrote and spoke on all these subjects.
While living in Sioux City, it became necessary for her to assume the support of her three young children. Their education was the determined purpose of her life. Accordingly with fear and trembling, but without shrinking, she borrowed money and bought out a china and silverware establishment, and carried on a wholesale and retail business. Although she had no business education, had not even studied book-keeping, an<l hitherto had been wholly unacquainted with business, she made a marked success of this enterprise, and continued in it until the necessity was passed. Convinced of the need of organized effort, Mrs. Fessenden started the Young Women's Christian Association of Sioux City, whose work soon had a much wider scope than that of such organizations in larger cities. The Association rented an old building, where rooms were fitted up for the worthy poor. One room was converted into a chapel, and religious services were held there regularly the year round. A parlor organ, chandelier, and stove were given by this lover of humanity, and she held herself personally responsible for every service. During a season of great floods on the Mississippi mid- night often found her still superintending the lighting and heating of the building and the feeding and putting to bed of the hundreds of homeless sufferers who sought temporary shelter. Her own house was stripped of chairs for women with young children, and she did her utmost, both as an individual and as President of the Y. W. C. A., the organization having assumed the care of these needy people.
Just before leaving Sioux City, Mrs. Fessenden selected the site and measured the lot on which was to be built a home for the organization which she had for eight years served so faith- fully as President. Here stands to-day the Samaritan Hospital, carried on by the Y. W C. A. for over twenty years. Although other hospitals have since been built in Sioux City, this, the first, still has the confidence and the support of the community. In 1903, when Mrs. Fessenden revisited her old home, the trustees of the hospital gave her a fine reception in recognition of the fact that to her efforts they were indebted for the conception of the hosjjital.
In 1882 Mrs. Fessenden removed to Boston for the college education of her children. Her two daughters entered Boston University wilh the classes of 1886 and 1889, respectively, and later her son with the class of 1894.
After the graduation of her elder daughter Mrs. Fessenden took her family to I'An-ope, that Cornelia might prepare herself to take the d(>gree Ph.D. After six months of study and an illness of only three days this beautiful daughter was calletl to a higher sphere. This was a blow from which at first it seemed as if Mrs. Fessenden could not possil:)ly recover. Upon her return to America her friends |)revaile(l upon her to enter on work with the Oman's Christian Tem- perance Union. First she was made National Superintendent of Franchise. In 1890 she was unanimously elected to the office of State Presi- dent of the W. C. T. U. of Massachusetts, ami continued in that oihce for eight years. In 1898 she resigned the presidency to' become National Lecturer.
At the time of massacre of the Armenians by the Turks, in 1896, Frances E. Willard and Lady Henry Somerset sent about two hundred refugees to New York. By cable they recjuested Mrs. Fessenden among others to receive them at Ellis Islanil, and to overcome if possible the construction of law that might bar them from admission.
In carrying out her part of this work it be- came necessary for Mrs. Fessenden to visit New York three times, consulting with the commis- sioner of immigration and addressing ministers' meetings to secure their signatures to a petition to the United States government to call the.se jjeople "refugees" and not "immigrants." By this wording it was possible to avoid violat- ing a most beneficent law. It was necessary also for her to secure the signing of the bond for forty thousand dollars. The W. C. T. U. had to pledge that none of the refugees should ever claim government support. W'hen these details had been arranged, one hundred refugees went to the Massachusetts W. C. T. U. and one hundred to the Salvation Army. "With her one hundred Mrs. Fessenden took the ferry from Ellis Island, while from the grateful hearts of those who had gathere<l to help rose the beauti- tiful " Prai.se God, from whom all blessings flow."
To find work for these refugees ignorant of the language and customs of our country was a gigantic task. It fell chiefly on Mrs. Ruth Baker, the Corres])onding Secretary, Mrs. Fessenden's clo.se friend. At one time Mrs. I'essenden herself had a thrilling experience in rescuing some of these men from a place whitlier they had been led by false representations. It
was a stronghold of outlaws in the Virginia mountains that she had to visit in order to accomplish her purpose; and it was through the exercise of the greatest tact and promptness that she succeeded in bringing the men away. As President of the W. C. T. U., Mrs. Fessenden had many interesting experiences. One of these was when, through the invitation from the captain and chaplain, she conducted on the United States warship "Massachusetts" a Sunday service which was attended by sailors from three vessels. Another was the occasion when she presided at the banquet and reception to Lady Henry Somerset at Music Hall; and a third at Hotel Vendome, the breakfast to Frances E. Willard, at which there were six hundred guests.
An experience of a different kind, which she felt her office required of her, was a visit she made to the slums, that she might see for herself life in its various phases. Accompanied by two policemen, she spent the entire night in the worst part of Boston, visiting Chinese and Italian quarters, police stations, and so- called hotels.
In 1899 Mrs. Fessenden had a second great loss in the death of her only son, AVilliam Chaffin Fessenden, who had been graduated from Andover in 1898, and had entered upon his first pastorate at New Boston, Mass. He was a young man of high promise, both as preacher and thinker.
Mrs. Fessenden herself has frequently responded to invitations to preach in Congregational, Baptist, and Methodist pulpits. When only twelve years old, she united with the Presbyterian church, at a time when young people were rarely admitted to church membership.
At present Mrs. Fessenden is Vice-President of the Massachusetts Woman's Suffrage Association, National Lectiwer for the W. C. T. U., and a leader and teacher of classes in parliamentary law. She early found that she could most effectively help the causes in which she was interested by the spoken rather than the written word, and her literary work has been confined to articles on vital subjects and stories for children's magazines. As a speaker, her power to hold audiences is very marked, and people like Dr. Lorimer, Mary A. Livermore, the late Joseph Cook, and Frances E. Willard have spoken enthusiastically of her ability. She has a fine presence, a melodious voice, a logical mind, and great skill in presenting her arguments forcibly.
Joseph Cook praised her "good judgment, good taste, courage, and alertness." Miss Willard said: "It is her good fortune to have something to say and to say it with clearness and conviction, wit and wisdom." Neal Dow said, "There is not within my knowledge a more devoted friend of temperance, nor one whose work on the platform is more acceptable and effective than hers."