Woman of the Century/Adeline Morrison Swain

2294863Woman of the Century — Adeline Morrison Swain

SWAIN, Mrs. Adeline Morrison, woman suffragist, born in Bath, N. H., 25th May, 1820. ADELINE MORRISON SWAIN. Her father. Moses F. 'Morrison, was a graduate of the medical department of Dartmouth College and a distinguished practitioner. Her mother, Zilpha Smith Morrison, was a woman of ability and intelligence. Though burdened with the many cares arising from a family of three sons and five daughters, she managed to acquaint herself with the questions of the day. Both parents were free-thinkers in the broadest and highest sense of that term, and both were in advance of the times. The home of the family was a continuous school, and what the children lacked in the preparation for the higher seminary and college course, they succeeded in gaining around their own hearthstone, assisted by parental instruction. At the age when most girls were learning mere nursery rhymes, Adeline Morrison spent a large portion of her time in pursuing the study of a Latin grammar. She received an education beyond the ordinary. She was accomplished in the fine arts, and her paintings have been recognized as works of superior merit. She taught several languages for many years in seminaries in Vermont, New York and Ohio. In 1846 she became the wife of James Swain, a prominent business man of Nunda, N. Y. In 1854 they removed to Buffalo. N. Y., where they resided several years. There her attention was called to the subject of spiritualism. She devoted much study to that subject, and finally accepted its claims as conclusive, and became an avowed advocate of its doctrines and philosophy. In 1858 they removed to the West and settled in Fort Dodge, Iowa. There she at once organized classes or young ladies in French, higher English, drawing and oil-painting. When the American Association for the Advancement of Science held its meeting in Dubuque, Iowa, Mr. and Mrs. Swain were elected members. In that assembly Mrs. Swain read an able paper, one of the first by a woman before the association. She was an active member of the Iowa State Historical Society and a correspondent of the entomological commission appointed by the government to investigate and report upon the habits of the Colorado grasshoppers. She is a prominent and influential member of the National Woman's Congress and of the State and National Woman Suffrage Associations. In 1883 she was unanimously nominated by the Iowa State convention of the Greenback party for the office of superintendent of public instruction, being one of the first women so named on an Iowa State ticket, and received the full vote of the party. In 1884 she was appointed a delegate and attended the national convention of the same party, held in Indianapolis, Ind., to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President. She was for several years political editor of "The Woman's Tribune." In 1877 her husband died suddenly. Her home is now in Odin, Marion county, Ill.