ANNA MARIA NICHOLS HAMMER.
HAMMER, Mrs. Anna Maria Nichols, temperance worker, born in Pottsvtlle, Pa., 14th September, 1840. Her father was Alfred Lawton, one of the pioneers of the coal region. On both sides of the house Mrs. Hammer is descended from Revolutionary stock Her mother's great-grandfather was Michael Hillegas, the confidential friend of Washington and the first Continental Treasurer of the United States. Mrs. Hammer's great-grandfathers, General Francis and General William Nichols, distinguished themselves in the Revolutionary War, as did also her great-grandfather Lawton,
who was a surgeon in the army and for many years was surgeon at West Point. Her grandfather Nichols was an officer in the war of 181 2. Anna was educated in Philadelphia, Pottsville and Wilkes-Barre. Pa. In the former city she became the wife of William A. Hammer, and returned with him to Schuylkill county. After several years they removed to Newark, N. J. There a great spiritual awakening came to her, followed by her entrance into temperance work as a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, very soon after the inauguration of that movement. Her national connection with the work has been as superintendent of three departments, work among the reformed, juvenile work and her present work, social or parlor work. She is also vice-president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for the State of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Hammer ranks high as a clear, forceful and ready speaker. At present her home is in Philadelphia, where her husband is in charge of the Reformed Episcopal Theological Seminary She is a cultured woman of strong individuality, an earnest expounder of the work in Bible readings, and greatly interested in the instruction and training of the young.