HULING, Miss Caroline Augusta, journalist, philanthropist and reformer, born in Saratoga Springs, N. Y., in April, 1856. Her father, Edmund J. Huling, was a native of that county, and was an editor and publisher in the famous watering-place for a half-century. He was very public-spirited and liberal in his views, and his daughter owes much to the sympathy and encouragement of both parents.
Mrs. Huling was a daughter of the late Col. Alden Spooner, of Brooklyn, N. Y., in which city Mrs. Huling was born and educated. Mr. Spooner was also an editor and publisher, as were his ancestors before him. Mrs. Huling's family took high rank in literature and numbered on its roll several who won fame with pen and voice. Among them were "Fanny Fern," N. P. Willis, and the brothers Prime, so long connected with the New York "Observer," who were her cousins. Both parents of Miss Huling trace their ancestry back to the earliest days of our country. The published record of her mother's family proves her direct descent from John and Priscilla Mullins Alden, made famous by Longfellow. Miss Huling chose journalism as her profession. Under the tuition of her father she began active work when but twelve years old, starting with society reporting in the ball-rooms of that gay spa. Later on, sermons and conventions were entrusted to her. In accordance with her father's
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CAROLINE AUGUSTA HULING.
common-sense views, she was educated in the public schools, leaving the class-rooms behind her, while in the last year prior to graduation from the village high school. Music, languages and the best periodicals of the day were studied after that date. For several years she followed the usual routine of most young women, entering society and taking an active interest in temperance and church work. She became a Good Templar in 1874 and held her membership continuously until recently. She was prominent in the work and held several offices in the lodges. When the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized, she was one of the first to don the white ribbon, which she still wears. She was one of the first executive board of the Humane Society and secretary of the local Woman Suffrage Society. Much inspiration to greater efforts in the latter line was derived from frequent visits to Boston, where she mingled with those of similar tastes and studied the methods which they favored. She was especially trained as a teacher and e.pected to follow that profession, but the ill-health of both her parents prevented, and, becoming tired of what seemed an idle life, she begged to enter business, and was duly installed associate editor of the Saratoga "Sentinel " with her father, and became his right-hand in all business matters, having special superintendence of his book-bindery. She was also correspondent of many city papers during the summer. Ex-President Cleveland, then Governor of New York, made her a notary public, which was at that time a decided innovation and created a precedent which permitted other women to become notaries. In 1SS4, wishing for a broader field, she removed to Chicago, taking up the same lines of work, but devoting most of her time to the cause of woman's enfranchisement. She was for two years secretary of the Cook County Equal Suffrage Association, for two years superintendent of press work of the State society, and for one year county organizer, doing but little in the latter office. Since the formation of the Illinois Woman's Press Association, in 1875, Miss Huling's name has been on its membership roll, and for several years she was one of its executive board. In 1890 she represented the association in the National Editorial Association, and was unanimously elected assistant recording secretary of that body. She took great interest in the formation of the Illinois Woman's Alliance, in October, 18SS, and was elected president, serving two-years without opposition, and declining election the third year in order to devote herself to a working-woman's club, of which she was also president. From October, 1SS7, to November, 1888, she edited and published an eight-page semi-monthly periodical called "Justitia, a Court for the Unrepresented," in which she had a small pecuniary interest. It was the organ of the Illinois Ecjual Suffrage Association, and devoted to the advancement of women, social purity and other reforms. Owing to differences of opinion regarding its editorial policy, "Justitia" was discontinued at the close of its first volume. Miss Huling is well and favorably known as a speaker, possessing a clear, distinct voice and an unconventional manner. In 1994 she made several addresses for the Prohibition party and exerted her personal influence in the lodge-room and elsewhere for that party. She is known as a superior parliamentarian. When very young, she became a member of the Episcopal Church. For many years she was very devoted to that form of faith, but of late she has adopted the liberal tendencies of her father and has become broadly undenominational, though still retaining a respect for the church in which she was reared and a nominal membership therein. Much of her work with the pen has been in the line of unsigned editorial and special articles. She has a taste for fiction and more purely literary work, and aspires to achieve success in that line, having published a number of short stories. She especially delights in news-editorial work, and is peculiarly fitted for it. Both parents died in 1890. All of their nine living children have been more or less connected with newspaper work, and are authors. All are married excepting Caroline. In the fall of 1891 Miss Huling aided in the organization of the Woman's Baking Company, and became its secretary. The philanthropic features of the plan appealed to her sympathies, and she relinquished her professional work in a great measure to aid her sisters, the company aiming to provide a good investment for small savings and an avenue of employment for many women. She is, however, doing editorial work on several publications, and has two or three books under way.
