IDA WHIPPLE BENHAM.
BENHAM, Mrs. Ida Whipple, peace advocate, born in a farmhouse in Ledyard, Conn. 8th January, 1849. She is a daughter of Timothy and Lucy Ann Geer Whipple, and comes from a Quaker family. At an early age she began to write verses. At the age of thirteen years she taught a country school. She was married 14th April, 1869, to Elijah B. Benham, of Groton Conn. She was early made familiar with the reforms advocated by the Quakers, such as temperance, anti-slavery, and the abolition of war. She has lectured on peace and temperance. She is a director of the American Peace Society, and a member of the executive committee of the Universal Peace Union. She takes a conspicuous part in the large peace conventions held annually in Mystic, Conn., and she holds a monthly peace meeting in her own home in Mystic. She has contributed poems to the New York "Independent," the Chicago "Advance," the "Youth's Companion," "St. Nicholas" and other prominent periodicals.