Woman of the Century/Martha Parmelee Rose

ROSE, Mrs. Martha Parmelee, journalist, reformer and philanthropist, born in Norton, Ohio, 5th March, 1834. Her father, Theodore Hudson Parmelee, Went to Ohio in 1813 with the colony that founded Western Reserve College, then located in Hudson, Ohio. Educated under Lyman Beecher, he was too liberal to be an adherent of Calvin, and he accepted the views of Oberlin, which opened its college doors to the negro and to woman. In 1847 his widow removed to that village, and Martha, the youngest, from twelve years of age to womanhood heard the thrilling sermons of Charles G. Finney. MARTHA PARMALEE ROSE. She was graduated in 1855, and, when teaching in a seminary in Pennsylvania, became the wife of William G. Rose, a member of the legislature of that State, an editor and lawyer. In the oil development of 1864 he acquired a competency and removed to Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Rose, interested in the benevolent work of Cleveland, found that those who asked for aid often labored for wealthy firms, whose business was suspended in the winter, and that such idleness was the cause of pauperism and crime. During her husband's first term as mayor of Cleveland she investigated the reports of destitution among the Bohemians of her own city. She made it one object of her life to see for herself the sufferings of sewing women, and brought to light the frauds and extortion practiced upon them. A lecture by the sculptor. McDonald, of New York, gave an account of the manual training-schools of France and Sweden. Mrs. Rose reviewed the report of the Royal Commission of England for the daily press and sent copies of it to business men. Other lectures followed, and a manual training-school was established in Cleveland. She has written a book, not yet published, "The Story of a Life; or Pauperism in America." She has written on the labor question and kindred topics, and has reported numerous lectures and sermons on those subjects. She reviewed Mrs. Field's "How to Help the Poor," and some of its suggestions were used by the Associated Charities of Cleveland. She helped to form the Woman's Employment Society, which gave out garments to be made at reasonable prices and sold to home missions and centers of merchandise. Mrs. Rose is president of the new Cleveland Sorosis, carrying forward the enterprise with vigor and grace. She is a patron of art. She has reared a family