TUPPER, Miss Mila Frances, Unitarian minister, born on a farm near Brighton. Iowa. 26th January, 1864. Her mother was Mrs. Ellen Tupper, famous as the bee-culturist of Iowa. Miss Tuppers childhood was unusually free. She was very fond of outdoor sports, which have left their mark in her physical strength. She was particularly thoughtful as a child and studious, without much school discipline or incentive.
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MILA FRANCES TUPPER.
During her years of residence in Des Moines, Iowa, she had the advantage of a public school, but when she was twelve years old. the family removed to the wild prairies of Dakota. There she found plenty of time and opportunity for continued physical culture, riding a great deal, chiefly to and from the post-office, which was three miles from her home. She had much time for reading, but, excepting two terms in a winter school taught by an older sister, there was no opportunity for mental culture outside of her home. In that home, where both parents were of intellectual tastes, there was less need of outside influences for culture. Evidence of that fact is shown in the mental life of all the daughters, who have become well known in their chosen professions. After three years spent in teaching in Sioux Falls, at the age of twenty-one, she entered the Whitewater Normal School, and had one year in preparation for college. She won a scholarship in mathematics on her entrance to Cornell University, where she was graduated in 1889. She at once entered the Unitarian ministry. Her first charge was in La Porte, Ind., where she remained one-and-a-half years. She was called from that place to minister to a fast-growing society in Grand Rapids, Mich., in which place she is now working successfully. The bent of her mind was always towards theological subjects. She united with the Baptist Church when she was nine years of age, but gradually drew away from that, until she took her place with the Unitarians. Her main characteristics are candor, generosity, conscientiousness, and notably the power of adapting herself to the minds of all ages and modes of thought. She has the happy faculty of meeting the young, the old and middle-aged on their own ground. Her discourses fulfill the promise of her early thoughtfulness, in their clear, logical and simple, yet forceful, presentation of the subject in hand, and her quiet dignity of manner gives added strength to the words that fall from her lips.