Lydia A. Scott - The Granite Monthly

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SUCCESSFUL WOMAN.

BY H. H. METCALF.

While volumes have been written to tell the story of the "sell-made" and successful men of our own and other times, comparatively little has been said or written concerning the world's successful women—those who, while remembering and honoring their womanhood and remaining faithful to all its peculiar obligations and responsibilities, have asserted their independence of old-time conventional limitations and their right to make the best of all the powers with which nature has endowed them, and, acting accordingly, not with noisy demonstration, but with fixed purpose and quiet determination, have made honorable place for themselves in the ranks of the world's workers. Such women there have been, such there are, and many more there will be in the years to come. Of one of the number it is the writer's purpose to speak briefly, at this time.

Lydia Abigail Gray, now Mrs. A. M. Scott of Manchester, was born in China, Me., February 4, 1841, being the third daughter and fifth child of Hon. John L. and Lydia (Carlton) Gray. Her parents—the father of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, and the mother of an old English family —were worthy members of an intelligent rural community, blessed with honest purpose and a goodly family of children rather than wealth, and the rearing of those children worthily and well was the prime object of their lives. The father, hale and hearty at eighty-five, is still living in the Pine Tree State; the mother, a woman of great strength of character and happy disposition, who made herself the friend of all with whom she came in contact, entered the higher life nearly twenty years ago. Five daughters, including the subject of this sketch, and one son, the latter Hon. John Carlton Gray, a prominent lawyer of Oraville, California, and for some time past a judge of the superior court, survive. One son, Capt. Lemuel Carlton Gray, died February 23, 1880.

Her father was a staunch Democrat, and the old Augusta Age furnished the fireside reading for the household of the faithful Maine Democrat in those days; among Mrs. Scott's earliest recollections is that of reading this paper aloud to her father and others at evening, while another is of writing votes previous to the annual election-day for the various candidates of the party, of which her father was one of the active leaders in the town, filling various responsible positions, including membership in the state legislature. To secure better educational advantages for his family, when she was thirteen years of age, her father removed to South China, where she attended the public schools and the academy, and made such excellent use of her opportunities that at fifteen she was given a teacher's certificate, which important document she still cherishes among her choicest treasures. A little later she commenced writing for newspapers, mainly for mental discipline and pastime, her first published productions appearing in the Kennebec Journal, then under the editorial management of James G. Blaine. She has continued writing, more or less, through the changing situations of her life, for various New England papers, her topics pertaining mainly to the home, to character building and questions of social import, although she has frequently done descriptive and reportorial work.

October 24, 1859, when in her nineteenth year, she was united in marriage, at Augusta, with Albert M. Scott, and made her home in that city, where her husband, a young man of twenty-four, was overseer in a cotton factoryHere their daughter and only child, Hattie Isabelle, was born, February 23, 1862. But the War of the Rebellion was then in progress. The call of patriotism summoned the young husband to the defence of the Union; the claims of wife and child held him at their side; finally she consented to his enlistment, and he entered the Union service as a sergeant in Company B, 2d Maine Cavalry, November 13,1863, continuing through the war. Bidding her husband Godspeed as he went forth to do battle under his country's flag, the young wife, thrown largely upon her own resources for support of herself and child, looked the future in the face and with true womanly courage entered upon the path before her. Teaching was the occupation in which she engaged, and, putting her heart into her work, she pursued it successfully. During the two years of her husband's absence she learned the lesson of self-reliance, and initiated the work of developing those previously latent powers which, in the fullness of their strength, have made her the well-poised and successful woman she is to-day.

After the war Mr. Scott removed with his family to Salem, and subsequently to Whitinsville, Mass., where he was engaged for some years in his work of cotton manufacturing. In March, 1872, he removed to the city of Manchester, where he has since resided, holding a good position as an overseer in the Manchester Mills. Here, for the last twenty-one years, has been Mrs. Scott's home. Comfortably situated and provided for through her husband's labor, she might, like the average woman, have contented herself with attention to ordinary domestic duties and the common rounds of social life. But, having realized her power for other work, and her right and duty in the line of greater development and multiplied effort, she has not been thus content. Neglecting no home duty in the slightest degree, meeting in full measure every obligation of wife and mother, fulfilling every just social requirement, she has passed these limitations and interested herself in other work, with her own mental and material advancement and the benefit of others alike in view.

Her decided literary taste has been cultivated and strengthened. Early in its history she became an active member of the Manchester Shakespeare Club, has continued her interest in its work, and is now upon her second term as president of the organization. Continuing her newspaper writing, and contributing quite extensively to the Manchester Union, during the later years of the proprietorship of Campbell & Hanscom, she became editor of the Fireside department of that paper early in 1880, after the change in proprietorship, continuing for five years, during which time her work attracted wide attention, and her words of hopeful cheer lessened the burdens of many a housewife, and carried light and comfort to many a home circle.

With a strong sympathy for disabled soldiers and their dependent families, she became interested in the outset in the work of the Woman's Relief Corps, and was a charter member of Louis Bell Corps, No. 17, of Manchester. Never seeking, and many times refusing, important official positions in the corps and department, she wrought earnestly in the ranks to promote the objects of the organization ; while the personal effort she has given in numberless cases to aid worthy veterans in securing pensions is best known by those most closely concerned. She served two years as a member of the department council in this state, and was twice delegate-at-large from New Hampshire to the National W. R. C. convention, attending the sessions at Portland, Me., and San Francisco, Cal. In 1885 she was appointed by the national president, Mrs. Sarah E. Fuller, chief of staff, being the first person who ever held that position, which she accepted only upon urgent solicitation and out of consideration for her state. In 1886 she was appointed by President Elizabeth D'A. Kinne a member of the national pension committee, her associates being Mrs. E. Florence Barker, Mrs. Kate B. Sherwood, Mrs. Mary A. Logan, and Miss Clara Barton, and she contributed her full share of effort in furthering the important work of the committee.

The following words from the pen of Mrs. Fuller most fittingly characterize Mrs. Scott, and her work in and out of the order:

"At the Department Convention of the Woman's Relief Corps, held in Portsmouth, N. H., in January, 1883, I first met Mrs. Lydia A. Scott. Her fine intellectual face, well modulated voice, and commanding presence at once attracted attention. As a speaker she had the rare ability of expressing herself clearly, and in language forcible but concise, with a fund of humor that always pleased, while on all questions relating to the interests of disabled veterans there was a strong pathos and sense of justice and equity that proved her a woman of deep thought, and thoroughly conversant with the subject.

"Positively declining nominations for several important positions, it was evident she did not desire honors or office, but was a willing worker. Without doubt she has done more pension work, and aided more old soldiers to secure their pensions than any other woman in New England.

"As National President of the Woman's Relief Corps, in 1885, it was my pleasure to tender her the position of Chief of Staff of National Aides, an office which she filled with great credit to herself and the order.

"On the journey across the continent with the entire New England delegations of the G. A. R. and W. R. C, and during the week of national convention in San Francisco, Mrs. Scott won hosts of friends, and received the highest compliments from military men, as well as the old veterans and the most prominent women of our order, for the lady-like and efficient manner in which she performed the duties of an office never before filled by a woman.

"Possessing a generous, sympathetic nature, her great warm heart is ever ready to respond to the call for aid from the sick or suffering, and many a soldier's widow and orphan children will rise up and call her blessed.

"Her friendship is constant and true; an affectionate, devoted wife and mother, her home is indeed a haven of rest, as well as a bright social center, for her literary ability and attainments naturally attract the brightest minds of the social and literary world."

Soon after the marriage of her daughter, November 22, 1882, to Edward Lyon Swazey, a successful young ranchman and cattle dealer, then of Wyoming, now residing in Kansas City, she was advised by her physician to engage in work involving travel and out-door activity. Accordingly she entered the service of the C. A. Nichols Co., the well-known publishing firm of Springfield, Mass., and although on her first day's effort, in the city of Concord, she was advised by one, now a senator in Congress, not to continue, as she was sure to make a failure in the work, such was the measure of her success that, within one year from that date, she was offered a salary of $4,000 per annum by a responsible firm, which she declined, because acceptance would take her continuously from home. Subsequently, for some time, she successfully conducted a general agency business in various lines, but early in 1892 she engaged as an agent for the sale of real estate in Kearney, Neb., after satisfying herself by personal investigation of the complete reliability of these investments. In this line she has met with phenomenal success, and at the last annual meeting she was made one of the directors of the Kearney Land and Investment Company.

As to her business capacity, it may be said that the C. A. Nichols Co. testify to their continued " admiration for the energy and tact which, under all circumstances, enabled her to reach the most unapproachable," and they add the recollection that "during her busiest moments her mother's heart never forgot that she was still a woman."

A woman she is, indeed, true to her sex and all that pertains thereto ; though never an advocate of woman suffrage, yet ready to meet its responsibilities whenever they may come. Never concerning herself in partisan politics, her advice is nevertheless sought by many a man among her friends in both parties, as is also her judgment in business affairs. She has been the true friend, f1lling almost a mother's place to more than one young man who owes success in abundant measure to her kindly interest and counsel. Though uniting early in life with the Congregational church, and remaining a member of the Franklin Street Church, in Manchester, she long ago outgrew all credal limitations and puts her faith in that practical Christianity which seeks the greatest good for man, physical and mental, moral and spiritual, in this world of time and sense.