Library of Congress

Library of Congress Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, her life story and reminiscences. By Belle McArthur Perry ... Introduction by Ellen M. Henrotin ... L. H. Stone. LUCINDA HINSDALE STONE, HER LIFE STORY AND REMINISCENCES. BY BELLE McARTHUR PERRY, President Michigan State Federation of Women's Clubs. Introduction by ELLEN M. HENROTIN, Ex-President General Federation of Women's Clubs. “The World is my Country; to do good is my Religion.” DETROIT: The Blinn Publishing Company 1902. LC H.Q1413 .S7P4 COPYRIGHTED 1902 BY THE BLINN PUBLISHING CO. g By Exchange JUL 23 1929 Priced Detroit Public Lib. LC Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, her life story and reminiscences. By Belle McArthur Perry ... Introduction by Ellen M. Henrotin ... http:// www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.04759 Library of Congress To Michigan Club Women and Mrs. Stone's Pupils Everywhere this Book is Dedicated. PREFACE. When Mr. James H. Stone asked me to undertake the work of preparing a biography of his mother, I yielded to the conditions which seemed a call to the important trust, with a realization of the duty of preserving, in a permanent form, the life story of one who was a history-making force in some of the leading movements of her day, and whose influence has been equaled by few women of her generation. Even to one who never knew Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, a revelation of her character and a record of her achievements cannot fail to be most interesting and helpful. To those who really knew and loved this inspired and inspiring teacher and reformer, such a record will have a value on which no price can be placed. An effort has been made to make this book such a revelation and such a record. As far as possible, the story is told in Mrs. Stone's own words, much of the material having been selected from a large amount of autobiographical matter, reminiscences of acquaintance and association with well-known people, and from lectures vi and letters of travel. This is supplemented by information gathered from those who knew her well as teacher, traveler, and a worker for humanity, and by my own close acquaintance with her during the last ten years of her life. The only record of the days prior to her teaching in Kalamazoo is of necessity her own, for there is no one left to add the illuminating incident from the point of view of another. The chapter on the opening of the University of Michigan to women, is a history of the efforts for co-education and its development up to the present time in that institution. Much pains has been taken to gather from the university records and other authoritative and available sources, the needed material to make this Chapter historically useful to any who Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, her life story and reminiscences. By Belle McArthur Perry ... Introduction by Ellen M. Henrotin ... http:// www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.04759 Library of Congress are interested in the progress of co-education in our state, and in Mrs. Stone's life-long interest in and connection with the work. What the university chapter is to the history of co-education, the mother-of-clubs chapter is to the club movement; and an aim has been made to gather true and definite information in regard to the nature and extent of Mrs. Stone's influence in that movement. The poems interspersed here and there between chapters were especial favorites with Mrs. Stone, all of which she knew by heart and repeated frequently. Valuable and cordial assistance has been rendered vii in various ways by a number of Mrs. Stone's friends, and especially by Miss Charlotte I. Anderson, of Kalamazoo, who was closely associated with Mrs. Stone in the last years of her life. My own work has been done with a desire to make the record faithfully and accurately true, else it would be disloyal to her whose watchword was truth, and whose life was as sincere as that of a little child. Belle M. Perry . viii INTRODUCTION. My impressions of Mrs. Stone are connected with the latter rather than the early years of her life. I met her first in Chicago some ten years ago. She was present at a meeting of the Collegiate Alumnæ Association, and spoke on the subject, “The Higher Education of Women,” a topic as much discussed then as now. Mrs. Stone had then already passed the three-score-and-ten years allotted to man. As she stood on the platform, dressed in soft gray, her white hair crowning her beautiful face, she was at once a noble and winning personality. She spoke with decision, but her whole bearing was gentle and conciliatory. She convinced her audience by her logic, while she charmed it by her gracious manner. She exemplified in herself her faith in woman's capacity to live her own life, to improve Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, her life story and reminiscences. By Belle McArthur Perry ... Introduction by Ellen M. Henrotin ... http:// www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.04759 Library of Congress all her opportunities, and at the same time fulfill in every respect the special duties which come to her as head of a household and the mother of children. Mrs. Stone was a type of the “world-mother.” After this first meeting with Mrs. Stone, I was ever ix her constant admirer, and she, on the other side, was so kind as to be always my very good friend. It is rare to find a woman whose feet are turned toward the “other world” who retains her active interest in all that concerns this world. Mrs. Stone retained to the end this rare and precious grace. She kept her sympathy for the varied interests of men and women. She brought to all practical affairs of life her good judgment of relative values. She remained firm in her belief not only in God, but, what is much rarer, in humanity. She never graduated from that highest of universities—Life. Thus her words carried weight, because what she said was the result of personal experience—she had justified the faith that was in her. After this first meeting I twice met Mrs. Stone in Washington, where she was passing the winter as the guest of Mrs. Lucia Eames Blount. At that time she was much interested in the study of Psychic Research. As at the first, I was attracted by her attitude of intellectual hospitality, manifested in her willingness and eagerness to learn of new theories and new methods of research. On one occasion I was present when a speaker on this topic gave expression to opinions which were directly opposed to her beliefs and her ethical convictions. She gave her own impressions of the question at issue with sincerity and simplicity, and yet she thoroughly appreciated the other point of view, and listened gladly, saying afterward that, while she did not endorse the conclusions x at which the speaker had arrived, it was a real pleasure to listen to his intelligent and interesting presentation of his theme. Mrs. Stone was deeply interested in the woman's club movement, as it has developed in this country, and she was familiarly known as the “mother of clubs” in Michigan. She often said to me that the club movement was but another phase of educational progress, and that it was a great impetus toward a democratic solution of that problem. Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, her life story and reminiscences. By Belle McArthur Perry ... Introduction by Ellen M. Henrotin ... http:// www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.04759 Library of Congress The test of the success of any life is inevitably the spirit in which it closes; the life work must be judged by the spirit which pervades the reflective, which is the latest, period of life. This is the time which demonstrates whether the work has been carried on in the spirit of worldliness or otherworldliness. When a man or a woman is strong enough to pass into the shadow of life still bearing the standard under which he has fought in youth and middle age, interpreted by the light of the present, surely to him the end justifies the struggle. Thus the calm and strong serenity of Mrs. Stone's advanced years is perhaps the most convincing proof of the value of the work which she accomplished to advance the higher education of woman, which signified to her the education which would best equip woman for the rational enjoyment and use of all her faculties and powers. When, through the efforts of Mrs. Stone and her co-workers, xi the University of Michigan opened its doors to women, and co-education was thus assured, Mrs. Stone felt that one of the deepest reforms of the century had been accomplished; that the first step was thereby taken toward adjusting the educational status of woman to meet the new order. It is pleasant to know that during her life-time Mrs. Stone received from the University of Michigan, as well as from other associations, the honors which were her due. Society is certainly more appreciative of those who serve in these modern days than it was in the “old times;” and I am glad that the spirit of vitality, of sincerity, of courage, and of graciousness, which Mrs. Stone radiated, is abroad in the land; that she, as a type of the new womanhood, was in her life, as well as in her death, honored and loved by the many who “rise up and call her blessed.” Ellen M. Henrotin . xii FOREWORD. Mrs. Stone was in the first place a woman of broad culture, one who in her youth traveled the road which, at that time at least, was supposed to be possible only to men.

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