Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/216

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REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND
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one of the department officers to represent the department. As I look back, it seems as if I had been on the road the entire year, arriving at my home for Sundays only. I cannot take the space to enumerate all the different gatherings that I have attended, but they have been many. I began like a dutiful citizen by paying my respects to our Governor, and closed by attending the dedication of the beautiful hall of Hartsuff Corps, of Rockland. Among the delightful occasions was the reception tendered me by my own corps, March 11, 1899: and it is a pleasure to know that the honor that had come to one of its members was so highly appreciated by the members of the corps."

Intensely loyal to the Grand Army of the Republic and pleased to note that all the corps in the department were working in harmony with their posts, she urged the making of greater efforts to assist them in the years to come. At the reception given in Berkeley Temple at the close of her administration, February 14, 1900, her work was referred to in complimentary terms by John E. Gilman, who that day retired from the office of Department Commander, and by other prominent friends. Mrs. Robinson subsequently resumed her active work for the local corps in Worcester, serving on the Relief Committee, of which she has been a member eighteen years.

During the years of the Spanish-American War she gave nearly six months of her time to the work of the Volunteer Aid Association. Major Edward T. Raymond, clerk of the Central District Court of Worcester, who was officially identified with the volunteer Aid Association work in that city, thus refers to her services:—

"Mrs. Angle Adele Robinson, of Worcester, was among the first to rally to the assistance of the soldiers of the late war with Spain and their families. Her work from May IS, 1895, to November 3, 1898, was having charge of the relief and relief workers established by the Worcester Volunteer Aid Association. During the time she assisted some four hundred soldiers and their families. She worked early and late, and it was work of the most trying and nerve-exhausting kind. To answer the thousands of questions and endure at times the somewhat ungracious remarks of those who were seeking help fell to her lot. She solicited clothing of all kinds, and fitted out many soldiers' families. Only those who have passed through a similar experience can understand what she passed through. Her work was performed not for pecuniary reward, Mrs. Robinson having volunteered her services. The Executive Committee of the Volunteer Aid Association passed a vote commending her work and thanking her for her faithful attention to the suffering soldiers and their families."

By invitation of the Woman's Unitarian League of Worcester, Mrs. Robinson recently prepared and read a paper upon the Volunteer Aid work, which she also read by request at Northboro, Mass., and also before the Ladies' Society of the Central Church. This paper, which is a record of experiences in a work that will always be memorable, she designated by the title "The Summer's Campaign on the Home Side."

Mrs. Robinson is a member of the District Nurse Association of Worcester, also of the Woman's Employment Society, a charitable organization which assists women and children. Mr. Freeman Brown, clerk of the Board of Overseers of the Poor of Worcester, pays the following tribute to her work of charity:—

"In the first place, Mrs. Robinson is a noble woman. By nature, by training, by environment, by devotion to duty, by living for the benefit and comfort of others less fortunate than herself, she is a splendid representative of true New England womanhood, the best in the world. Her work in the Woman's Relief Corps, both locally and in the State, is a matter of record, known throughout the country. It is a record of which every resident of Worcester is proud, and in thus honoring her city and her State she has brought honor upon herself. With the volunteer Aid Association during the Spanish-American War in 1898, Mrs. Robinson did grand service for the boys who fought under the stars and stripes. Her work in this connection, like that in the work in the Woman's Relief Corps, is also a matter of record.

" For four years Mrs. Robinson has been a visitor of the Worcester Employment Society, visiting poor families regularly each month in the year. It is of her unrecorded charitable