ic women. The amount of money and supplies
sent from this branch, collected from its thousand auxiliaries and its
two great fairs, has not been up to this time, definitively estimated,
but it is known to have exceeded one million of dollars.

This record of the labors of these ladies during the war would be
incomplete without allusion to the fact that they were the prime movers
in the establishment of a Soldiers' Home, in Chicago, and were, until
after the war ended, actively identified with it. They early foresaw
that this temporary resting-place, which became like "the shadow of a
great rock in a weary land" to tens of thousands of soldiers, going to
and returning from the camp, and hospital, and battle-field, would
eventually crystallize into a permanent home for the disabled and
indigent of Illinois' brave men--and in all their calculations for it,
they took its grand future into account. That future which they foresaw,
has become a verity, and nowhere in the United States is there a
pleasanter, or more convenient, or more generously supported Soldiers'
Home than in Chicago, standing on the shores of Lake Michigan.

MRS. A. H. HOGE.

Perhaps among all who have labored for the soldier, during the late war,
among the women of our country, no name is better known that of Mrs. A.
H. Hoge, the subject of this sketch. From the beginning until the
successful close of the war, alike cheerful, ardent, and reliant, in its
darkest, as in its brightest days, Mrs. Hoge dedicated to the service of
her country and its defenders, all that she had to bestow, and became
widely known all over the vast sphere of her operations, as one of the
most faithful and tireless of workers; wise in council, strong in
judgment, earnest in action.

Mrs. Hoge is a native of the city of Philadelphia, and was the daughter
of George D. Blaikie, Esq., an East India shipping merchant--"a man of
spotless character, and exalted reputation, whose name is held in
reverence by many still living there."

Mrs. Hoge was educated at the celebrated seminary of John Brewer, A. M.,
(a graduate of Harvard University) who founded the first classical
school for young ladies in Philadelphia, and which was distinguished
from all others, by the name of the Young Ladies' College. She graduated
with the first rank in her class, and afterward devoting much attention,
with the advantage of the best instruction, to music, and other
accomplishments, she soon excell