ct of the Soldiers'
Home was to take care of such, give them food and lodging without
charge, make them welcome while they stayed, and send them rejoicing on
their way.
In the internal management of this institution, and in the kind
hospitality extended to the soldiers Mrs. Starr was doing a congenial
work. For two years she filled this position with great fidelity and
success, and to the highest satisfaction of those who placed her here,
and of all who were the guests of the Home. At the end of this service,
on the closing of the Home, the Superintendent in his final report to
the Western Sanitary Commission, makes this acknowledgment of her
services:
"It would not only be improper but unjust, not to speak of the
faithfulness and hearty co-operation of the excellent and much esteemed
Matron, Mrs. Lucy E. Starr. Her mission has been full of trials and
discouragements, yet she has patiently and uncomplainingly struggled
through them all; and during my frequent absences she has cheerfully
assumed the entire responsibility of the Home. Her Christian forbearance
and deep devotion to the cause of humanity have won the admiration of
all who have come within the sphere of her labors."
On the closing of the Soldiers' Home, Mrs. Starr became connected with
an institution for the care of suffering refugees and freedmen at
Memphis, under the patronage of the Freedmen's Aid Commission of
Cincinnati, Ohio. She took a great interest in the thousands of this
class of destitute people who had congregated in the vicinity of
Memphis; visited them for weeks almost daily; and in the language of Mr.
Waters' report, "administered to the sick with her own hands, going from
pallet to pallet, giving nourishing food and medicines to many helpless
and friendless beings."
Thus she continued to be a worker for the suffering soldiers of the
Union army from the beginning to the end of the war, and when peace had
come, devoted herself to the poor and suffering refugees and freedmen,
whom the war had driven from their homes and reduced to misery and want.
With a wonderful fortitude, endurance and heroism she persevered in her
faithfulness to the end, and through the future of her life on earth and
in heaven, those whom she has comforted and relieved of their sorrows
and distresses will constitute for her a crown of rejoicing, and their
tears of gratitude will be the brightest jewels in her diadem.
CHARLOTTE BRADFORD
This lady, lik
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