scanty purse and by her exertions, securing to them a decent and
respectable Christian burial when they were called to die. At the very
commencement of the War, she entered into the Refreshment Saloon
enterprise with a zeal and perseverance that never flagged. She was
particularly devoted to the hospital, and when the accommodations of the
Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon Hospital were too limited for the
number who needed relief, as was the case in 1862, she received a
considerable number of the worst cases of sick or wounded soldiers into
her own house, and nursed them without any compensation till they
recovered. At the second fair held by the Saloon in June, 1863, she was
instant in season and out of season, feeding the soldiers as well as
attending the fair; and often remaining at her post till long after
midnight. In July and August, 1863, she was constantly engaged in
nursing the wounded from Gettysburg, who crowded the Saloon Hospitals
for some time, and in supplying the needs of the poor fellows who passed
through in the Hospital Cars on their way to Northern hospitals. For
these she provided tea and toast always, having everything ready
immediately on their arrival. These excessive labors impaired her
health, and being called to nurse her aged blind mother during a severe
fit of sickness, her strength failed and she sank rapidly, and died on
the 21st of October, 1863. The soldier has lost no more earnest or
faithful friend than she.
MRS. MARY B. WADE, a widow and now nearly eighty years of age, but a
woman of remarkable energy and perseverance, was throughout the whole
four and a half years, as constantly at her post, as faithful and as
efficient as any of the Executive Committee of the Saloon. Suffering
from slight lameness, she literally hobbled down to the Saloon with a
cane, by night or day; but she was never absent. Her kind, winning and
motherly ways made her always a great favorite with the soldiers, who
always called her Mother Wade. She is a woman of rare conscientiousness,
truthfulness and amiability of character. She is a native of Southwark,
Philadelphia, and the widow of a sea-captain.
MRS. ELLEN J. LOWRY, a widow upwards of fifty years of age, a native of
Baltimore, was in the beginning of the War a woman of large and powerful
frame, and was surpassed by none in faithfulness and efficiency, but her
labors among the wounded from Gettysburg seriously injured her health,
and have rendered her,
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