time. On her recovery she
concluded to enter upon the same work in the eastern department, but the
return of peace, and the disbanding of a large portion of the army
rendered her services in the hospitals no longer necessary.

From this time she devoted herself at home to working for the freedmen
and refugees, collecting clothing and garden seeds for them, many boxes
of which she shipped to the Western Sanitary Commission, at St. Louis,
to be distributed in the Mississippi Valley, where they were greatly
needed, and were received as a blessing from the Lord by the poor
refugees and freedmen, who in many instances were without the means to
help themselves, or to buy seed for the next year's planting.

In the spring of 1865, she took a great interest in the Sanitary Fair
held at Chicago, collected many valuable gifts for it, and was sent for
by the Committee of Arrangements to go out as one of the managers of the
department furnished by the New Jerusalem Church--the different churches
having separate departments in the Fair. This duty she fulfilled, with
great pleasure and success, and the general results of the Fair were all
that could be desired.

Returning home from the Chicago Fair, and the war being ended, Miss
Parsons conceived a plan of establishing in her own city of Cambridge, a
Charity Hospital for poor women and children. For this most praiseworthy
object she has already collected a portion of the necessary funds, which
she has placed in the hand of a gentleman who consents to act as
Treasurer, and is entirely confident of the ultimate success of her
enterprise. There is no doubt but that she possesses the character, good
judgment, Christian motive and perseverance to carry it through, and she
has the encouragement, sympathies and prayers of many friends to sustain
her in the noble endeavor.

In concluding this sketch of the labors of Miss Parsons in the care and
nursing of our sick and wounded soldiers, and in the Sanitary and other
benevolent enterprises called forth by the war, it is but just to say
that in every position she occupied she performed her part with judgment
and fidelity, and always brought to her work a spirit animated by the
highest motives, and strengthened by communion with the Infinite Spirit,
from whom all love and wisdom come to aid and bless the children of
men. Everywhere she went among the sick and suffering she brought the
sunshine of a cheerful and loving heart, beaming from a co