f and to your good and
noble husband whom I take to be one of the best, with every
assurance of affection and esteem. Thanking you for your kind
letter, I remain, dear madam,

"Yours very truly, R. D. HUBBARD."

[165] At the various hearings Mrs. Anna Middlebrook, Mr. and Mrs.
Joseph Sheldon, Julia and Abby Smith, Rev. Olympia Brown, Mr. and
Mrs. Hooker were the speakers.

[166] See Appendix for Mr. Hooker's article, "Is the Family the
Basis of the State?"

[167] At the convention of March 17 and 18, 1884, the speakers were
Mrs. Hooker, Susan B. Anthony, the Rev. Charles Stowe, Julia Smith
Parker, Mrs. Emily Collins, Abigail Scott Duniway, Miss Leonard,
Mrs. C. G. Rogers, the Rev. Dr. A. J. Sage, Mrs. Ellis, Miss Gage,
the Rev. J. C. Kimball, the Rev. Mr. Everts of Hartford, Mary Hall
and F. E. Burr. The officers elected at this meeting were: Isabella
B. Hooker, _President_: F. Ellen Burr, _Secretary_; Mary Hall,
_Assistant-secretary_; John Hooker, _Treasurer_. _Executive
Committee_; Mrs. Ellen Burr McManus, Mrs. Emily P. Collins, Mrs.
Amy A. Ellis, Mrs. J. G. Parsons Hartford; Mrs. Susan J. Cheney,
South Manchester; Mrs. John S. Dobson, Vernon Depot; Judge Joseph
Sheldon, Charles Atwater, James Gallagher, New Haven.

[168] John Hooker, Isabella B. Hooker, the Rev. N. J. Burton,
Rachel C. Burton, Franklin Chamberlin, Francis Gillette, Eliza D.
Gillette, Frances Ellen Burr, Catharine E. Beecher, Esther E.
Jewell, Calvin E. Stowe, Harriet Beecher Stowe and others,
Hartford; Joseph Cummings, Middletown, President of Wesleyan
University; Thomas Elmes, Lucy R. Elmes, Derby; Charles Atwater,
New Haven; Thomas T. Stone, Laura Stone, Brooklyn. The officers
elected for the Association were: _President_, the Rev. N. J.
Burton, Hartford; _Secretary_, Frances Ellen Burr; _Executive
Committee_, Isabella B. Hooker; Mrs. Lucy R. Elmes, Derby; Mrs. J.
G. Parsons, Miss Emily Manning, M. C., Hartford; Mr. Charles
Atwater, New Haven; Mr. Ward Cheney, Mrs. Susan J. Cheney, South
Manchester; Mrs. Virginia Smith, Hartford. _Treasurer_, William B.
Smith, Hartford. There was a long list of vice-presidents, which I
presume you do not care for, nor for the other names that were
added as changes had to be made in the years that followed.

[169] A member of the club says: "We receive more of our life and
enthusiasm from Frances Ellen Burr than all other members combined;
indeed, the chief