n her
mother's side she was a granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker, of
Hartford, "the father of the Connecticut churches," and one of the grand
men in early American history.

Personally, she was so beautiful and so noble-minded that at the age
of thirteen she was known far and near for her Christian character and
exceptional ability. While she was still but thirteen and Mr. Edwards
twenty, he wrote in a purely disinterested way of the remarkable girl:
"She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of
mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place singing sweetly;
and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure; and no one knows for
what."

Mr. Edwards was desirious of being married when he went to Northampton
as associate pastor with his grandfather, Dr. Stoddard. Miss Pierrpont
was only sixteen years of age, and she declined to be married until she
was seventeen. He insisted, but she persisted in her refusal.

Mrs. Edwards lived in her children. To her husband came honor and glory
in his lifetime, but to her came denial, toil and care. At eighteen,
this young, beautiful, brilliant wife became a mother, and until she was
forty, there was never a period of two years in which a child was not
born to them, and no one of the eleven children died until after the
last child was born. It was a home of little children. Her husband had
no care for the household and she wished him to have none. It was her
insistence that he should have thirteen hours of every twenty-four for
his study. Whatever may have been the contribution of Mr. Edwards to the
inheritance of the family, they owed the charming environment of the
home to their mother.

This was a delightful home, as many persons have testified who knew it.
I saw recently the diary of the famous George Whitefield, where he wrote
that he sometimes wondered if it was not the Lord's will that he should
marry, that he might thereby be more useful, and that if it was the
Lord's will that he should marry, he wished to be reconciled thereto,
but he did hope that the Lord would send him as a wife such a woman as
Mrs. Edwards, whom he considered the most beautiful and noble wife for
a Christian minister that he had ever known. If there be a more charming
tribute to woman than this, I have not seen it.

In view of the character of her children and their great success in
life, it may be interesting to know how she brought up the children, of
whom there we