210 



'1HU IRRIGATION AGE. 



to the family name. Among those 

 who rose to high rank was Mrs. 

 Yates' great-grandfather, General 

 Elijah Wadsworth. About this 

 time another of the family was 

 president of Harvard college. 



When the first tide of emigration 

 set toward the great West, the 

 Wadsworths were among those who 

 came to battle with all the hard- 

 ships of pioneer life. Edward 

 Wadsworth, grandfather of the 

 wife of the present governor, 

 settled in Ohio and served as cap- 

 tain in an Ohio regiment in the 

 war of 1812. The warlike strain 

 was in all their veins to such an 

 extent that some of the family were 

 to be found wherever fighting was 

 to be done. When Decatur humbled 

 the Tripoli i an pirates Lieut. Henry 

 Wadsworth, a youth of nineteen, 

 lost his life in the attack. Another 

 patriot of the family was Gen. 

 James D. Wadsworth of Geneseo, 

 N. Y., a millionaire, a philan- 

 thropist and a patron of the arts. 

 When the Civil War came on he 

 first outfitted a ship of supplies 

 and presented it to the government 

 and then offered his services in any 

 capacity. Made a brigadier gen- 

 eral in 186J he fought with great 

 dash and courage until a bullet at 

 the battle of the Wilderness ended 

 his brilliant and patriotic career. 



In all the long line of distinguished 

 sons of the Wadsworth blood the 

 one whose fame has gone the 

 broadest and who has writ his name 

 the highest on the scroll of honor, 

 the nations great poet Henry Wads- 

 worth Longfellow stands first. His 

 mother was a daughter of Gen. 



Peleg Wadsworth and the poet's 

 middle name was for his mother's 

 family. Thus the author of Evan- 

 geline was a cousin not far removed 

 of Mrs. Richard Yates. 



Archibald Clark Wadsworth, Mrs. 

 Yates' father was born in Ohio and 

 moved to Jacksonville at an early 

 age. There he engaged in business, 

 and there his whole life has been 

 spent. In 1848 he married Delia 

 Witherby, a member of an old Ver- 

 mont family. The Wadsworth 

 family always has been prominent 

 in the commercial and social life of 

 their home town. There in 1865 

 the present governor's wife was 

 born. 



Mrs. Yates received her educa- 

 tion at the Illinois Womans' Col- 

 lege, one of the numerous educa- 

 tional institutions of a city which 

 takes pride in styling itself the 

 Athens of Illinois. Taking a high 

 rank in the intellectual pursuits of 

 the school, Mrs. Yates graduated 

 to take her place in the social life 

 of her home city. Nor did the 

 duties of society banish her inter- 

 est in deeper things. She at once 

 became interested in those ques- 

 tions that are agitating educated 

 and progressive women today, and 

 became an earnest member of sev- 

 eral clubs devoted to the pursuit of 

 what is best in literary, musical 

 and economic lines. The Wednes- 

 day Musical Club, Household Sci- 

 ence Club and the Jacksonville 

 branch of the Daughters of the 

 Revolution claim Mrs. Yates as a 

 member. In the clubs she wag a 

 gifted and earnest , worker, in 

 society she was talented and popu- 



