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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Tioga and Chemung counties and he~also served in Albany as 

 assemblyman for his district and afterward as congressman in 

 Washington. He was a man of exceptional literary ability and 

 contributed widely to the periodical publications of his day. When 

 in 1812 his country was threatened he enlisted with the American 

 army and fought with all the traditional ardor of a Scottish Ameri- 

 can. During all his public life he never lost interest in the Indians 

 who had been his boyhood friends but frequently mingled with 

 them until the day of his death in 1864. 



Harriet Maxwell Converse. The second wife of Hon. Thomas 

 Maxwell was Marie Purdy, a lady of culture, education and refine- 

 ment. She was the mother of the seven children of Thomas 

 Maxwell. The youngest was Harriet Maxwell, born in 1836 in 

 Elmira. One of the old family scrapbooks contains a clipping 

 which relates that Harriet left Elmira, at the age of 9, after the death 

 of her mother, went to Milan, O., " where she was duly put to 

 school." It was at this time she first began to write verse for 

 publication. A gentleman who was her playmate in the days 

 before her departure says he has a distinct and vivid recollection 

 of her in a white dress and a broad red sash tied in an immense 

 bow. " I can shut my eyes and see her as she appeared then, one of 

 the most graceful little girls I ever saw." 



In 1 86 1 Harriet Maxwell Clarke, then the young widow of G. B. 

 Clarke, one of the owners of Congress Spring, Saratoga, married 

 Frank Buchanan Converse, of Westfield, Mass., a friend and play- 

 mate of her early childhood. For five years after her marriage 

 she traveled in Europe, Asia and Africa and toured the United 

 States. Her husband, Mr Converse, was an inventor and musician. 

 He had spent his early days in the west where he experienced all 

 the adventures of the early pioneer. He lived with the Indians 

 and became a great favorite with them. His skill as an athlete, 

 and his dexterity with the rifle and bow won their admiration. 



After the return of Mr and Mrs Converse to the East they took 

 up their home in Mott Haven, afterward removing to West 46th 

 street, New York city. 



Mrs Converse's interest in Indians may be described as heredi- 

 tary. It is quite possible, however, that although she might ever 

 have been a loyal friend to them, she might never have known 

 them intimately had it not been for her acquaintance with Gen. 

 Ely S. Parker, himself a Seneca Indian of the Wolf Clan, to which 

 Red Jacket belonged. Oftentimes when environments are foreign 

 we fail to appreciate the circumstances of others, nor are we able 



