(Excerpt from Widow Spriggins, Mary Elmer, and Other Sketc...)
Excerpt from Widow Spriggins, Mary Elmer, and Other Sketches For this reason, we have deemed it not inappropriate to accompany the present collection with a brief biographical sketch of their author. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Frances Miriam Berry Whitcher was born in Whitesboro, N. Y. , one of the thirteen children of Lewis and Elizabeth (Wells) Berry. Her father, an early settler in Whitesboro, was at the time of her birth owner of "Berry's Tavern, " an important hostelry in the county.
During her childhood she attended the village school, where she was outstanding because of her unusual memory and her skill in drawing caricatures. Further study at the local academy and French lessons in nearby Utica completed her formal education.
She read widely and early tried her hand at prose and verse. Her first work to attract attention was a series of humorous sketches in colloquial dialect called "The Widow Spriggins, " which she read to her fellow-members of the Maeonian Circle, a social and literary society in Whitesboro. The admiration these narratives aroused led her to send them to a weekly paper in Rome, N. Y. Encouraged by their publication she began another series in the same vein called "The Widow Bedott's Table-Talk. " The first installment of this work, signed with her pen-name "Frank, " appeared in Joseph C. Neal's Saturday Gazette and Lady's Literary Museum in the autumn of 1846. The immediate popularity of the series brought her an invitation from Louis A. Godey to become a contributor to the Lady's Book. She accompanied her husband to his parish in Elmira, N. Y. There she continued to write, supplying Widow Bedott papers to Neal's Gazette until 1850. To Godey's Lady's Book she contributed a similar series entitled "Aunt Magwire's Experiences, " and another in a different style called "Letters from Timberville, " incomplete at her death. Some of these sketches were illustrated with her own drawings. Besides the humorous works for which she was well known she also wrote a number of hymns and devotional poems. In these her deeply religious nature and her love for the services of the church found expression. Some of them appeared in Neal's Gazette, others in the Gospel Messenger of Utica. The last two years of her life were spent at her home in Whitesboro. There she worked on a book called "Mary Elmer, " which she did not live to finish. After the birth of a daughter in November 1849 she failed rapidly in health. She joined her husband for a brief time in a new parish at Oswego, but illness prevented her remaining. She died at Whitesboro. After her death her prose writings were collected in two volumes: The Widow Bedott Papers (1856), with an introduction by Alice B. Neal, and Widow Spriggins, Mary Elmer, and Other Sketches (1867), with a memoir by Mrs. M. L. Ward Whitcher. In 1879 the Widow Bedott was reintroduced to the public in a four-act comedy by Petroleum V. Nasby (D. R. Locke), Widow Bedott, or a Hunt for a Husband, which followed the original dialogue closely. The part of the widow was successfully taken by Neil Burgess, an actor of eccentric female parts.
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Her fame as a humorist did not endear her to her husband's parishioners. Her always strong sense of the ludicrous and the absurd tempted her to satirize much that she found in small-town society. She dealt sharply with the sewing circle, the donation party, and with the pretentiousness of the self-satisfied. As she was good at portraiture, some of her sketches gave offense to persons who fancied that they recognized the originals. One irate husband threatened legal prosecution for damage done to his wife's character.
On January 6, 1847, she married the Rev. B. W. Whitcher, an Episcopal clergyman, and the following spring accompanied him to his parish in Elmira, N. Y. They had a daughter.
