Anonymous

“ Probably there has never been any one in Colorado Springs with so many enforced absences and the same limitations of strength who has done as much as she in enriching individual lives with friendship and the community life with sympathy and generous material aid. Nothing that she counted a duty sat lightly on her mind or conscience.
Miss Ellen T. Brinley, who was for many years a friend and neighbor of Mrs. Bemis, wrote shortly after her death: "She was a real New Englander of a type all too rare in these degenerate days. ”

“ Among the memories of the past nine years to those who have enjoyed that little theatre, none is happier than that of seeing the faces of two very dear friends following each word and movement on the stage, laughing at times till the tears came, and giving over and over their entire approval of the existence of the theatre, with no further protest against its name. ”

“ Mrs. Bemis had much pleasure in following every step in the development of this work, while careful to disclaim any credit for its success, again not [Pg 40] thinking what her encouragement and coöperation meant to both husband and son. But they and all her children pay her full tribute for the stimulus of example and for the sympathy shown in every good work to which they put their hands.
This woman of many noble traits was especially endowed with the rare gift of loyal and understanding friendship. ”

“ Bemis was in the eighth generation, through the son William, and from him also was descended Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the fifth generation. We cannot well follow here the descendants of the other children of John and Elizabeth Cogswell, but certain it is that in each of the generations to the present day we find many well-educated men and women of character, with a strong sense of their obligations as citizens, all doing good work for the world in various lines of activity. ”

“ Bemis—whose generosity, to the college is there made known only in part—seemed to give them pleasure, and no one else will ever cross its threshold who can receive just the kind of welcome they always found awaiting them. ”

“ That the young should have their chance in life and that the paths of the needy should be made more easy, became increasingly the object of her life. Colorado College and the Young Women's Christian Association were the two organizations in Colorado Springs whose welfare she had most at heart, and for them she was constantly devising liberal things. ”

“ When, after a year, she was able to return to Colorado Springs, she was very happy to be again in her home, and the old life among friends was resumed as always, quickly and happily.
Birthdays and wedding anniversaries were gala days in the family, especially Mr. Bemis's birthday, when there was always a large dinner party with intimate friends added to the family group. Fun and abounding cheer were invariably among the good things provided. ”

“ Bemis's home was in Newton for eleven years, and during that time it was the centre for the family connection in New England and for many friends. It was always rich in association for themselves and family, and was made rich in the same way for many others. ”

“ Her outspoken nature and uncompromising mind often made her draw hard and fast lines in no unmistakable way as to conduct that met her approval or condemnation, but she asked no one to come up to any standard higher than she had laid down for herself. She wanted above all things to be just, and few people are so essentially just as she was. ”

“ Many students of Colorado College are personally indebted to her for the removal of obstacles in the way of the successful prosecution of their work in which her interest was vital and perennial. A story of genuine need never failed to elicit her assistance. Of her general constructive planning for the many-sided life of the young women, Bemis Hall and Cogswell Theatre are enduring evidence. ”

“ In 1904 came the third break in the family circle, when Mrs. Par [Pg 24] sons with her beautiful little girl, Alice Loraine, nearly three years old, the first granddaughter in the family, was visiting her grandparents in Colorado Springs. No child could have been more tenderly loved and cared for than she, but nothing could avert the fatal illness that developed soon after their arrival.
During the years that followed her going west, Mrs. Bemis spent only one summer there. For several successive seasons she went with her children to Minnetonka in Minnesota ”

“ Her interest not only in the beauty of the world about her but in what others are doing to make it bring forth and bud for the good of mankind is shown over and over: "Alice is happy," she writes, "to have the weather warmer for her garden. ”

“ His success did not come by accident, or by any so-called good fortune, but as the result of patience and perseverance, steadily following the principles and the rules he laid down for himself very early in life. He speaks with gratitude of the fact that he had to learn by force of circumstances "the blessedness of drudgery and the value of time and money in his long hours of work and in the closest practice of economy." ”

“ Together they carried out their ideals in the new town of Bemis. The operators were those known in the south as poor whites. The opening of the mill gave to these people an undreamed of opportunity to earn money. It also offered to them a great privilege and at the same time a possibility of great danger. The privilege was that of being able for the first time in their lives to command money and to use it so that it would make them better and happier ”

“ The resolutions passed by its executive board at the time of her death so adequately express her relation to the Society that they are here quoted in full:
"The Executive Board of the Women's Educational Society wishes to place on record its sense of irreparable loss in the passing of Alice Cogswell Bemis.
"Her association with the work of the Society has extended over a long period of years, and her part in it has always been characterized by fidelity to the purpose of the organization and keen discrimination in the execution of the trust. ”

“ Bemis has told us that he was doing from one-half to two-thirds of a man's work on the farm when he was twelve years old, the year in which his wife was born into the well-established life of a fine old New England town, rich for her in all the inheritances that seven generations gave ”

“ For many years she was not very strong, and yet she was one of the least self-indulgent people that ever lived. Wealth to her was not a reason for luxury and pleasure seeking, but an opportunity for helping others—with a lack of ostentation characteristic of her whole nature. ”

“ Her pleasure in the building was great, and in expressing this pleasure she always seemed only to be commending the Association for having it. Her part in it seemed nothing to her. "Others [Pg 36] have had to do all the work," she would say if her gift was mentioned.
When Bemis Hall, the main residence for girls at Colorado College, was being built, it was found that by excavating under the dining-room there would be space for a theatre, in which the students could give plays and various college meetings might be held. This was done, and the room was named Cogswell Theatre in her honor. ”

“ They contain few allusions to her own discomforts, but abound in sympathy for any that have come to those to whom she is writing; they show how her happiness never depended on anything that she might obtain for herself, while she magnifies whatever others do for her. ”

“ Often with an apology lest she might seem to intrude, she learned if friends, and sometimes mere acquaintances and even strangers, needed assistance at a time when she knew an emergency had come to them, and often asked others to be the means of meeting such needs, not letting it be known whence the help came. ”

“ I want you to read them, for I don't think that any of us realize how brave these poor students are, and really they are the ones whom we hear of later; the rich men's sons fall short in some way."
Mrs. Bemis was one of a group of women who, in the spring of 1889, organized the Women's Education Society of Colorado College. ”

“ They knew that it offered more for themselves, and what was far more important to them, for their children, than they could ever have in their present surroundings. When they made the great change they knew well the dangers and difficulties that must be met on the journey when taken under the most favorable conditions. ”

“ Bemis's early years is the familiar one of that type of western pioneer to whom the whole country is deeply indebted. He was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on May 18, 1833, of parents who had all the best inheritance to give their children, but few material possessions. ”

“ So with boys and girls; if their characters are moulded in truth, mortised and keyed together with obedience to God and man, when they become men and women they will withstand the environment of bad persons and escape unscathed. Hence their young lives, founded on the bedrock of Christian characters, are well qualified to work out their own destiny and make their lives whatever they will."
[Pg 19]
Mr. and Mrs. Bemis were married at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George B. Roberts, in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, on November 21, 1866, and went directly to their new home in St. ”

“ The settlers of Ipswich at once appreciated these newcomers, and the municipal records show that liberal grants of land were made to John Cogswell. Among them was one spoken of as "Three hundred acres of land at the further Chebokoe," which later was incorporated as a part of Essex. Here in 1636 their permanent home was built, and here, covering a period of over two hundred and fifty years, their descendants cultivated the land. The Cogswells had brought with them several farm and household servants, as well as valuable furniture, farming implements, and considerable money. ”

“ Both these possibilities were foreseen in the first plans for the town, and provision was made for the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of the people that would as far as possible avert the danger. A social worker was engaged to live as a friend among the people, and a church, school, and library were provided for them. ”

“ For example: "I have told Mrs. Gregg about my plan for a trip for Gregg and herself and offered [Pg 49] to pay all the expense.... I will enclose a check which you can fill out as I have no idea how much it will cost. At any rate please use it and send Gregg away for a while; it will be a benefit to him to travel and be away from servants. Let him look after himself."
She rarely gives advice, but frequently makes friendly suggestions backed by the material wherewithal necessary to carry them out. "I have been sorry to know that Gregg has been having so much cold ”