Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Ruth M. Griswold Pealer

 

Ruth M. Griswold Pealer, genealogist of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was born in Dansville, Steuben County, New Jersey, daughter of Hubbard Griswold, one of the pioneers of western New York, a descendant through an unbroken male line from Edward Griswold, of Kenilworth, England, who settled in Connecticut in 1639.

In early life Ruth Griswold was a student at the Rogersville Union Seminary, near her home, and spent a year at the seminary in Dansville, Livingston County, New York. At the age of seventeen she became a teacher in a country school, which occupation she followed until her marriage in 1869 to Philip J. Greene, who was also a teacher of Dansville, N. Y. He died in 1883, leaving her with one son. In 1881 Mrs. Pealer, then Mrs. Greene, was a member of the faculty of the Rogerville Union Seminary as teacher of music. During this period she was also active in grange work of her county.

In 1885 she married Peter Perry Pealer, of South Dansville, NewYork, who in 1890 was a member of the New York State legislature from the first district of Steuben, and later received an appointment as chief of a division in the Government Printing Office, Washington D. C. Previous to her removal to Washington,

Mrs. Peeler had taken an active part in club work and musical circles, having been one of the organizers and president of the literary club in South Dansville. This club was instrumental in securing a free library for the town. Soon after her removal to Washington she became a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and joined "Continental Chapter," of which she became recording secretary. At the Daughters of the American Revolution Congress of 1902, she was elected registrar-general, and re-elected in 1903. In the fall of 1903 she resigned and was elected genealogist of the National Society, which position she still holds.

Mrs. Pealer is also the national registrar of the Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America, serving her fifth term. She is a past-president of the Woman's National Press Association and a past-secretary-general of the National Auxiliary, United Spanish War Veterans, an organization which she assisted in forming soon after the close of the Spanish-American War. For two years she was president of the first auxiliary formed, "Mary A. Babcock, of Washington, D. C

Work for temperance has also appealed strongly to her and for three years she was president of the West End Union Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Washington, and for years has been the superintendent of the Press on the State Executive Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She is a member of the Washington Colony of New England Women and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star in Canaseraga, New York.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.

 

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