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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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