This is a transcription of the Caroline R. Wendell biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 229.
Caroline R. Wendell
Miss C. R. Wendell has always resided in Dover, the place of her birth. On the paternal side she is of Dutch ancestry, her father, Daniel H. Wendell, Esq., being of the same stock as Wendell Phillips and Oliver Wendell Holmes. The Wendell family is contemporaneous with the old Knickerbocker families of New York, Evert Jansen Wendell, the original ancestor in this country, having emigrated from Holland and settled in Albany about 1640. Her mother, who was a woman of remarkable strength of character, was descended from the English family of Jennings. In early womanhood, Miss Wendell’s life was heavily shadowed by the death of an only brother and sister. The former was a prominent surgeon in the War of the Rebellion, and died a few years after its close from the overwork and exposure of army life. Inheriting a strong love for benevolent and reform movements, Miss Wendell’s life has been a busy one. She is a woman of strong individuality and progressive thought, possessing keen perception and fine executive ability, combined with quick sympathy, broad charity, and a consecrated spirit. For thirteen years she was corresponding secretary of the New Hampshire Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and devoted herself with untiring zeal to the work of the organization, much of its steady and successful growth being due to her efforts. She was chiefly instrumental in securing the passage of the Scientific Temperance School law and has labored earnestly for its enforcement. In 1892 she was elected state president which position she still holds; and she is also president of the trustees of the W.C.T.U. Mercy Home for girls at East Manchester. Miss Wendell is an active member of other philanthropic societies, a thorough believer in equal suffrage and always ready to aid any cause that has for its object not only the advancement of her sex but the betterment of humanity.