This is a transcription of the Florence (Runnells) Bryant 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 123.
Florence (Runnells) Bryant
FEW young women in New Hampshire or the country have made a record in scholarship equal to that of Florence Runnells, eldest daughter of Daniel F. and Sarah Farley Runnells of Nashua. Born in that city, March 20, 1863, she attended the public schools, passing over the intermediate grades from the primary to the fourth grammar, entering the high school at twelve years of age and graduating at sixteen, the valedictorian of the class and receiving the Noyes medal for highest record in scholarship and deportment for the four years’ course. She entered Wellesley college, upon examination, with the class of 1879, being the first Nashua student at that institution, and completed the classical course, graduating B. A. in June, 1883, at twenty years of age. During her thirteen years of school attendance, she never missed a recitation, nor was she once absent or tardy—-thanks to an active mind, good health, and a vigorous constitution. For two years after graduation she studied vocal music in Boston and the French language at home, with private tutors. Subsequently for three years she taught classes in Greek, French, history, and literature in the Nashua high school, and assisted private pupils in fitting for college. July 18, 1888, she married Edward F. Bryant, a native of Woburn, Mass., manager of the Pullman Loan and Savings bank at Pullman, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, where she has since resided. While in Nashua she was prominent in society and in charitable work, and was an active member of the well-known literary organization, the “Fortnightly Club,” of which she was also a secretary for several years. Her interest in these lines is continued in her present home where she is a member of the Chicago Wellesley club, Inter-collegiate Alumnae association, and the History and Art club of Pullman, and is also a member of the Plymouth Congregational church of Chicago-—Dr. F. W. Gunsaulus, pastor,–and interested in its charitable and benevolent work. She has two children, Donald Runnells and Dorothea Frances.