This is a transcription of the Lucy A. (Ricker) Small 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 171.
Lucy A. (Ricker) Small
MRS. SMALL presents a signal instance of the sterling qualities of the genuine daughter of the Granite state. She was born in Alton, November 12, 1837, of parents descended from the early settlers, and from soldiers of the Revolution. She has been married twice; first to George Jones, who died in 1864, at Hilton Head, S. C., while acting as wagon master in the Fourth Regiment, N. H. Vols., leaving one son, who resides with his mother in a charming home in Farmington; and second to Edmund B. Small, formerly of Maine, and a veteran of the Civil War. Mr. Small suffered from the effects of army life, and died in 1887, to the regret of a wide circle of friends. Mrs. Small conducts an extensive business in millinery and fancy goods, and also has charge of the imposing Small block, with its stores and public halls. With home duties always first, she has been not only an excellent daughter and sister, a conscientious wife and mother, a generous and loyal friend, and an enterprising woman of business, but has been prominent in various beneficent orders, and is a charter member in nearly all to which she belongs. She has served as state superintendent of work with soldiers and sailors in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; as grand vice templar in the Good Templars; upon the executive board of the Woman’s Relief Corps in the Department of New Hampshire, and has been the junior and senior vice-president of the organization, although refusing absolutely to become president, and has been a delegate to the national encampment, beside filling various other positions. She acts as past noble grand in the degree staff of the Daughters of Rebekah, and for five years has been the mistress of exchequer in the supreme assembly of the Pythian Sisterhood, whose gatherings she has attended in distant cities. In the performing of her many duties Mrs. Small is dignified and earnest, giving to them a sagacious and devoted attention.