This is a transcription of the Fanny Elizabeth (Pickering) Minot 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 151.
Fanny Elizabeth (Pickering) Minot
IN the preface to the genealogy of the Pickering family are these words concerning their first American representative: “Many true and distinguished men and accomplished women now living, can claim John Pickering as an ancestor worthy of them.” He went from Massachusetts to Portsmouth (then Strawberry Bank), N. H., as early as 1633, having originally emigrated from England. Fanny Elizabeth Pickering, daughter of Hazen and Martha (Drew) Pickering, was born in Barnstead, but early in life moved with her parents to Concord, where she was educated. She was graduated from the high school in 1865, as valedictorian of her class, and was also valedictorian of the class of ’67 at Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Mass. This was the last class at the seminary taught by Lucy Larcom. Since graduation she has been actively connected with the New England Wheaton Seminary Club. In 1874 Miss Pickering was married to James Minot, a veteran of the 140th New York Volunteers, and cashier of the Mechanicks’ Bank in Concord, the city where they have since resided. Mrs. Minot’s sympathies were early enlisted in the work of the Woman’s Relief Corps, auxiliary to the Grand Army, and when E. E. Sturtevant Relief Corps was organized, she became a charter member, and was its first treasurer, and has also served as president. She was elected president of the Department of New Hampshire in 1893, having previously been department secretary and instituting and installing officer. In the national organization, she has served as assistant inspector, and was a member of the National Executive Board, W. R. C., in 1894-’95. She has been officially identified with various other charitable and missionary organizations, and is much interested in educational and literary matters.