Sewall, Mrs. Colby and Mrs. Harper. She had decided also to have at
this time a family reunion, and for many weeks had been writing far and
wide to the Anthonys, the Laphams, the Reads and the Richardsons,
bidding all come to Adams on the 29th of July, and as a result the "Old
Hive" swarmed as it never had done, even in the early days. She went on
a week ahead and joined forces with her cousin, Mrs. Fannie Bates, who
lived in the house. Albert Anthony, another cousin and near neighbor,
put himself, his horses and vehicles at their service; other relatives
came to their assistance, beds were set up, provisions laid in; and for
a week fifteen people picnicked in the old homestead. The overflow was
received in the hospitable homes of other relatives in the neighborhood,
and even Hotel Greylock, in the village, was pressed into service to
entertain the guests, who came from Kansas, Illinois, New York,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire and other States.

The suffrage committee meetings were held during several days and
evenings preceding the Historical Society celebration. It was a picture
always to be remembered, that group of distinguished women, standing at
the very head of the greatest progressive movement of the age, gathered
in serious conclave in those old-fashioned, low-ceiled rooms built over
a century ago, concocting schemes which would have filled their Quaker
owners with holy horror. It seemed almost as if they would come back
from the dim past to ask what it all meant. And yet, when one recalled
that the Quakers never commanded their women to keep silence in the
meeting house, but recognized their full equality there and elsewhere,
and stood for liberty in a world given over to religious and political
tyranny, it seemed indeed most fitting that the representatives of this
great association for securing freedom to all, should come together
under the roof of one of these old Friends. One felt as if the ancient
door-latch should lift, and Aunt Hannah, the wise and gentle Quaker
preacher, should glide in and take her seat among these other women whom
the Spirit also had moved. But the most remarkable feature of this
unique occasion was that the woman presiding over the deliberations of
this body of reformers, should have carried on her childish games in
this very room, seventy-five years before, and listened with awe to
parents and grandparents as they discussed the burning questions of
intemperance, slavery a