_Secretary American Unitarian Association, Boston, Mass._
* * * * *
LEICESTER, Mass, April 10, 1886.
... Her communications made no mention of her infirmities or
illness; and her death was a great surprise. I had become quite
interested in her manner of doing her work; the perfect
intelligence, good sense, and self-reliance she manifested.-----of
Springfield, Ohio, has written to me in the highest appreciation of
her helpfulness to him.... I enclose three of her postal cards,
which, if quite convenient, may come back to me. [On one of these
postal cards Mr. May has indorsed, "Miss Ellis lived but about a
month after this was written. Her death was a great and immediate
loss to the cause of a wise and large Christian faith in the
West."] She was eminently worthy of a special commemoration and
canonization.
Respectfully yours, Samuel J. May.
* * * * *
I have thought of you often since the "Christian Register" brought
the news of Miss Ellis's death, and am moved to express my sympathy
for the loss you have met,--a loss which all of us share indeed. I
suppose it was very good to _her_ to be summoned from a state of
feebleness; but it will not be easy, I believe, to fill the vacant
place. Perhaps her own inspiration will rest upon her successor,
and so she will indeed help to carry on the work which she has done
so beautifully.
I suppose the time will come, some day, when the loss of a good
worker in our Conference will not be felt so seriously as now; but
we are far too few as yet.