View source for Lelia P. Roby

{{Short description|American philanthropist}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Lelia P. Roby
| image         = LELIA P. ROBY A woman of the century (page 627 crop).jpg
| alt           =
| caption       = "[[A Woman of the Century]]"
| birth_name    = Lelia P. Foster
| birth_date    = December 25, 1848
| birth_place   = [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date    = September 18, 1910
| death_place   = [[South Chicago, Chicago|South Chicago]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| other_names   = "Miles Standish"
| occupation    = {{hlist|philanthropist|organizational founder|writer}}
| known_for     = founder, [[Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic]].
| notable_works = ''Heart Beats of the Republic''
}}
'''Lelia P. Roby''' ({{nee}}, '''Foster'''; [[pen name]], '''Miles Standish'''; December 25, 1848 – September 18, 1910) was an American philanthropist of the [[long nineteenth century]]. She was the founder of the [[Grand Army of the Republic#Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic|Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic]]. Thoroughly educated, she was a connoisseur in architecture and art, a linguist, and a well-read lawyer. She did a good deal of literary work under the pen-name "Miles Standish".<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893">{{cite book |last1=Willard |first1=Frances Elizabeth |author1-link=Frances Willard |last2=Livermore |first2=Mary Ashton Rice |author2-link=Mary Livermore |title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Lelia_P._Roby |year=1893 |page=617 |publisher=[[Charles Wells Moulton]] |chapter=ROBY, Mrs. Lelia P.}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
==Early life==
Lelia P. Foster was born in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], December 25, 1848.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> Her parents were Captain Thomas Foster, of [[Plymouth, Massachusetts]], and Catherine (Fenn) Foster.<ref name="DAR-1908">{{cite book |author1=Daughters of the American Revolution |title=Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution |date=1908 |publisher=Daughters of the American Revolution |page=55 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S2UZAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA55 |access-date=4 October 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref> Her father and grandfather were clergymen and [[Slavery in the United States|anti-slavery]] agitators. She was descended from [[Priscilla Alden|Priscilla Mullens]] and [[John Alden]], of the ''[[Mayflower]]'' [[Plymouth Colony|Colony]]. Among her ancestors were many [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary]] soldiers.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" />
==Career==
Roby always felt a deep interest in the soldiers who fought in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. She was a regent of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] (DAR).<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" />
On June 12, 1886, in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], where she lived, she founded the order of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, which started with 25 members, and by 1893, numbered about 15,000 mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of soldiers and sailors who served in the civil war of 1861–65. The members of that order pledged to assist the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] in works of charity, to extend needful aid to members in sickness and distress, to aid sick soldiers, sailors and marines, to look after soldiers' orphan's homes, to see that the children obtained proper situations when they left the homes, to watch the schools, and see to it that the children received proper education in the history of the country and in patriotism. She secured many pensions for soldiers and in countless ways worked for the good of the survivors of the war. Her activities covered a wide range. She had the care and oversight of supplying the soldiers' homes with books, magazines and periodicals; she visited the homes in various parts of the country and looked after the comfort of the old soldiers, and if there were special legislation needed to right their wrongs or give them additional comforts, she went to the State legislatures or to [[Washington, D.C.]] to secure such enactment.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> Through her efforts, a memorial day was set apart in the schools for the reading of histories and stories of the civil war in preparation for Decoration Day itself.<ref name="Logan-1912" />
[[File:Lilia P. Foster Roby (The Building of a Monument, 1903).png|thumb|(1903)]]
She was one of four women selected by the [[Chicago Board of Education ]] to represent them before the [[Illinois General Assembly|legislature of the State]] to help pass the compulsory education bill. It was passed, for a large majority of the legislators were old soldiers, and the fact that Roby was their friend made voting for a measure she advocated an acceptable duty.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" />
She was the only woman member of the [[Lincoln Guard of Honor]] of [[Springfield, Illinois]], and an honorary-member of the Lincoln Guard of Honor of [[California]], an honor conferred on her "for her many acts of devotion to his memory," through Gen. [[William Tecumseh Sherman]].<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" />
She was a member of the Chicago Academy of Science; member, Nineteenth Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry; member, Society for the Advancement of Women; and member, American Society of Authors. She also served as president, South Side Study Club of Chicago; and vice-president, Woman's National Press Association of Washington for Illinois.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" />
Roby did a good deal of literary work under the pen-name "Miles Standish".<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> She published a large volume entitled ''Heart Beats of the Republic''.<ref name="Logan-1912">{{cite book |last1=Logan |first1=Mrs John A. |title=The Part Taken by Women in American History |date=1912 |publisher=Perry-Nalle Publishing Company |pages=375–76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hnIEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA375 |access-date=4 October 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
==Personal life==
She married General Edward Roby, a constitutional lawyer of Chicago.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> They had two sons, Edward and Charles.<ref name="CT-19sep1910" />
After an illness of six months, Lelia Roby died at her residence in [[South Chicago, Chicago|South Chicago]], Illinois, September 18, 1910.<ref name="CT-19sep1910">{{cite news |title=OBITUARY: Lelia (Mrs. Edward) Roby |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110681980/obituary-lelia-mrs-edward-roby/ |access-date=4 October 2022 |work=Chicago Tribune |via=Newspapers.com |date=19 September 1910 |pages=9 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
==Selected works==
* ''Heart Beats of the Republic''
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==External links==
* {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Lelia P. Roby}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Lelia P. Roby}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=xLaKDUMu9loC&pg=PA599 Lelia P. Roby ''et al.'' v. Louisa Murphy. (1889)] at ''Reports of Cases Determined in the Appellate Courts of Illinois'', Volume 31, By Illinois. Appellate Court (Chicago: Callaghan & Company, 1890)
{{Portal|Biography}}
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[[Category:1848 births]]
[[Category:1910 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American writers]]
[[Category:19th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:Daughters of the American Revolution people]]
[[Category:19th-century American philanthropists]]
[[Category:American founders]]
[[Category:American women founders]]
[[Category:People from Boston]]
[[Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century]]
[[Category:19th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous women writers]]
[[Category:Clubwomen]]
[[Category:Grand Army of the Republic]]
[[Category:People from Chicago]]