This is a transcription of the Frances (Stewart) Mosher 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 143.
Harriet (Bates) Perkins
MR. MOSES AND MRS. ELIZA (PERKINS) BATES were among the most notable residents of Great Falls, where on Sept. 10, 1847, was born Harriet, the youngest of their talented children. She was educated in the public schools and by private tuition, and, showing in childhood a marked talent for music, she was given careful training in instrumental and vocal branches, one of her teachers in singing for several years having been Madame Rametti of Boston. In 1870 Miss Bates married Edgar B. LeGro, a captain in the Second Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, who had served for four years in the Civil War, and died in 1879. One daughter, Edith Maude, graduated recently from the Boston University, was the fruit of the union. On Nov. 10, 1892, Mrs. LeGro married the Hon. Albert A. Perkins, president of the Great Falls National bank and treasurer of the Somersworth Savings bank. Mrs. Perkins has been always actively interested in church work, and has held many responsible positions in beneficent bodies. She is president of the Strafford County W. C. T. U., secretary of the local union, has been a delegate-at-large to national conventions of the society, and is president of the Dover District Missionary association, giving the aid of her talents to all good works. She has kept in touch also with the world of art and literature, and was for several years a member of the Browning club of Boston. It is in daily intimacy with people that their characteristics are learned most thoroughly, for this reason the words of one familiar with the life of Mrs. Perkins have a special weight: “She was a girl of very sweet disposition, and became early a Christian. Well known in musical, literary, and philanthropic circles, she has been not less a devoted wife and mother, and in her late marriage to a man of position and wealth she finds increased opportunities for usefulness, instead of living in idle ease. Her chief charm lies not so much in her attractive person as in the fact that she studies to do good and to make happy every one about her.”