Her long life was passed in a most eventful period of the world’s history, and especially of that portion of the world in which we are most deeply interested. She was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the 22nd of February, 1765. Her life more than spanned the entire era of our national existence up to the time of her death. Born the year of that celebrated act which first decisively shaped the popular sentiments that eventually led to our independence, when the war of the revolution broke out she was a girl of ten years, and when it ended a young lady of seventeen. During this eventful struggle her brother, John Pierce, was the paymaster-general of our forces, obtaining the appointment through the personal solicitations of the commander-in-chief himself, who being assured of both his ability and his integrity put forth special, and to him unusual efforts to secure his election to this important post. He held the office throughout the war; discharging its duties so as to meet the approbation of Washington, and to receive from the representatives of the people a vote of thanks with the commendation that he had so fulfilled his trust that “his heart was pure, and his hands were clean.” His name I believe has no place in our formal histories, but it lives in the letters of Washington. The wife of this brother, was a daughter of Dr. Bard, an eminent physician of New York, and the medical attendant of our commander-in-chief during his residence in that city. In consequence of these connections, Mrs. Croswell, then Miss Ruth Pierce and twenty two years of age, witnessed by invitation the inauguration of Washington as the first President of the United States. She remembered vividly to her last days the majestic form of that man on whom so many and such vast hopes then centered, as he stepped forth upon the balcony of the old Federal Hall in New York, [which stood where the Custom House now stands], and after the enthusiastic shouts of the immense crowd that welcomed him were at last silenced, took the solemn oath to faithfully administer the constitution and the laws of these United States. Subsequently, while on a visit to New York, she was invited to take tea with the family of the President. He was at the time severely, and it was feared dangerously sick, and she remembered how Dr. Bard came down from his patient’s room with a grave and anxious face, and while they were seated at the table, told them what the President had said to him a few moments before. His disease was the quinsy. Irving, in his Life of Washington, speaks of the attack and the anxiety it caused, and this the more because it occurred so near the commencement of the first term of his administration. Washington, knowing the danger of suffocation, turned to his physician and said, “Doctor, if I am to die do not hesitate to tell me. I am quite prepared. If it be the will of God I am ready to fall asleep, and in this world never wake again.”