Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Mattie Curl Dennis
When Mrs. Mattie Curl Dennis passed away one more name was added to the list of honored dead whose earthly records closed with the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” but as long as memory remains to those who knew her the influence of her noble life will remain as a source of encouragement and inspiration. “Our echoes roll from soul to soul,” and the good we do lives after us through all ages, handed down from generation to generation. Who then can measure the results of a life work, and especially such a life work as that of Mrs. Dennis? To the uplifting of humanity her best energies were ever devoted. With unerring judgment she recognized the “spark of divinity” in each individual and endeavored to fan it into the flame of righteousness. Not to condemn but to aid, she made the practice of her life, and the work is better and brighter for her having lived. But though the voice is stilled in death, the spirit of her worth and work remains as the deep undercurrent of a mighty stream, noiseless but irresistible. Her influence was as the delicate fragrance of a flower to those who had the pleasure of her friendship. Her sympathies were broad, and quietly yet strongly she called forth the best in one, ennobling all by her own Christian character. Her life was beautiful in its purity, goodness and Christian virtues, and her memory will long remain as a blessed benediction to all who knew her.
Mattie Curl Dennis was a native of Parke county, Indiana. In the public schools she acquired her early education, and then began teaching in the district schools of her native county. Desirous of acquiring more advanced education, she subsequently attended Bloomingdale Academy, then entered the Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, and in 1874 was graduated at the Indiana State Normal. Her labors as an educator were most acceptable and satisfactory. She taught for twelve years in the district schools, in the city schools of Indianapolis and in the academies at Bloomingdale and Ladoga.
She was married June 2, 1876, to David Worth Dennis, after which they made a trip to the east, visited the Centennial Exposition, in Philadelphia, and then returned to establish their home in Richmond, where she remained from September, 1876, until June, 1879. During this time her only child, William Cullen Dennis, was born, December 22, 1878. On becoming identified with the new community almost her first thought was, how could she assist and be assisted by those with whom she would be thrown in contact, and during her early residence at Richmond she organized and conducted a normal Bible class, taught in the Sunday-school, and studied with a ceramic art club. From 1879 to 1881 she was employed as a teacher in Wilmington College, and within that time organized the Browning Literary Circle, of Wilmington, Ohio, which has ever since maintained its existence. In 1882 she accepted a position as teacher in the Bloomingdale Academy, where she remained until February, 1884, when failing health forced her to seek rest in the south. She passed the months of February, March and April in Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina, and on the 1st of May, 1884, returned to Indiana. From that time until her death she was a resident of Richmond, with the exception of fourteen months spent abroad, and no other woman has exerted so wide an influence upon the social, intellectual and moral life of the city.
Mrs. Dennis was identified with many of the leading clubs of Richmond, and was a member of the Indiana State Reading Circle Board from 1884 until 1889. In the former year she organized a reading circle, which later became known as the Aftermath. She continued her membership therewith until her death, and was its leader until failing health forced her to resign. In 1892 she became a member of the Contemporary Club, of Indianapolis, joined the Tourists’ Club in 1896, became a member of the Variorum at its organization, and was one of the organizers of the North End Literary Society. In all of these she retained her membership until her death and of the last named was leader. She organized the History Class in 1890, was its leader until her death, and was ever untiring in her efforts to promote its advancement. In 1866 she became a member of the missionary Baptist church, and her Christianity was ever of the practical kind which prompts ready assistance for the needy, the promotion of literary culture and the advancement of science and art.
Always quiet and unostentatious in manner, Mrs. Dennis nevertheless left a strong impress of her individuality and beautiful Christian character upon all whom she met. She endeared herself to thousands of pupils, one of whom wrote: “Mrs. Dennis gave me my first real insight into the English language, and what a wonderful study it was! She was so spirit-like, so unlike the world and its ways, that it was an inexpressible pleasure to me to hear her talk of people and things; and after my college days I never passed through Richmond but that I made it a point to call at her delightful home.” Mrs. Dennis loved her pupils and always won their love. She had a singular power in getting work from them; what she said they could not think was trivial, - her lessons must be learned. She could help students find their own powers in a way few others could do. She did this by working with them, by encouraging them to believe in themselves. She never uttered a dogmatic sentence; she treated her pupils as tenderly and considerably as she did her neighbors; and when she came to work in clubs with other ladies and gentlemen her school-room manners were all that she required. She trusted her pupils implicitly, and always believed that this would save them if anything would. In all matters of discipline she sought to control through the understanding, and from within; never by rule or from without.
Mrs. Dennis had an unfeigned love of the beautiful in all forms, in art and in nature. In Dresden, Rom, Florence and Paris the art galleries were her homes, and the masterpieces her personal friends. In literature and history she had a quick eye for the heroic, the beautiful, the true, and the purposeful. In life she saw through the soul of things at a glance, and parted company with insincerity as perhaps the one incurable mischief. She loved the trees; they were beautiful, genuine, restful, always the same. She loved the flowers and gathered them in many lands and climes. She loved the birds as St. Francis loved them. They were not afraid of her; she fed them by hundreds in her yard, and talked to them as thought they could understand, and all summer long they answered her call with a cheer which they seemed to know.
The strength of her life for thirteen years was given to the betterment of women, and she was not long a resident of Richmond before she became an active factor in the organization and promotion of several clubs for the advancement of literary and artistic culture. The Tuesday Aftermath was organized in 1884, and was the inspiration of Mrs. Dennis, whose untiring zeal and unselfish devotion carried it safely through the perils of infancy, as her genius was the guiding star of its later years. During the different winters they studied American authors; spent two years in studying Shakespeare, one year in England and one in Scotland; one year on Russian literature; one year on French literature, and one on German literature. Mrs. Dennis was also the organizer of the History Class of Richmond. Its first meetings were held in the lecture rooms of the Baptist church, but the increase in numbers in attendance was so great that within a few months it was necessary to hold the meetings in the auditorium of the church. There were no tickets nor fee for admission, no limit as to number, age or capacity. The subject first chosen for study was Chaldean history, but Mrs. Dennis did not restrict herself to that alone; she varied the lessons with little moral talks, reading of selections from the poets and by giving quotations to be copied by the class as reference in future work. The subject of art was very early introduced, and has always proved one of the most attractive features. In the second year the subject of Jewish history was taken up, in connection with Christian art, and an excellent stereopticon outfit was purchased for the purpose of illustrating these lectures. Greek history and art have also claimed the attention of the class, followed by a winter's study of Italian his¬tory and the painters and architects of that country. Through all the years Mrs. Dennis was the inspiration of the society; she planned its work and made it one of the most effective organizations in Richmond for intellectual advancement. When abroad in Europe she was not forgetful of her club associations, and frequently wrote letters of the most entertaining character to the Tuesday Aftermath, the History Class and other societies with which she was connected. Her essays and addresses before these clubs were always of the most entertaining character. She possessed high literary ability, and her reading covered the wide realm of science, art, history and classical literature.
It has been said that the soul finds its best and truest expression in poetry, and thus it seemed to Mrs. Dennis. Those things which touched her most deeply often inspired her to set down her thoughts in poetry, and some of her poetic productions deserye to be classed with those of our best American writers. The following was written on the 16th of October, 1894:
The world, all wrapt in summer robes,
Lay hushed in the arms of sleep,
While a presence fair from the depth of air,
Stole by on hurrying feet.
Then the winds sighed low 'neath the star's soft glow
And the flowers bowed down their heads,
While the purple mist, by the moonlight kissed,
Clung close o'er their perfumed beds.
And the forest blushed with a tender grace
When it woke in the morning sun,
But a tear-drop fell on the earth's fair face
For the loss of a something gone.
And thus it is with our human hopes,
When our life has richer grown;
The fair sweet day into autumn slopes,
And the dreams of our youth are flown.
The golden wedding bells chime low In the light of the settling sun;
And so, in the gleam of this afterglow,
Fair autumn, thy race is run.
On presenting a volume of Alice and Phoebe Carey's poems to her hus¬band she wrote on the fly-leaf:
Sometimes the way seems hard and long,
And life seems big with care,
But faith in God and you still strong,
Gives power to do and dare.
And if sometimes a shadow plays,
Across our life's sweet June,
It but awakens holier lays.
And strikes a grander tune.
And so I give this little book,
With woman's wealth of love;
The poets' words their color took
From faith in God above.
Death came suddenly to Mrs. Dennis, and she was thus permitted to continue in the active work of life to the last. No woman in Richmond has ever exerted a broader or more beneficial influence upon the life of the city. The highest tributes of love and respect were paid her. Resolutions were passed by all the organizations and societies with which she was connected, and Richmond mourned the loss of one who was at once friend, teacher, counselor and companion. She has gone to
" Join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again,
In minds made better by their presence."
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899