Larcom, Lucy, teacher and poet, was born at Beverly, Mass., in 1826. Her father died while she was still young and she became a factory girl at Lowell. She formed the acquaintance of John G. Whittier, the poet, who encouraged her in her literary efforts, and she contributed a number of articles to the local papers. About 1846 she went to Illinois with a married sister and attended for a time the seminary at Monticello. Then she taught a term of school, after which she went back to Norton, Mass., where she taught for six years in a seminary. When Dr. Thomas H. Webb offered a prize of $50 for the best poem on Kansas Miss Larcom won over 88 competitors. Her poem was entitled "The Call to Kansas," a copy of which was sent by the author, in her own handwriting, to F. G. Adams, secretary of the Kansas Historical Society, in Jan., 1891, and is now in the archives of the society. Miss Larcom died in the city of Boston, Mass., April 17, 1893.