WHITCHER, Frances Miriam, author, born in Whitestown, Oneida County, New York, 1 November, 1811; died there, 4 January, 1852. She was the daughter of Lewis Berry. While only two years old, and ignorant of the alphabet, she learned to recite long pieces of poetry, and she began very early to make rhymes, one of her earliest efforts being a parody on' "My Mother." She was educated in the village schools, and in 1846 became a contributor to "Neal's Saturday Gazette." She sent to the latter publication many poems, and "Widow Bedott's Table-Talk," her best-known work: and to "Godey's Lady's Book Aunt Maguire" and "Letters from Timberville." She also wrote for other journals. On 6 January, 1847, she married the Reverend Benjamin W. Whitcher, a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal church, and in the following spring she removed with her husband to Elmira, New York While Mrs. Whitcher was at the height of her fame as a humorous author, and while her writings were everywhere in demand, she was assailed with vituperation and personal insult by those who fancied that they had unwittingly served as models for her sketches. So high ran the tide of angry feeling in Elmira that it soon became apparent that Mr. Whitcher's usefulness as a clergyman would find fewer obstacles in some other parish. In the autumn of 1850 Mrs. Whitcher returned to Whites-town, and soon afterward she began to suffer severely from the disease that caused her death. Before leaving Elmira she had begun the story of "Mary Elmer," and continued it in her old home, but died before it was completed. In addition to her literary ability, Mrs. Whitcher was a clever caricaturist, and illustrated the "Table Talk" when it first appeared in the "Gazette." After her death her writings were collected in two volumes: "The Widow Bedott Papers, with an Introduction by Alice B. Neal" (New York, 1855), and "Widow Spriggins, Mary Elmer, and Other Sketches, by Mrs. F. M. Whitcher; Edited, with Memoir, by Mrs. M. L. Ward Whitcher" (1867).