Martha Perry Lowe

Mrs. Martha Perry Lowe was born at Keene, N.H., Nov. 21, 1829. Her maiden name was Martha A. Perry. Her parents, Justus and Hannah (Wood) Perry, both died when she was about thirteen years of age. A few years later a sister and brother were also taken from her by death. Soon after these repeated trials and sorrows, she accompanied her remaining brother and sister to the West Indies, where together they passed a winter. Subsequently she went to Europe with her sister, and spent several months in Spain where her brother was serving as Secretary of Legation. She was married, Sept. 16, 1S57, to Rev. Charles Lowe, whose pure and lovely character, strong Christian faith and saintly spirit, and earnest and indefatigable labors as the minister of several of the Unitarian churches, as Secretary of the Unitarian Association, and finally as editor of the "Unitarian Review," have embalmed him for ever in the grateful and affectionate remembrance of the communion from which he has so recently been called to the higher service. Not long after her marriage, Mrs. Lowe published a volume of poems, entitled "The Olive and the Pine," the words being typical of scenes in Spain and New England, which she contrasted in her verses. Several years afterward she published a second volume, "Love in Spain, and other Poems," containing a lyric drama of diplomatic and social life in that country, and also some pieces that had appeared from time to time during the late war in our own land. In 1871 she accompanied her husband and two children to Europe, where she corresponded regularly with the "Liberal Christian," on subjects that were connected with the advancement of a broader religious faith in the Old World. She returned to America with her family in 1873, resides in Somerville, Mass., where she has had her home for the last fifteen years, or since her husband was settled over the Unitarian Church there in 1859.

--Putnam, Alfred P. (1875). Songs and Singers of the Liberal Faith. Boston: Roberts Brothers.