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Ann, a daughter of John and Rebecca Hasseltine, was born in Bradford, Massachusetts, on December 22, 1789.  The quiet daily life of the simple New England people from whom she sprang, and amongst whom she was brought up, was as beneficial a training for her future career as could have been found for her.  The feverish activity and never-ceasing struggle to be first, which have now taken possession of the American people, were then almost unknown, and the descendants of the Puritan fathers spent their days in peaceful toil.  Most of the New Englanders were engaged in farming or small manufactures, and there was a deeply religious spirit throughout the whole of the Northern States.

Of the early life of Ann Hasseltine we know comparatively little.  Her family was evidently in moderately easy circumstances, and the Hasseltine household was a happy and closely-united one.  The parents, with wise foresight, were careful to give their children as good an education as could be obtained in the neighbourhood, and kept them at school till well advanced in their teens.  Ann was distinguished among her sisters for her gay, joyous, and somewhat emotional temperament.  There was no half-heartedness about her, and whatever she took up she would throw her whole soul into.  As was to be expected in a community where religious matters occupied so prominent a place, the urgent need of a personal faith in Christ was placed before her at an early age.  She could not suppress a vague longing after something, she knew not what; and every now and then her conscience would be aroused, and she would quicken her efforts to be good.

When she was sixteen, affairs reached a crisis.  A series of religious conferences had been held in Bradford during the early months of 1806, and she regularly attended them.  Each meeting deepened the impression on her mind as to the need of a higher life.  Her old amusements seemed now utterly distasteful to her, and the fear of being for ever lost weighed heavily on her soul.  She was invited to a party by an old friend; but her heart was too sad to care for such things, so on the morning of the party she stole off to the house of one of her aunts, who, she thought, might be able to help her in her trouble.  Her aunt spoke seriously to her of the necessity of obtaining salvation while she could, and the poor girl became more downcast than ever.  “I returned home with a bursting heart,” she afterwards said, “fearing that I should lose my impressions with the other scholars, and convinced that if I did so my soul was lost.”

She shut herself in her bedroom, refused to touch any but the plainest food, and for some days pleaded with God for pardon.  Gradually the light came in her soul.  “I began to discover a beauty in the way of salvation by Christ,” she said.  “He appeared to be just such a Saviour as I needed.  I saw how God could be just in saving sinners through Him.  I committed my soul into