Of Revolutionary ancestry and hailing from Michigan, she was founder and regent of the Western Reserve Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), of Cleveland, Ohio; Vice-president General of its National Society; and editor of the National Society's official organ, the American Monthly.

She also served two years as a member of the Cleveland School Board, being the first woman in Ohio chosen to an elective office.

She was its delegate to the conventions of the International League of Press Clubs held at Saint Paul, Minnesota and San Francisco, California.

Col. John Bailey, of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment, was at Bunker Hill and Monmouth, crossed the Delaware with Washington, and was at Horatio Gates's side in the northern campaign which ended in Burgoyne's surrender.

The elder Gad, in 1774, preached an election sermon in which he advocated the cause of the Thirteen Colonies and brought forth the wrath of Gage and the thanks of the Massachusetts General Court.

Samuel Tilden, private from Marshfield, Massachusetts, and member of the Committee of Safety, completes the list of her Revolutionary ancestors.

[7] In 1869, while secretly engaged to Dr. Elroy McKendree Avery, she took over the principalship of the Battle Creek High School, at his recommendation, while he returned to the University of Michigan to complete his degree.

[4] Mrs. Avery was a member of the East End Conversational Club, the oldest literary society for women in the city, serving two terms as president.

[10] She traveled on behalf of the Press Club from New York City to the Golden Gate; her letters, which described the trip, were published in The Cleveland Leader.

Public experience gave Avery a large vision of things, a judgment that was characterized as conservative and rare, and she became a counselor and adviser of women in their efforts to find themselves.

She was a member of the Relief Corps, of Sorosis, of the Federation of Women's Clubs, the Conversational, Art and Social Study, and W. C. T. U. organizations.

We realize, also, that we are sharing the honors which your character and ability have won from the Chapters of the State and from the members of the Continental Congress.

"The box contained a Regent's pin and five gold slides called "ancestral bars," each of which was engraved with the name of a Revolutionary patriot from whom Avery was descended: Colonel John Bailey, Gad Hitchcock, LL.