On this day in 1818, woman's rights pioneer Lucy Stone was born on a farm in West Brookfield. Her mother greeted the news that her sixth child was a girl by exclaiming, "Oh Dear! I am so sorry it is a girl. A woman's lot is so hard." Lucy Stone would dedicate her life to improving a woman's lot. She defied her father and insisted on attending Oberlin College, becoming one of the very first Massachusetts women to earn a college degree. She continued to defy convention by becoming a public lecturer. She traveled the state — and later the country — giving powerful speeches against slavery and for woman's rights. She lived to see the emancipation of enslaved people but died 30 years before the enfranchisement of American women.