Esther Nelson Karn (August 1860 – April 13, 1936) was an American poet and business owner, based in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

Early life

Esther (or Hester) Nelson was born in

New Philadelphia, Ohio New Philadelphia is a city in and the county seat of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States. The county's largest city, New Philadelphia lies along the Tuscarawas River. The population was 17,677 at the 2020 census. It is a principal city in the ...

, and raised in

DeKalb County, Indiana DeKalb County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 43,265. The county seat is Auburn. History On 7 February 1835, the Indiana State Legislature passed an omnibus bill that authorized t ...

, the daughter of Hugh Nelson and Lucinda Davis Nelson. She trained to teach at Hicksville High School. She also attended courses at the Detroit School of Journalism and the De Silva School of Oratory in Fort Wayne.

Career

Nelson taught briefly before she married. After she married, she worked as a bookkeeper, and wrote poetry. "The authoress is thoroughly conversant with the ways of nature and has the pleasing faculty of creating within the reader a mood essential to the fullest enjoyment of her theme," according to one reviewer in 1925. She gave public readings of her poems, sometimes with musical accompaniment, and was a member of the Order of Bookfellows, a Chicago-based writers' organization. She also wrote song lyrics. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, she wrote topical lyrics about defeating the

Kaiser ''Kaiser'' is the German word for "emperor" (female Kaiserin). In general, the German title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (''König''). In English, the (untranslated) word ''Kaiser'' is mainly ap ...

. In widowhood after 1904, and after her brother and business partner died in the

Spanish flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

in 1919, she continued to run the family's piano store and sheet music business in Fort Wayne, into the early 1930s.

Publications

* ''Snow-Flakes'' (1900) * ''Violets'' (1904) * ''Wild Roses'' (1915) * ''Lure of the Wilds'' (1925)

Personal life

In 1882, Esther Nelson married Samuel A. Karn, who was a sales representative for a musical instrument manufacturer. They moved to Fort Wayne and opened a music store. The S. A. Karn Music Company was incorporated as a business in 1902, with Esther Karn as one of the directors. Her husband died in 1904. She died in a hospital in

Allen County, Indiana Allen County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 385,410, making it the third-most populous county in Indiana. The county seat and largest city is Fort Wayne, the second largest city in Indiana. ...

in 1936, from cancer, at the age of 75.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karn, Esther Nelson 1860 births 1936 deaths American women poets Writers from Fort Wayne, Indiana People from New Philadelphia, Ohio