Laura Dayton Fessenden (, Dayton; December 29, 1852 – May 11, 1924) was an American author of romances and other books between 1878 and 1923. She was a contributor to magazines and a writer of songs. She was the founder of the Highland Park Woman's Club. Before marriage, she wrote as Laura C. S. Dayton.

Early life and education

Laura Canfield Spencer Dayton was born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, December 29, 1852. Her parents were Abram Child Dayton (author of ''Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York'') and Maria Annis (Tomlinson) Dayton. Her brother, Charles Willoughby Dayton, was Justice of the

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

. She also grew up with two other brothers, William Adams Dayton and Harold Child Dayton. There were four siblings who died at birth (or in babyhood), Maria Annis Dayton, John Canfield Dayton, Theodore Edwin Dayton, and Cornelia Blow Dayton. Her ancestors came to the United States in the ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...

''. Fessenden received her education at St. Mary's Hall (now,

Doane Academy Doane Academy is a coeducational, independent day school for grades from Pre-K to 12 located in Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. Originally called St. Mary's Hall, it was founded in May 1837 by Episcopal Bishop George ...

Burlington, New Jersey Burlington is a city in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 9,743. Burlington was first incorporated on October 24, 1693, and was r ...

Career

Fessenden was a

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

of various papers. She represented ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'' at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, 1893. She was the author of ''Beth'', 1878; ''Essie A Romance in Rhyme'', 1878; ''A Puritan Lover'', 1887; ''A Colonial Dame'', 1897; ''Chronicle of a Branch of the Dayton Family'', 1902; ''Moon Children of the Dayton Family'', 1902; and ''2002, Child Life 100 Years from Now''. Besides books, poems, and magazine articles, she wrote many songs for children, composing much of the music herself. Two of her works were

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

for children: ''Moon Children'' describes an inhabited

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

and ''2002'' is set in a

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

future world, including technological advancements, a female US president,

world peace World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would ...

, and contact with a

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pred ...

civilization. During the Harding campaign, Fessenden originated the

drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th cent ...

meetings held all over the country and spoke at many of them. She was a member of the

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

(D.A.R.) and served as regent,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

chapter, 1903). She was also a member of the Illinois Society of the Colonial Dames of America, Fortnightly of Chicago, Highland Park Woman's Club, Chicago Woman's Club,

Order of the Founders and Patriots of America The Order of the Founders and Patriots of America (OFPA) is a non-profit, hereditary organization based in the United States that is dedicated to promoting patriotism and preserving historical records of the first colonists and their descendants. ...

, Ossoli Club (Chicago), and the Antiquarian Society.

Personal life

In 1880, she married Benjamin Arthur Fessenden (1848-1917). They removed to Chicago three years later. He was involved with planning

Highland Park, Illinois Highland Park is a suburban city located in the southeastern part of Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,176. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located o ...

. Their children were: Aymar Child, Alice Hyde (married Lieut. Robert Gray Peck), Ben Hurd, and Dorothy Dayton. In religion, she was Episcopalian. Fessenden resided in Highland Park at the family home, "Happiegoluckie". She died May 11, 1924, at the Belden Hotel, Chicago, where she had been spending the winter with family.

Selected works

As Laura C. S. Dayton

* ''Beth'', 1878 * ''Essie A Romance in Rhyme'', 1878

As Laura Dayton Fessenden

* ''A Puritan Lover'', 1887 * ''A colonial dame : a pen-picture of colonial days and ways'', 1897 * ''Bonnie MacKirby : An International Episode'', 1898 * ''Songs that the Children sing. A Collection of six Solos and two Operettas'', 1901 (with Victoria Adams Barber) * ''Chronicle of a Branch of the Dayton Family'', 1902 * ''Moon Children'', 1902 (with R. J. Campbell) * ''"2002" : childlife one hundred years from now'', 1902 (with R. J. Campbell) * ''Hatsu, a story of Egypt'', 1904 * ''Kaskaskia: a tale of border warfare in Illinois.'', 1905 * ''The white witch of Salem town'', 1923

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fessenden, Laura Dayton 1852 births 1924 deaths Writers from Manhattan 19th-century American writers 20th-century American writers 19th-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American composers Organization founders Daughters of the American Revolution people Colonial Dames of America Doane Academy alumni