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Part of the American
History & Genealogy Project |
Emma Abbott 1850 ~ 1891
Emma Abbott
Born in Chicago in 1850. Her father
being a music teacher encouraged her musical gift and gave her
lessons on the guitar and in singing. At the age of thirteen she
taught the guitar with success. Her education was acquired in
the public schools of Peoria, Illinois. At sixteen she joined
the Lombard Concert Company of Chicago and traveled with them
through Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, but at the end of the
tour found herself friendless and moneyless. She then undertook
a tour by herself and with a guitar she started out alone and
gave concerts in Michigan and other states finally reaching New
York City, where she gave concerts in the hotel parlors to meet
her expenses, but she failed to gain any notice and returned to
Chicago discouraged by her failure.
She gave a concert in Toledo, Ohio, to recuperate her fortune,
and at this concert as a guest was Clara Louise Kellogg, who,
recognizing Miss Abbott's merit, gave her money enough to go to
New York with a letter to Professor Errani. In 1870 she began
her lessons. Under this noted teacher and filled an engagement
to sing in the choir of Dr. Chapin's church, for which she
received fifteen hundred dollars a year.
In 1872, the congregation of this church raised ten thousand
dollars to send her to Europe. She went to Milan and studied
with San Giovanni, afterwards to Paris and studied under Wartel,
also with Delle Sadie, making a successful debut, and during her
stay had gained the friendship of Baroness Rothschild. She
married Eugene Wetherell, who was a member of Dr. Chapin's
church, and had followed her to Europe, where they were secretly
married. On her return to the United States in 1876, she
organized an opera company with C D. Hess, appearing in the
famous role of Marguerite at the Park Theatre in Brooklyn, New
York. She gained in public admiration constantly and ultimately
amassed a large fortune. She is among the first famous American
singers, and we can well be proud of her as a woman and an
artist. She died in Ogden Utah, January 4, 1891.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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