Esther T. Housh
{{Short description| American social reformer and editor (1840–1898)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Esther T. Housh
| image = ESTHER T. HOUSH.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Portrait photo from "A Woman of the Century"
| birth_name = Esther Caroline Taylor
| birth_date = {{birth date|1840|10|27|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Ross County, Ohio, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1898|5|7|1840|10|27|mf=y}}
| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| resting_place = Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.
| alma_mater =
| other_names =
| occupation = {{hlist|temperance leader|editor|author}}
| years_active =
| known_for = {{hlist|President, Vermont WCTU|Press superintendent, National WCTU}}
| signature = Esther T. Housh signature.png
| spouse = Frank Housh
| children = 2
}}
Esther T. Housh ({{nee}}, Taylor; October 27, 1840 – May 7, 1898) was a 19th-century American social reformer, author, and newspaper editor. She was the President of the Vermont State Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). While serving as press superintendent of the National WCTU, she instituted the National Bulletin. She was the editor of The Woman's Magazine,{{sfn|Smith|1888|p=628}} as well as the author of many temperance leaflets, and poems.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=394}}
Early life and education
Esther Caroline Taylor was born in Ross County, Ohio, October 27, 1840.{{sfn|Cherrington|1926|p=1253}} She was descended from Scotch and English ancestors. Her grandfather was Col. Robert Stewart, of Ohio, whose home was a station on the Underground Railroad. Her grandmother was the first one of the family to sign the Washingtonian pledge. Her father was a Congregational church minister. Her parents were Isaac Newton Taylor and Margaretta Stewart Taylor. Housh was the second child in a family of eight, and her early days were full of responsibilities.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=394}} Among her siblings were two brothers, Charles N. Taylor and Robert S. Taylor.{{sfn|Herringshaw|1904|p=5}}
In childhood, she became a believer in woman's rights. She received a liberal education, studying Greek and Latin while busy with the work associated with home.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=394}}
Career
At an early age, she married Frank Housh at her grandfather's home, near Champaign, Illinois.{{sfn|Moulton|1892|p=264}} He was the publisher of The Woman's Magazine, and she was the editor.{{sfn|Demorest|1885|p=456}} They had two children, one of whom died in childhood.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=394}} The Woman's Century commenced publication in Louisville, Kentucky in 1877, and was continued by Housh in Brattleboro, Vermont, until 1890.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=394}}
Housh became prominent in the temperance movement. In 1883, she was sent from Brattleboro as a delegate to the Vermont state convention in Randolph, Vermont. She was invited to attend the national convention in Detroit, Michigan, and there, she was elected national press superintendent of the WCTU. She held that position until 1888. She instituted the National Bulletin, which averaged 80,000 copies a year. She wrote special reports and numerous leaflets, some of which reached a sale of 200,000 copies. In the national conventions in Nashville, Tennessee and New York City, she furnished a report to a thousand selected papers. In 1885, she was elected State secretary of the Vermont WCTU, and thereafter had editorial charge of Our Home Guards, the State organ. In 1877, she was elected President of the Vermont State WCTU.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=394}}
In 1890 and 1891, in Boston, Massachusetts, she edited the Household, which had shifted from Brattleboro. In 1891, she returned to Brattleboro.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=394}} In 1892, she removed again to Boston to assist on the Household, and subsequently became editor of Our message, the organ of the Massachusetts WCTU.{{cite news |title=Funeral of Mrs Housh, she was prominent in temperance work for many years.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/430783673/?terms=Esther%2BHoush |access-date=10 March 2019 |work=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Boston Globe |edition=Public domain |date=10 May 1898 |pages=8}}{{open access}} In 1894, she was elected corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts WCTU. She also did literary work while in Boston.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Esther T. Housh |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/116476413/?terms=Esther%2BHoush |access-date=10 March 2019 |work=Newspapers.com |publisher=Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, The Evening News |date=7 December 1894 |pages=7 |edition=Public domain}}{{open access}}
Death
Housh died in Boston, May 7, 1898.{{sfn|Cherrington|1926|p=1253}} Interment was at Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, Indiana.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Esther T. Housh, death in Boston of a former president of the Vermont W. C. T. U. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355376455/?terms=Esther%2BHoush |access-date=10 March 2019 |work=Newspapers.com |publisher=Brattleboro Evening Phoenix |date=10 May 1898 |pages=1 |edition=Public domain}} {{open access}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
=Attribution=
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Demorest|first=W.J.|title=Demorest's Family Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZpdPAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA456|edition=Public domain|volume=21|year=1885|publisher=W.J. Demorest}} }}
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Herringshaw|first=Thomas William|title=Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century: Accurate and Succinct Biographies of Famous Men and Women in All Walks of Life who are Or Have Been the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States Since Its Formation ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xxg7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PR5|edition=Public domain|year=1904|publisher=American Publishers' Association}} }}
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Moulton|first=Charles Wells|title=The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TDc5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA264|edition=Public domain|volume=4|year=1892|publisher=Charles Wells Moulton}} }}
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Smith|first=Eva Munson|title=Woman in Sacred Song: A Library of Hymns, Religious Poems and Sacred Music by Woman : Containing Selections from the Writing of More Than Seven Hundred Authors ... Also Short Biographical Sketches of Many of the Writers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hc8uUagg1ysC&pg=PA628|edition=Public domain|year=1888|publisher=Standard Pub.}} }}
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last1=Willard|first1=Frances Elizabeth|last2=Livermore|first2=Mary Ashton Rice|title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life|chapter=Esther Housh |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Esther_Housh|edition=Public domain|year=1893|publisher=Moulton}} }}
=Bibliography=
- {{cite book|last=Cherrington|first=Ernest Hurst|title=Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=McQcAAAAIAAJ|year=1926|publisher=American Issue Publishing Company}}
External links
- {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Esther Housh}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Esther T. Housh}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Housh, Esther T.}}
Category:19th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:19th-century American women writers
Category:19th-century American newspaper editors
Category:19th-century American newspaper founders
Category:Presidents of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Category:People from Ross County, Ohio
Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century