Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/24

Rh over the pen-name "Florence Percy." Her verses were received with marked favor and were widely copied. Her earliest verses, written when she was only twelve years old, were sent without knowledge to a Vermont paper, which promptly published them. In 1847 she began to publish over her own name. In 1855 she became assistant editor of the Portland, Maine, "Transcript." In 1856 she published her first volume of poetry, "Forest Buds from the Woods of Maine." The volume was a success financially, and she was able to go to Europe, where she spent some time in Italy, France and Germany. In 1860 she was married to her first husband, Paul Akers, the sculptor, a native of Maine. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., in the spring of 1861, at the age of thirty-five years, just as a brilliant career was opening to him. Their only child, Gertrude, died shortly afterwards, and Mrs. Akers, after rallying from a long mental and physical prostration, returned to Portland and took her old situation in the "Transcript" office. In 1863 she received an appointment in the War Office in Washington, D. C., at the suggestion of the late Senator Fessenden. She was in Ford's Theater on the night of President Lincoln's assassination. In 1866 she brought out her second volume of verse, "Poems by Elizabeth Akers," which was successful. In the fall of 1866 she was married to E. M. Allen, and went with him to Richmond, Va. While living in that city there arose the famous discussion of the authorship of her poem, "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother." That now celebrated poem was written by Mrs. Allen, in 1859, and sent from Rome to the Philadelphia "Post," and that journal published it in 1860. In 1872 her husband engaged in business in New York City. After making their home in Ridgewood. N. J., for several years, she has recently removed to New York, and is engaged in literary work. She is a member of Sorosis.

ALLEN, Mrs. Esther Lavilla, author, born in Ithaca, N. Y., 28th May, 1834. While she was was a child, her parents removed to Ypsilanti, Mich., where her youth was passed, and she was educated in the seminary of that town. In 1851 she was married, and for the past few years her home has been in Hillsdale, Mich. She wrote verses in her youth but study first and then domestic cares occupied her attention. She began her literary career in earnest in 1870, when her powers were fully matured. She wrote stories, sketches and poems for publication, and her productions were of that character which insures wide copying. She contributed to the "Ladies' Repository," the "Masonic Magazine," the "Chicago Interior," the "Advance," the "Northwestern Christian Advocate" and other prominent periodicals. Much of her work has been devoted to temperance and missionary' lines but she writes countless poems for all kinds of occasions. Besides her work as a writer, she is a fine reader and she has often read her poetical productions in public, mainly before college societies. Recently she has done less of this work. Mrs. Allen has never collected her productions, although there are enough of them to fill a number cf volumes. At present she is engaged in literary work of a high order.

ALLEN, Mrs. Esther Saville, author, born in Honeoye, Ontario county, N. Y., 11th December, 1837. Her parents were Joseph and Esther Redfern Saville, natives of England. Her father was a man of refined literary taste and well cultivated, as is shown by his contributions to British journals of his time. Mrs. Allen at an early age gave proof of a strong and ready mind and a passion for letters. Both were fostered by her appreciative father, whose criticism and counsel gave her mind a proper impetus and direction. Before she was ten years old she made her first public effort in a poem, which was published. At the age of twelve