Representative women of New England/Emma H. Nason
EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON, author and musical composer, is a native of Hallowell, Me., a pleasant town on the Kennebec, which is rich in local and historic interest. She was born August 6, 1845, the daughter of Samuel W. and Sally (Mayo) Huntington. The Huntington family in America, to which her father belonged, was first represented in New England i)y the widow Margaret Huntington, who came from England with her children (her husband having died on the voyage) in 1633, as certified by the church records of Roxbury. This family has counted among its members many distinguished men: one was a signer of the Declaration of Independence: another, one of General Washington's staff: and in Uter generations some of them have been well known as artists, writers, lawyers, and divines.
Mrs. Nason's maternal gi-andfathcr was a lineal descendant of the Rev. John Mayo, who was ordained in 1655 as the first pastor of the Second Church of Boston, where he preached for seventeen years, and who built the old historic Mayo-Mather house on Hanover Street in 1665. Mrs. Nason is also descended in several lines from "Mayflower" Pilgrims anf other ancestors who bore their part in early colonial history.
Emma Huntington (as her name stands on the school catalogues) was educated at the Hallowell Academy and at the Maine Wesleyan College at Kent's Hill, where she was graduated A.B. in 1865, that institution being then the only one in New England which offered a regular college course for women. In 1870 she was married to Mr. Charles H. Nason, of Augusta, an enterprising and successful business man of refined and cultivated tastes.
She began at an early age to write verses. Her first published writings appeared in the Portland Transcript under a pen-name, and consisted of short stories, translations from the German, and verses, which are still favorably noticed. In 1875 she gave the commencement poem before the literary societies of her Alma Mater, and on March 9, 1880, she read an original poem at the dedication of the beautiful building, which was the gift of the citizens of Hallowell to its old and honored institution, the Hallowell Social Library. This large and well-selected collec- tion of books, to which Mrs. Nason had access from childhood, and to the influence of which may be ascribed the literary culture of her native town, she still holds in grateful remembrance. The poem, with the oration delivered at the same time, was published in a dainty souvenir volume.
Her first poem published under her own name was "The Tower," which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, May, 1874, and won ready recognition. Her pen, which since that time has seldom been idle, was busied chiefly for some years with .songs of child life, which appeared at intervals in such magazines as St. Nicholas, Wide Awake, and Our Little Ones. In 1888 these were collected in a volume called "White Sails," a title whose tender fitness is told in its prelude. These verses are familiar in school-rooms throughout the country. One in particular, "The Bravest Boy in Town," tells an incident of the Civil War, and is everywhere a favorite. "The Mission Tea Party" gives a pathetic incident in the siege of Lucknow. "The Bishop's Visit," "A Little Girl Lost," "Unter Den Linden," "Saint Olga's Bell," and the "Battle Song" have been widely copied and used as recitations. It gives Mrs. Nason the greatest pleasure that children have loved and learned her verses.
The Tower, with Legends and Lyrics," was published in 1895 by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and the following comment appeared in the Literary World: "Emma Huntington Nason is one of those who write verses by divine permission. Her poems are not merely personal outpourings of joy or sadness, but they are thoughtful with the insight that looks into others' experiences as her own. ’The Ballad of the Blithe Quartette,’ with its mingled music, the gently swinging ’Slumber Song,’ the dignified ’The Tower,’ which begins the book, and the reverently passionate ’Attainment,' which closes it, are widely different from each other in form as in spirit, but they are all good and true, and we are glad they are ours to read and keep."
The verses "Body and Soul" and "Two Faces" have been pronounced "two of the most remarkable poems published in this country in recent years." The former was selected by Mr. Warner for his "World's Best Literature" and "A Child's Question" was chosen by Mr. Stedman for his American Anthology. Mrs. Nason has done much work for the literary clubs of Maine, having prepared papers on "The Folk-lore of Russia," "The Abenaki Indians," "The Early Balladists and Troubadours of France," and a course of lectures on the "Genius and Love-life of the German Poets." She is an enthusiastic student of German literature, and has published a number of magazine articles on the German poets.
Her talents are not limited to literature alone: she is a musical composer, having done some excellent work, and is active in the musical circles of Augusta. She is also interested in drawing and painting. Her studies in oil have much merit, and she sketches effectively in charcoal from nature. She has written a series of articles on "Ancient Art for Young People."
At Augusta's centennial celebration in 1897 she delivered a poem entitled "Ancient Koussinoc," into which is woven much of the historical and legendary lore of the valley of the Kennebec.
Mrs. Nason is a member of the Society of the Mayflower Descendants and of the Order of the Descendants of Colonial Governors. She has been Regent of the Koussinoc Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Augusta and Vice-Regent of the Maine State Council, D. A. R.
Mr. and Mrs. Nason have one son, Arthur Huntington Nason, who was graduated A.B. from Bowdoin College in 1899, and A.M. pro merito in 1903. He has been a teacher of English in secondary schools, and, since 1903, a graduate student in English at Bowdoin College and at Columbia University. He was joint editor of Songs of Theta of Delta Kappa Epsilob, 1899; and his own publications include A Yule-tide Song and Other Verse, 1901, and pamphlets on English literature and composition 1901-2-3. He was appointed University Fellow in English at Columbia for the year 1904-5.