Esther Nelson Karn
Esther Nelson Karn (August 1860 – April 13, 1936) was an American poet and business owner, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Esther Nelson Karn
Photographer not named. · Rice, Alonzo Leora (1908) Some Indiana Writers and Poets (Public domain ed.), Marion: Teachers Journal Printing Company · Public domain
- Name
- Esther Nelson Karn
- Born
- August 1860
- Birthplace
- New Philadelphia, Ohio
- Died
- April 13, 1936
- Place of death
- Allen County, Indiana
- Occupation
- Poet, bookkeeper, businesswoman
- Nationality
- United States
- Education
- Hicksville High School
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Esther Nelson Karn • Born — August 1860 • Birthplace — New Philadelphia, Ohio • Died — April 13, 1936 • Place of death — Allen County, Indiana • Occupation — Poet, bookkeeper, businesswoman
Early life
Early life
Esther (or Hester) Nelson was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and raised in DeKalb County, Indiana, the daughter of Hugh Nelson and Lucinda Davis Nelson. She trained to teach at Hicksville High School. She also attended courses at the Detroit School of Journalism and the De Silva School of Oratory in Fort Wayne.
Career
Career
Nelson taught briefly before she married. After she married, she worked as a bookkeeper, and wrote poetry. "The authoress is thoroughly conversant with the ways of nature and has the pleasing faculty of creating within the reader a mood essential to the fullest enjoyment of her theme," according to one reviewer in 1925. She gave public readings of her poems, sometimes with musical accompaniment, and was a member of the Order of Bookfellows, a Chicago-based writers' organization. She also wrote song lyrics. During World War I, she wrote topical lyrics about defeating the Kaiser. In widowhood after 1904, and after her brother and business partner died in the Spanish flu pandemic in 1919, she continued to run the family's piano store and sheet music business in Fort Wayne, into the early 1930s.
Personal life
Personal life
In 1882, Esther Nelson married Samuel A. Karn, who was a sales representative for a musical instrument manufacturer. They moved to Fort Wayne and opened a music store. The S. A. Karn Music Company was incorporated as a business in 1902, with Esther Karn as one of the directors. Her husband died in 1904. She died in a hospital in Allen County, Indiana in 1936, from cancer, at the age of 75.
Publications
• Snow-Flakes (1900) • Violets (1904) • Wild Roses (1915) • Lure of the Wilds (1925)
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Esther Nelson Karn, revision 1332993589 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Rice, Alonzo Leora. Some Indiana Writers and Poets. Teachers Journal Printing Company. 1908.
- 2.Indiana Authors and their books, 1816-1980. Indiana University Digital Library Program. 175.
- 3.Lure of the Wilds. Forest and Stream. 95. 10. 608. October 1925.
- 4.Esther Nelson Karn's Recital. The Fort Wayne News. 8. 1906-02-10.
- 5.Esther Nelson Karn Recital. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. 22. 1923-06-24.
- 6.Just Ourselves. The Step Ladder. 2. 24, 28. January 1921.
- 7.Music Received. The Editor. 5. 6. 194. June 1897.
- 8.New 'Yankee Doodle'. The Fort Wayne Sentinel. 14. 1918-10-02.
- 9.Former Resident is Dead. The Fort Wayne Sentinel. 11. 1919-11-06.
- 10.S. A. Karn Music Co. The Fort Wayne Sentinel. 11. 1904-10-15.
- 11.Denies Report. The Fort Wayne News. 6. 1914-05-13.
- 12.Karn, Esther Nelson. Snow-Flakes. Project Gutenberg. 1900.
- 13.Library of Congress Copyright Office. Catalogue of Title Entries of Books and Other Articles Entered in the Office of the Register of Copyrights, Library of Congress, at Washington, D.C. 476. 1915.
- 14.Library of Congress, Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Books. 368. 1926.
- 15.Was Long Prominent in the Music Trade. The Fort Wayne Sentinel. 4. 1904-11-17.
- 16.The Karn Music Company Incorporated. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. 1. 1902-05-15.
- 17.Mrs. Karn Dies at 76. The South Bend Tribune. 7. 1936-04-14.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 27 September 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Esther JungreisAuthor
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