Emma Abbott
Professor Errani. In 1870 she began to study with
him, and was engaged to sing in Dr. Chapin's
church at a salary of $1,500 a year. In 1872 Mr.
Lake, with the aid of Dr. Chapin's congregation,
raised $10,000 to send her to Europe for musical
training. She went to Milan and studied with San
Giovanni, and afterwards to Paris, where she studied
under Wartel for several years. She studied with
Delle Sadie also. While in Paris, she suffered an
illness that threatened the destruction of her voice.
She made a successful début, however, and she had
there a warm friend in the Baroness Rothschild.
Numerous enticing offers were made to her by
European managers. She made an engagement
with Manager Gye in London, but refused, on
moral grounds, to appear in the opera, "La Traviata." In this she was supported by Eugene
Wetherell, her husband. He was a member of Dr.
Chapin's church and had followed her to Europe,
where they were secretly married. Her refusal to
sing that rôle ended in the cancellation of her
engagement with Mr. Gye. In 1876 she returned
to the United States, and with C. D. Hess organized
an opera company. She appeared in the Park
Theater, Brooklyn, N. Y, in her famous rôle of
Marguerite. Soon after she became her own
manager, and her husband and Charles Pratt
attended to her business until Mr. Wetherell's
sudden death in Denver, Col., in 1888. Miss
Abbott, for she always retained her maiden name,
was successful from the start. In spite of abuse,
ridicule and misrepresentation, she drew large audiences wherever she appeared. The critics at first
derided her in every possible way, but the public
did not heed the critics and crowded to hear the
courageous little woman who could maintain her
good temper under a shower of ridicule, the like of
which never before fell upon the head of a public
personage. She grew artistically every year, and
her stainless character, her generosity to her company, her gifts to charity, and her industry and
perseverance at length won over the critics, who
had simply made manifest their inability to write
down a really meritorious artist. Miss Abbott sang
throughout the United States, and in an incredibly
short time she had amassed a fortune of several
millions of dollars. Her voice was a pure, clear,
long-range soprano of great flexibility. Her
rôles included Norma, Semiramide, Elvira,
Martha, Lucia, and Marguerite, and in her last
years she appeared in costumes more magnificent than any other singer had ever worn. She
died in Ogden, Utah, 4th January, 1891, after an
illness of less than a week. Her funeral was held
in Chicago on 9th January, her body was cremated, in accordance with a provision of her will,
and its ashes were deposited in the magnificent
mausoleum she had built in Gloucester, Mass.
Her large fortune was divided by her will among
her relatives and friends, and various churches
and charitable societies.
Sarah C. Acheson.
ACHESON, Mrs. Sarah C., temperance worker, born in Washington. Pa., 20th February, 1844. She is descended on the paternal side from English and Dutch families that settled in Virginia in 1600, and on the maternal side from Col. George Morgan, who had charge of Indian affairs under Washington, with headquarters at Fort Pitt, and of whom Jefferson, in a letter which Mrs. Acheson has in her possession, says, "He first gave me
notice of the mad project of that day," meaning the Aaron Burr treason. Among her ancestors were Col. William-Duane, of Philadelphia, editor of the Philadelphia "Aurora" during the Revolution. Her girlhood was spent in the town of her birth, where she was married, in 1863, to Capt. Acheson, of the same place, then on Gen. Miles's staff, the marriage taking place while the Captain was on furlough with a gunshot wound in the face. He left for the front ten days after, encouraged by
