# Woman of the Century/Emma Scarr Booth

​BOOTH, Mrs. Emma Scarr, author, born in Hull, England, 25th April, 1835.' From her earliest childhood she had a passionate love of the beautiful in nature. This was fostered by her father, who often took her with him on long rambles EMMA SCARR BOOTH. through the flower-bedecked country lanes outside of the noisy town. When nine years old, her parents emigrated with their little family of three children, two daughters and a son, to America. The ​father, wishing to try farm life, purchased a farm in the township of North Royalton, near Cleveland, Ohio, being induced to settle there by an older brother, who had left England ten years before. At the age of twenty-two years Miss Scarr was married to a young Englishman residing in Twinsburgh, Ohio, and, shortly afterwards, began to contribute occasionally to some of the periodicals of the day under various pen-names. At a later period verses appeared under her own name. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War her brother enlisted in the Union Army, and soon after the battle of Shiloh, in which he fought, died of disease brought on by the hardships and exposure of a soldier's life. His death was succeeded by that of the older sister, a few months later. Emma's husband throughout all the dark years of war had been very outspoken in his denunciation of the secession project and all those favoring it, thus making enemies of certain secret sympathizers in the neighborhood. A few days preceding the date of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, while the family were on a visit to her parents, some twenty miles distant, a friend came post-haste on horseback from Twinsburgh to inform them that their house, together with all its contents, had been reduced to ashes during the night. Not an article was saved, since no one save the incendiary had witnessed the burning. Then came the news of the President's murder, and to her depressed mind all the world seemed going to "wreck and ruin," especially when, nine weeks later, her husband's mills with their entire contents were fired and totally destroyed. As none of the property had been insured, this misfortune reduced the formerly well-to-do pair to comparative poverty, and soon afterward they left the town, removing to Painesville, Ohio. There the wife obtained some needlework, while the husband went to the oil regions near Titusville, Pa., where he found employment. There, under the influence of lawless associates, he forgot his duties as a husband, and the result was a final separation a few years later. Meanwhile, Emma had removed to Cleveland, Ohio, and there supported herself by teaching music, not wishing to become dependent upon her parents, who had, however, kindly offered her a home with them. Some time later her parents sold their farm and went to reside in Cleveland, in order to be near their daughter. After the father's death, in 1872, Emma took up her abode with her mother, still continuing to give music lessons. In 1873 she was married again. Her second husband was an American Her home since that time has been in Cleveland Three years ago she went alone to Europe, among other places visiting the haunts of her childhood. Since her return she has become much intererested in all movements for the advancement of women Mrs. Booth has published three volumes in book form, "Karan Kringle's Journal (Philadelphia, 1885), "A Willful Heiress" Buffalo, 1892), and "Poems" (Buffalo, 1892). She has composed songs and Instrumental pieces, which have been published.