Kate Brownlee Sherwood

Kate Brownlee Sherwood
Born Katharine Margaret Brownlee
September 24, 1841/September 25, 1841 (disputed)
Mahoning County, Ohio or Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania (disputed)
Died February 15, 1914 (aged 72)
Washington, D.C.
Occupation Poet, journalist, and translator
Education Poland Union Seminary
Spouse Isaac R. Sherwood
Signature

Kate Brownlee Sherwood (September 24, 1841 – February 15, 1914) was a 19th-century American poet, journalist, and translator from Ohio, also known as a story writer, philanthropist, patron of art and literature.[1] She was the founder of the Woman's Relief Corps and served as its second president. She is best known as the author of army lyrics and poems written for the celebration of military occasions.[2]

She was the author of: Camp-Fire and Memorial Poems (1885); Dreams of the Ages; a Poem of Columbia (1893); The Memorial of the Flowers (1888), and Guarding the Flags (1890).[3] Helen Louisa Bostwick Bird and Alice Williams Brotherton were contemporary poets from Ohio.[4]

Her memorial poem, Albert Sidney Johnston, was written by Sherwood at the invitation of the Executive Committee for the Unveiling Ceremonies of the General Albert Sidney Johnston Equestrian Statue, held under the auspices of the Army of the Tennessee Louisiana Division (Ex-Confederate) at New Orleans.

Early years and education

Katharine Margaret Brownlee was born in either Mahoning County, Ohio or Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania) on either September 24, 1841 or September 25, 1841).[3][5]

She was a daughter of Judge James and Rebecca (née Mullen) Brownlee of Poland, Ohio; granddaughter of Alexander and Margaret (née Smith) Brownlee and of George and Katharine (née Hammer) Mullen and a descendant of James and Margaret (née Craig) Brownlee, who came to America in 1800.

James Brownlee Sr. was the Laird of Torfoot, in the parish of Avondale, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and his grandson, James, was successor, by inheritance; but he chose America and emigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1828, and settled in Trumbull County, Ohio, and became associate judge of the third judicial district of which it was a part.[3] She was educated in Poland Union Seminary.[5]

Career

Isaac and Kate Sherwood
"Camp-Fire, Memorial-Day, and Other Poems"

Journalist

On September 1, 1859,[6] at the age of 18,[7] she married Isaac R. Sherwood, afterwards General, Secretary of state and Congressman from Ohio. The general was the editor of the Canton, Ohio Daily News-Democrat, and attracted to journalism, she learned everything in the line of newspaper work from typesetting to leader-writing. While the husband was in Congress, Sherman served as Washington correspondent for Ohio journals.[5] In 1883, General Sherwood became the sole proprietor of the Toledo Journal]]; Kate Sherwood assisted in the editorial management of the paper, until 1886, when Condict C. Packard and E. J. Tippett purchased the establishment.[8] For 10 years, she edited the woman's department of the soldier organ, the National Tribune of Washington D.C. Her career as a journalist and society woman was varied and busy. She was one of the first members of the Washington Literary Club, and the Sorosis of New York City; she also served as vice-president for Ohio in the first call for a national congress of women.[5]

In the spring of 1885, she published "Camp Fire and Memorial Poems," a volume of recitations for Grand Army camp fires, which was widely read, and some of the poems were translated into German;[7] it passed through several editions.[5] She was the chosen singer for many national celebratioans, including army reunions, and in 1887, was the only northern poet ever invited by ex-Confederates to celebrate the heroism of a southern soldier. The broad, liberal and delicate manner in which she responded to that significant honor in her poem at the unveiling of the equestrian statue of Albert Sidney Johnston, in New Orleans, Louisiana, elicited praise.[5] "Mission Ridge" was an account of the bravery and death of a drummer boy. "A Soldier's Retrospect" reminisced after the Civil War. "The Men who Wore the Shield" was a spirited patriotic address.[9] "The Drummer Boy of Mission Ridge" was an account of the bravery and death of a drummer boy.[10] Having studied French and German, Sherwood's translations of Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , and Friedrich von Bodenstedt were widely copied.[5]

Social reformer

Sherwood was the organizer of the first auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic outside of New England, and was a founder in 1883 of the national association known as the Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic. She served that order as the first National Senior Vice-President and the second National President (1884–85),[11] organized the department of relief and instituted the National Home for Army Nurses, in Geneva, Ohio.

Personal life

Sherwood was a lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church. She made her home in Canton,[5] but died at her home in Washington, D.C. on February 15, 1914, aged 72.[12] Their son, James Brownlee Sherwood, was associated with the father in the publishing business.[6] Their daughter was Lenore Sherwood.[13]

Albert Sidney Johnston memorial poem

Albert Sidney Johnston Equestrian Statue

Albert Sidney Johnston was a memorial poem, written by Sherwood at the invitation of the Executive Committee for the Unveiling Ceremonies of the General Albert Sidney Johnston Equestrian Statue, held under the auspices of the Army of the Tennessee, Louisiana Division (Ex-Confederate) at New Orleans, April 6, 1887, 25th Anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh and of General Johnston's death. Sherwood received the following letter:[14]

At the unveiling of the equestrian statue to General Albert Sidney Johnston, April 6, 1887, in the city of New Orleans, on the memorial day of the association of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, your poem, sent us from your Northern home, a graceful tribute to him and our heroic dead, was read to an appreciative and admiring throng. In grateful response, the Association returns, with its greeting, its accompanying badge. The center bears the Confederate Cross, and the Pelican is of metal taken from a rivet of the statue itself. As "Peace hath her victories no less than War", we join heart with hand in reciprocating the cordial and fraternal sentiments set in those sweet and stirring strains, in which a woman's true soul, giving all honor to the knightly men and the gallant deeds on either side, in that "Great war that made ambition virtue", commemorates in charming numbers our day of reunion when veterans of the Blue and the Gray met. "But not as rivals, nor as foes, as brothers reconciled. To twine love's fragrant roses where the thorns of hate grew wild." We greet you in your own fitting words: "Our Country's Future. One heart, one hope, one destiny, one flag from sea to sea."

Selected works

Dream of the Ages
  • nd, Washington's birthday. Program for school children ... With national songs ...
  • 1878, Poem written by Kate M. Sherwood, for Forsyth Post, No. 15, G.A.R. (Decoration Day,) Thursday, May 30th, 1878
  • 1884, The Great Army. Written for the Grand Encampment Camp-fire, Grand Army of the Republic, at Minneapolis, July 22nd, 1884, and delivered by Elizabeth Mansfield Irving, Toledo, Ohio
  • 1885, Camp-fire, Memorial-day, and other poems
  • 1887, Memorial poem
  • 1890, Lucy Webb Hayes
  • 1890, Tableaux of states and ritual for teaching patriotism in the public schools : issued for co-operation with the patriotic teachers of America, to inculcate the principles of patriotism in the risign generation : and dedicated to commemorate the adoption of the American flag, June 14, 1777
  • 1890, The Massachusetts woman : dedicated to my first Massachusetts associates in National Relief Corps work, E. Florence Barker, Sarah E. Fuller and Lizabeth A. Turner, and to the Relief Corps of Massachusetts
  • 1893, Dream of the ages : a poem of Columbia, by Kate Brownlee Sherwood ... Original drawings ... by J.E. Kelly and George W. Breck
  • 1894, Circumstances, 1894
  • n.d., The Guard of States
  • n.d., We Keep Memorial Day

References

  1. ↑ Moulton 1891, p. 21.
  2. ↑ Stevens & Stevens 1917, p. 115.
  3. 1 2 3 Johnson & Brown 1904, p. 368.
  4. ↑ Bond 1943, p. 447.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 653.
  6. 1 2 White 1899, p. 153.
  7. 1 2 Crawford 1889, pp. 95-96.
  8. ↑ Scribner 1910, p. 333.
  9. ↑ Music Teachers National Association 1901, p. 547.
  10. ↑ Werner 1899, p. 23.
  11. ↑ Woman's Relief Corps (U.S.) 1914, p. 229-231.
  12. ↑ Woman's Relief Corps (U.S.) 1914, pp. 229-31.
  13. ↑ "Kate Brownlee Sherwood (1841-1914)". Riverside Cemetery Journal. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  14. ↑ Moulton 1891, p. 131-32.

Attribution

  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Crawford, Jack (1889). The Poet Scout: A Book of Song and Story (Public domain ed.). Burr printing house.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans ... (Public domain ed.). Biographical Society.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Moulton, Charles Wells (1891). The Magazine of Poetry (Public domain ed.). Charles Wells Moulton.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Music Teachers National Association (1901). Werner's Magazine: A Magazine of Expression. 26 (Public domain ed.). Chicago: Werner's Magazine Company.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Scribner, Harvey (1910). Memoirs of Lucas County and the City of Toledo : From the earliest hist. times down to the present, incl. a geneal. and biogr. record of representative families (Public domain ed.). Madison, Wiscconsin: Western Historical Association. ISBN 978-5-87795-998-9.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stevens, Mrs. Ruth Frances (Davis); Stevens, David Harrison (1917). American Patriotic Prose and Verse (Public domain ed.). A.C. McClurg & Company.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Werner, Edgar S. (1899). Werner's Magazine. 23 (Public domain ed.). E.S. Werner.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: White, J. T. (1899). The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time (Public domain ed.). J.T. White.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Woman's Relief Corps (U.S.) (1914). Journal of the ... National Convention of the Woman's Relief Corps (Public domain ed.). Griffith Stillings.

Bibliography

  • Bond, Beverley Waugh (1943). The history of the state of Ohio. Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.
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