Emily Chubbuck Judson papers

Emily Chubbuck Judson ("Fanny Forester"), author, was born in Eaton, New York, August 22, 1817. Her parents were in poor circumstances, and before she was twelve years old, she worked in a woolen mill in the summer and attended the district school in the winter. She rose up early to work and sat up late to study, and when only fifteen became a teacher in the Utica Female Seminary.

She had already begun to write prose and verse. For her first book, "Charles Linn," she received fifty one dollars. She wrote a number of books for children, which were published by the Baptist publishing house, and in four years, she was able, from the proceeds of her industry, to settle her parents in a comfortable home.

In June 1844, while on a visit to New York, she wrote a light sketch for the "New York Mirror," under the name of "Fanny Forester," which at once attracted attention; and encourages by the praise of the editor, she contributed to the magazine a series of brilliant sketches, which were afterward collected and published in the two volumes bearing the title of "Alderbrook." This was her name for Morrisville, her beautiful native place.

On the return of Dr. Judson in 1846, Miss Chubbuck, at his request, wrote a "Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Sarah B. Judson," and in the same year they were married and in June they went out to Burma together.

Soon after Dr. Judson's death in 1850, she returned to the United States, and the rest of her brief life was filled with literary work. Her health soon began to fail and she died June 1, 1854 at Hamilton Madison County, New York.