Essie B. Cheesborough

Esther ("Essie") Blythe Cheesborough was born in Charleston, South Carolina, 1826.[3] Her father was John W. Cheesborough, a prominent shipping merchant of Charleston, South Carolina. Her mother, Elera, was a native of Liverpool, England.[4] She had two brothers and two sisters.[3]

Cheesborough was educated by private tutors in Philadelphia and in her native city, Charleston.[4][3]

She commenced her literary career at an early age, writing under the pen names of "Motte Hall", "Elma South", "Ide Delmar", and the initials of "E. B. C."[4][5]

She was a regular contributor to the Southern Literary Gazette, published in Charleston, and edited by the Rev. William C. Richards ; and when Mr. Paul Hayne assumed the editorship, she continued her contributions. She was also a contributor to Russell's Magazine, and to various other Southern literary journals, including Land we Love.[4]

After the civil war, she was a regular tributor to the Watchman, a weekly journal, edited and published in New York City by the Rev. Dr. Charles Deems, of North Carolina, with which journal she was connected until its discontinuance.[4] She also contributed to Family Journal, Wood's Household Magazine, and Demorest's.[6]

Cheesborough's style was characterized as fluent and easy. She did not pander to the sensational, but was natural, truthful, and earnest, never egotistical, or guilty of "fine writing". She never published a book, although her writings on various subjects, political, literary, and religious, would fill several volumes.[4]

Cheesborough died at her home in Charleston, December 29, 1905.[2]