Emily St. John Bouton, Educator and Journalist

Emily St. John Bouton was the daughter of Daniel Bouton and Almina St. John. Born in Connecticut in 1837, Emily moved with her family to Sandusky as a young girl. Her brother Charles would one day become Mayor of Sandusky. Emily was in the very first graduating class of Sandusky High School in 1855. (She went by the first name of Emma at the time of her graduation.)
After graduation Emily taught school in Milan, Tiffin, and Toledo. From 1879 to 1907, she was the literary and household editor of the Toledo Blade. She contributed a waffle recipe to The Woman Suffrage Cook Book. In the late nineteenth century, Emily S. Bouton wrote books about etiquette, health and beauty. She was well respected as a writer and literary critic. Her works are in the Ohioana Collection and several university libraries. In a collective biography entitled American Women the authors wrote that Emily S. Bouton had “an almost unlimited capacity for work.”

Emily S. Bouton’s obituary appeared in the February 10, 1927 issue of the Sandusky Register. At the time of her death, she had been the oldest living graduate of Sandusky High School.
See Ohio Authors and Their Books to read brief sketches about Emily S. Bouton and hundreds of Ohio noteworthy authors.

For similar stories about Sandusky authors, come to the library's program, Sandusky's 19th and early 20th Century authors, on Saturday, April 19, at 2PM.