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Here is a question for our readers: Who was Miss Annie E. Wilson?
We know a few things about her, and there is still much that we do not know. Perhaps some of our readers can enlarge our understanding of this late 19th and early 20th century Presbyterian author. Let’s start with what we know so far.
Along with Isabella M. Leyburn Ritner, Wilson co-edited (and contributed various articles to) Electra: A Belles Lettres Monthly For Young People in 1883-1884. That volume notes:
Miss Wilson is the grand-daughter of the late Professor S.B. Wilson, D.D., of Union Theological Seminary, Va., and Miss Leyburn is the daughter of the late Rev. Geo. W. Leyburn, who laid down his life in mission service in Greece.
She was a prolific writer. From 1883-1915 we have compiled at least 12 separate published writings by her, and we know of additional works by her as well. She was educational works for youth, historical fiction, articles, short stories and more.
She lived in Louisville, Kentucky, and it is thought that she worked as a Presbyterian Sunday School teacher there.
She is identified by various sources as Anneliza Carruthers Wilson. Annie E. Wilson was the pen name under which she published. Sometimes she has been referred to as Ann Eliza Carruthers Wilson.
From the introduction to Webs of War in White and Black, it would appear that she was teaching near Farmville, Virginia around 1913.
T.C. Johnson, in his 1897 review in the Union Seminary Magazine of Wilson’s True Story of a Jewish Maiden (not yet available on LCP), described her work as “a useful gift” to the church. The Presbyterian and Reformed Review for January 1900 described her 1898 volume titled The Family Altar as encompassing “some wise instructions as to the management of household worship.”
We do not yet know when and where she was born or died or is buried, despite extensive ancestral research. We are hoping that a reader may yet provide that information to us. We are also lacking a picture of Anneliza Carruthers Wilson, aka Miss Annie E. Wilson. But we do have her signature.
Meanwhile, take a look at her page at Log College Press and peruse the works by her which we have assembled thus far. She was a gifted writer with a heart for educating the young especially, helping families, and for the conversion of unbelievers to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. A number of her books have been reprinted in the modern era. We are thankful to know her, and hope to get to know her better.
