Erskine, Emma Payne [1]
Erskine, Emma Payne
By Richard Walser, 1986
10 May 1853–4 Mar. 1924
[2]Emma Payne Erskine, writer, painter, and civic leader, was born in Racine, Wis., the daughter of Alfred and Olive Child Payne. Her father, a native of England, was a portraitist and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago [3]. Through her mother, she was a tenth-generation American. Emma was educated at home. On 8 Apr. 1873, she married Charles Edwin Erskine, a musician and gardener. Their children were Alfred, Harold, Ralph, Violet (Mrs. Macdermid Parish-Watson), Malcolm, and Susan (Mrs. Carroll Pickens Rogers). The Erskines first went to Tryon, N.C., in 1885 with their three small sons and fell in love with the region; in 1895 they moved permanently to Lynncote, their home built of native stone designed by the architect of Biltmore Village [4]. They participated wholeheartedly in community affairs, and Lynncote became a center of civic and artistic activity. He was interested in providing schools and churches. She was energetic in building up the Lanier Library [5], meanwhile clearing and donating the land for Tryon's golf club. She painted dozens of landscapes and "portraits of old ex-slaves still living in the vicinity." Of her seven books, three are works of fiction set in the North Carolina mountains: When the Gates Lift Up Their Heads (1901) [6]; The Mountain Girl (1912) [7]; and her best known, A Girl of the Blue Ridge (1915) [8]. The last two went through many reprintings. Iona, a Lay of Ancient Greece (1888) [9]and The Harper & the King's Horse (1905) [10] are books of poems. The other novels are The Eye of Dread (1913) [11] and Joyful Heatherby (1913) [12].
Charles Erskine died in July 1908. Nine years later Emma married Cecil Corwin in August 1917. In her later years she was president of the Holly Hills Co., a real estate [13] concern engaged in designing and building homes on land she owned. She was an Episcopalian and a Republican. She was buried in Racine. Her son Ralph married Barbara Peattie, daughter of her close friend, the Tryon writer Elia W. Peattie [14]. An oil portrait of Emma Erskine, painted by her father, is a family possession.
Asheville Citizen , 8 Mar. 1924; Sadie S. Patton, Sketches of Polk County History (1950)
Mrs. C. P. Rogers to Richard Walser, letter, 29 Mar. 1974
Who's Who in America , 1920–21
Additional Resources:
Booth, Hilliard. "A Visit to the Home of Payne Erskine." Sky-Land 1, no. 11 (January 1915). 730-733. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/sky-land-1915-january-v.1-no.-11/501914 [15] https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/sky-land-1915-january-v.1-no.-11/501914 [15] (accessed April 4, 2013).
Image Credits:
"The Mountain Girl, by Emma Payne Erskine." Available from https://archive.org/details/mountaingirl00ersk [7] (accessed April 13, 2012).
"Where Payne Erskine's Novels Are Written," Photograph. Sky-Land 1, no. 11 (January 1915). 732. North Carolina Digital Collections. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/sky-land-1915-january-v.1-no.-11/501914 [15] https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/sky-land-1915-january-v.1-no.-11/501914 [15] (accessed April 4, 2013).
1 January 1986 | Walser, Richard