Born: 15 December 1856, United States
Died: 6 September 1931
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Ella Sturtevant
The following is republished with permission from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History at Case Western Reserve University.
WEBB, ELLA STURTEVANT (15 Dec.1856-6 Sept. 1931), writer, helped compile the 3-volume Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve (1896-1924) and served as recording secretary of the Women’s Department of the Cleveland Centennial Commission (1896). She wrote for publications such as Leisure Hours (Philadelphia). Webb was born in Cleveland—at the present site of the Terminal Tower—to Ezra and Louisa Park Sturtevant, pioneer settlers of the WESTERN RESERVE. She was educated in public schools and took an extension course at Columbia University. Webb was active in professional organizations, as treasurer of the Ohio Women’s Press Club and later secretary to the CLEVELAND WRITERS CLUB. She also belonged to the New England Society of Cleveland and the Western Reserve, the CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, and the WOMEN’S CITY CLUB OF CLEVELAND.
On 4 April 1876 Webb married Chandler L. Webb, who worked for the Lake Shore Railroad. They lived in Cleveland with their daughter, Louise (Mrs. Charles Lester) Bryant.
The following is excerpted from A Woman of the Century, edited by Frances E. Willard and Mary A Livermore, published in 1893 by Charles Wells Moulton.
WEBB, Mrs. Ella Sturtevant, author, born in Cleveland, Ohio, 15th December, 1856. Her early years were spent in the country home of her grandparents, her father, Ezra Sturtevant, having died shortly after the birth of his only child. Possessed of a vivid imagination, she eagerly devoured the few story books which came in her way, and lived in a world of her own, peopled by characters which seemed quite as real as the men and women about her. She early learned to look at life through the eyes of others. Warm sympathies and an inborn sense of justice were strengthened by every tale of wrong, and the combined impressions of those early days resulted in an earnest purpose to be of use to humanity. Her first story was written under a pen-name for a Chicago child’s magazine, but most of her work has been upon domestic topics, in the treatment of which she is particularly successful. Her bright handling of commonplace themes has made her a welcome contributor to the “Homemaker” and “Good Housekeeping.” and other household journals. She has been Tor two years upon the regular staff of ” Leisure Hours.” She is a member of the Ohio Woman’s Press Club. She is the wife of Chandler L. Webb, of Cleveland, Ohio, and the mother of one daughter. Extremely conscientious concerning her own home duties, she has made literary ambition subservient to daily household demands, and the work of her pen must be judged by quality rather than quantity.