Elsie Singmaster(1879-1958)

(Adams County Historical Society)

On Seminary Ridge a stately brick home with green shutters still stands, facing toward town. The Singmaster Center, part of the historic Lutheran Theological Seminary, was once the home of John Singmaster and his family. Of his five children, his only daughter, Elsie, became nationally acclaimed, earning the sobriquet, “Gettysburg’s First Lady of Letters” and “Adams County’s Most Distinguished Daughter.”¹

Elsie was born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, near the village of Macungie, on August 29, 1879. Her father, John Singmaster, was a Lutheran minister, working in the same profession that had been part of his family for generations. One of his ancestors had been a disciple of Martin Luther. Elsie’s mother, Caroline, was from a family of English Quakers. It was not surprising then, that Elsie’s childhood experienced a strict religious upbringing, and a bilingual one at that.²

As the only daughter among four brothers, Elsie was petite and quiet, and possessed a gentle disposition. A traumatic encounter with a large turkey in her grandfather’s barnyard when she was four resulted in a lifelong fear of birds. Her four brothers (James, John, Edmund and Paul) loved to tease her, often sneaking feathers into the sleeves of her clothing just before she dressed, or slipping a feather under her napkin at the dinner table in order to create a reaction. They were never disappointed.³

When not being tormented by her brothers, Elsie was often in her room, with her nose in a book. She read voraciously and enjoyed classic literature from authors like Charles Dickens and Jules Verne. By the time she graduated from high school in Allentown, she knew she wanted to be a writer.⁴

In 1901, John Singmaster joined the faculty of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg as a professor of Biblical Theology. He in time became the Seminary President. Elsie was in college at the time, having spent a year at Cornell University in New York. She transferred to Radcliffe and graduated there in 1907. Although she made many friends during her college years, after graduation Elsie joined her family in Gettysburg.

Elsie was enthralled with the history of the Battle of Gettysburg, and spent many days on the battlefield. Many who had endured the horrors of the war still lived in Gettysburg, and as Elsie became acquainted with them, she found ample material to capture her imagination for her writing. “My county is an average county, occupied by average people,” she once wrote of her new home. Yet, Adams County, Pennsylvania was much more than that to her, because those ordinary people had seen extraordinary things of historic importance – and she became their voice.⁵

“It is a dull boy or girl who is not eager to know all he can about the world,” Elsie wrote. “Many bright boys and girls who long to visit distant countries overlook all there is at home.”⁶

Elsie was about to enhance that perspective.

In 1903 Elsie’s first story was published in Century magazine. In her lifetime she published over 300 articles and 39 books. She never stayed in one specific genre, writing for both children and adults, penning both biography, history, and novels. All of them contained a common thread – her new home at Gettysburg and its unique heritage.⁷

In 1912 Elsie married a music teacher from Gettysburg College named Harold Lewars. The couple moved to Harrisburg as her new husband had a position there. Mr. Lewars died a month before the couple’s third anniversary. The couple also welcomed a baby, a son named after his father, but the child died as an infant. A bereaved Elsie returned to Gettysburg for solace from her family. She remained in Gettysburg for the rest of her life.⁸

Elsie was always sympathetic to cultures that differed from her own. She wrote affectionately of the Amish and Mennonite people. She described ethnic people with dignity, and she was equally kind in her portrayal of the people of the South. In one of her novels, Emmeline, Elsie wrote about a girl stuck behind the Confederate lines during the Battle of Gettysburg, who realized that the men who wore the gray were also men of honor. In one of her last books, I Speak for Thaddeus Stevens, Elsie defended the controversial Congressman, allowing the reader to see the fiery statesman from his own perspective.⁹

When not writing, Elsie remained busy with community service. During World War I, she helped to organize the local Red Cross and eventually served as chairwoman of that organization’s Adams County Chapter. She helped organize the Adams County Library and served on the board there for many years. She played the organ at the Christ Lutheran Church on Chambersburg Street, where she faithfully attended services. She was an advocate of women’s suffrage and prohibition – although she refrained from being controversial.¹⁰

When John Singmaster died in 1926, Elsie and her mother remained in the house on Seminary Ridge. Most of Elsie’s books and articles were written from that house. Her articles appeared in national publications, such as Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly, and The Saturday Evening Post. Her books were published by Charles Scribner’s Sons from New York City, and a publisher in Boston who was a friend from her days as a student at Radcliffe College. Elsie’s affection for her town and the Keystone State awakened a national interest in Gettysburg and Pennsylvania.

 “I often remember characters in my stories as I remember friends,” Elsie once said in an interview. She seemed to speak to the reader as if they were close friends. The personal touch helped make her famous. Even President Theodore Roosevelt once wrote to her to tell her how much he enjoyed one of her books, entitled, “Gettysburg: Stories of the Red Harvest and its Aftermath”.¹¹

In 1950, Elsie Singmaster was honored as a Distinct Daughter of Pennsylvania. She was also celebrated on the Who’s Who in America list. At age 71, she was finally feeling her age. She began to suffer a series of strokes, which caused her health to deteriorate. She died in the pre-dawn hours of September 30, 1958 at the age of 79. She was buried in her childhood home of Macungie near Allentown, beside her husband and infant son.¹²

Elsie’s books can still be read – and the Adams County Historical Society has many in their collection. She has been gone for over 65 years but the people of Gettysburg are still proud of their distinguished daughter. As the annals of history continue to roll onward, she is part of that common threat that ties us to the history of this crossroads town, helping us to remember always what it meant to be part of Gettysburg, especially in the summer of 1863.

The Singmaster Family(from l. to r.): Caroline, Paul, James, John Sr., John Jr., Edmund & Elsie

(Adams County Historical Society)



Sources: Hess, Mary. “Elsie Singmaster.” Master’s Thesis, August 1929. In the Elsie Singmaster Lewars File, Adams County Historical Society (hereafter ACHS). Hines, Charles, Letter to the Lutheran Seminary, March 20, 1930. Copy, ACHS. The Lutheran Theological Seminary Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 3, August 1959, Gettysburg. PA. Copy, ACHS. Singmaster, Elsie. “My Counry”, Scholastic Magazine, Mar. 5, 1932, vol. 20 no. 3. Original found in Elsie Singmaster Lewars File, ACHS. The Gettysburg Times, Sept. 30, 1958. The Sunday Bulletin, Philadelphia, Oct. 8, 1950. Copy, ACHS.

End Notes: 

1. The Lutheran Theological Seminary  Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 3, p. 2. 

2. Hess, Mary, p. 4. 

3. Ibid. 

4. The Elsie Singmaster Lewars File, ACHS. 

5. Singmaster, “My Country”, Scholastic Magazine, vol. 20, no. 3. 

6. The Lutheran Theological Seminary Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 3, p. 2. 

7. The Gettysburg Times, Sept. 30, 1958. 

8. Lutheran Theological Seminary Bulletin, p. 5. The baby died in close proximity to Harold Lewars, suggesting that a contagious illness may have been the cause of their deaths. See also Hess, p. 7. 

9. Ibid. 

10. Ibid. 

11. Hess, pp. 20, 22. Hines, Charles, Letter to Lutheran Seminary, Mara. 20, 1930. 

12. The Sunday Bulletin, Philadelphia, PA, Oct. 8, 1950. The Gettysburg Times, Sept. 30,          1959. Ten recipients in all were recipients of the award, including the world-famous Pearl S. Buck.