Nellie Blessing Eyster

Nellie Blessing Eyster
Portrait from "A Woman of the Century"
Born	Penelope Ann Margaret Blessing December 7, 1836 Frederick, Maryland, U.S.
Died	February 21, 1922(1922-02-21) (aged 85) Berkeley, California, U.S.
Nickname	"Nellie"
Occupation	Journalist, writer, lecturer, and social reformer
Alma mater	Barleywood Seminary
Spouse	David A. S. Eyster ​ (m. 1853)​
Children	2

Nellie Blessing Eyster (née, Blessing; December 7, 1836 – February 21, 1922) was an American journalist, writer, lecturer, and social reformer.^[1] She was a grand-niece of Barbara Fritchie.

Eyster was the first President of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association. Her first book, Sunny Hours of the Child Life of Tom and Mary, received the endorsement of Oliver Wendell Holmes. In 1870, she published "A Dame of the Quakers" in Harper's Magazine, and later, "How the Star Spangled Banner Found Its Tune". "The Colonial Boy" was published in 1890 and was adopted by most of the school and church libraries in the United States. "A Chinese Quaker", published in 1902, was quoted as introducing a valuable history of the Chinese immigration in San Francisco.^[2] Other books included, Chincapin Charlie, On the Wing, and Tom Harding and His Friends.^[3] She wrote for the New-York Tribune and Riverside Magazine; and edited with Gail Hamilton.^[4]

Eyster assisted In the purchase of Mount Vernon (George Washington's home) for the U.S.; and served as an officer of the Great Sanitary Commission during the American Civil War.^[5] Eyster's teaching extended to California's Chinese immigrants; she was also a teacher of music, rhetoric and belles lettres in various seminaries; and was a state lecturer on scientific temperance in colleges and public schools. She was State President of Juvenile Work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of California,^[6] president of the California Women's Indian Association, and president emeritus of the League of American Pen Women.