Kansas Women in Literature
by
Nettie Garmer Barker
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KANSAS WOMEN
IN
LITERATURE
BY
NETTIE GARMER BARKER
TO MY NEAREST AND DEAREST--
MY SILENT PARTNERS--
MY HUSBAND AND MY MOTHER.
KANSAS WOMEN
IN LITERATURE.
``We are proud of Kansas, the beautiful queen,
And proud are we of her fields of corn;
But a nobler pride than these I ween,
Is our pride in her children, Kansas born!''
--Ellen P. Allerton--
--Or adopted. In this galaxy of bright
women, the State has a noble pride for every
name, be its owner Kansas born or adopted,
is a mightier force for good than its ``walls of corn.''
EFFIE GRAHAM.
The last place one would expect to find
romance is in arithmetic and yet--Miss Effie
Graham, the head of the Department of
Mathematics in the Topeka High School, has found
it there and better still, in her lecture ``Living
Arithmetic'' she has shown others the way to
find it there. Miss Graham is one of the most
talented women of the state. Ex-Gov. Hoch
has called her ``one of the most gifted women
in the state noted for its brilliant women. Her
heart and life are as pure as her mind is
bright.''
She was born and reared in Ohio, the
daughter of a family of Ohio pioneers, a
descendant of a Revolutionary soldier and also,
of a warrior of 1812. As a student of the Ohio
Northern University and later as a post-graduate
worker at the University of California,
Chicago University, and Harvard Summer
School, she has as she says, ``graduated
sometimes and has a degree but never `finished' her
education.''
Desiring to get the school out into the
world as well as the world back to the school,
she has spoken and written on ``Moving Into
The King Row,'' ``Other Peoples' Children,''
``Spirit of the Younger Generation,'' ``Vine
Versus Oak,'' and ``The Larger Service.''
``Pictures Eight Hundred Children Selected,''
``Speaking of Automobiles,'' ``The Unusual
Thing,'' ``The High Cost of Learning,'' and
``Wanted--A Funeral of Algebraic Phraseology;''
also, some verse, ``The Twentieth
Regiment Knight'' and ``Back to God's Country''
are magazine work that never came back.
School Science & Mathematics, a magazine to
which she contributes and of which she is an
associate editor, gives hers as the only woman's
name on its staff of fifty editors.
Her book, ``The Passin' On Party,'' raises
the author to the rank of a classic. To quote
a critic: it is ``a little like `Mrs. Wiggs of the
Cabbage Patch,' a little like `Uncle Tom's
Cabin,' but not just like either of them. She
reaches right down into human breasts and
grips the heart strings.''
It is the busy people who find time to do
things and the mother-heart of Miss Graham
finds expression in her household in West
Lawn, a suburb of Topeka. Among the members
of her family are a niece and nephew
whose High School and College education she
directs.
ESTHER M. CLARK.
Every Kansan, homesick in a foreign land,
knows the call of Kansas and every Kansan
book lover knows Esther Clark's ``Call of Kansas.''
``Sweeter to me than the salt sea spray,
the fragrance of summer rains:
Nearer my heart than these mighty hills
are the wind-swept Kansas plains:
Dearer the sight of a shy, wild rose by the
roadside's dusty way
Than all the splendor of poppy-fields
ablaze in the sun of May.
Gay as the bold poinsetta is,
and the burden of pepper trees,
The sunflower, tawny and gold and brown,
is richer, to me, than these.
And rising ever above the song
of the hoarse, insistent sea,
The voice of the prairie,
calling, calling me.
Miss Clark was born in Neosho Co., Kansas,
about twelve miles southeast of Chanute,
on a farm. At seven years of age, the family
moved to Chanute and her school days were
spent at the old Pioneer Building, where her
mother went to school before her. In 1894,
she graduated here, later entering the University
of Kansas for work in English.
In 1906, ``Verses by a Commonplace Person''
was published. ``The Call of Kansas and
Other Verse'' came out in 1909. This volume
contained ``My Dear'' and ``Good Night'' which
were set to music, and ``Rose O' My Heart.''
``Rose o' my heart, to-day I send
A rose or two,
You love roses, Rose o' my heart,
I love you.
Rose o' my heart, a rose is sweet
And fresh as dew.
Some have thorns, but, Rose o' my heart,
None have you.
Rose o' my heart, this day wear
My roses, do!
For next to my heart, Rose o' my heart,
I wear you.''
``My Dear'' was written for her baby brother,
during an absence from home, and is
Miss Clark's favorite.
She is in the office of the Extension
Department at the University of Kansas, and has
exclusive charge of club programs and does
some work in package libraries.
Just now she is contributing prose to some
of the newspapers and doing some splendid
feature work.
MARY VANCE HUMPHREY.
Mary Vance Humphrey of Junction City,
Kansas, has written a series of short stories
on the property rights of women in Kansas, a
subject that was and is, still, of vital
importance to the women of the state. ``The Legal
Status of Mrs. O'Rourke'' and ``King Lear in
Kansas'' are two of the series.
When young in heart and experience, Mrs.
Humphrey wrote a number of poems. Her
work in later years has been only prose. Her
novel, ``The Squatter Sovereign'' is an historical
romance of pioneer days, the settlement of
Kansas in the fifties.
Mrs. Humphrey is one of the founders of
the Kansas State Social Science Club and the
Woman's Kansas Day Club and the founder of
the Reading Club of Junction City. She has
served as President of the State Federation and
as Director of the General Federation of Women's
Clubs and President of the Woman's Kansas
Day Club. Her work as member of the
Board of Education has done much for Junction
City and her interest in libraries has done
equally as much for the State of Kansas.
Of her record as an official, Margaret Hill
McCarter has written: ``Her whole soul is in
her work. She is the genuine metal, shirking
nothing, cheapening nothing, and withal happy
in the enjoyment of her obligation. She stands
for patriotism, progress and peace. Something
of the message of the shepherds heard out beyond
Bethlehem that Christmas morning long
ago sounds in the chords she strikes.''
As the wife of the late Judge James
Humphrey, she proved herself the able companion
of such a worthy man.
KATE A. APLINGTON.
The Kansas State Traveling Art Gallery
owes its birth and much of its success to Kate
A. Aplington, the author of that typical western
story, ``Pilgrims of the Plains.'' Since
Feb., 1907, the Art Gallery has been a recognized
state institution, and as its Vice-President
and Superintendent and as the writer of
the art lectures that accompany the work, Mrs.
Aplington's broad-minded, artistic temperament
and student's persistency have made the
gallery truly a work of art.
At present, the Aplingtons are living at
Miami, Florida, but for a quarter of a century,
Council Grove, the most famous spot on the
Santa Fe Trail, was their home. Special
investigations and researches on the subject of
the old Santa Fe Trail days and lecturers on
educational and literary topics resulted from
years spent in that historic place.
``Pilgrims of the Plains,'' which came out
in Feb., 1913, is worthy of a place in the front
rank of western stories. In July of this year,
Grossett and Dunlap will bring it out in their
``Popular Edition'' of novels.
Mrs. Aplington is now working on a book
on ``Art-Museums of America'' and judging
from the comments of prominent Museum
Directors, this will be as great a success as her
novel. ``Florida of the Reclamation,'' a character
story with scenes laid in and around Miami,
Florida, is also in preparation.
EMMA UPTON VAUGHN.
The author of that versatile little book of
short stories, ``The Lower Bureau Drawer'' is
Emma Upton Vaughn, a Kansas City, Kansas
teacher. These heart stories, showing keen
insight of human nature--especially woman
nature--deal with every day life, each one a
fascinating revelation, of character and soul.
Mrs. Vaughn was born in Kalamazoo,
Michigan. Her early life was spent in Kansas.
She is a graduate of the Kansas University, and
has taught in the public schools of the state.
She wrote the ``Bible and the Flag in the
Public Schools'' and has contributed both prose
and verse to the leading magazines and
newspapers. Feature articles and many good essays
appear over her signature. Her ``Passing From
Under The Partial Eclipse'' did much to give
Kansas City, Kansas her recognized place
commercially on the map. A novel, ``The Cresap
Pension,'' exposing a great pension fraud, is
ready for the press.
JESSIE WRIGHT WHITECOMB.
Jessie Wright Whitcomb, a Topeka writer
of juvenile books is a lawyer in active practice
with her husband, Judge George H. Whitcomb
and a mother of a remarkable family of five
boys and one girl. The oldest son gained his
A. B. in 1910 at the age of eighteen; in 1911
was appointed Rhodes scholar for Kansas; and
is now a student at Oxford. His father and
mother are in England at present visiting him.
Mrs. Whitcomb is a contributor to the
magazines and in addition, has written ``Odd
Little Lass,'' ``Freshman and Senior,'' ``Majorbanks,''
``His Best Friend,'' ``Pen's Venture,''
``Queer As She Could Be,'' and ``Curly Head.''
She is a graduate of the University of Vermont
and the Boston University Law School and was
the first woman to lecture before a man's law
school.
MYRA WILLIAMS JARRELL.
Myra Williams Jarrell, the daughter of the
late Archie L. Williams, for thirty years, the
attorney for the Union Pacific Railway in Kansas,
and the grand-daughter of Judge Archibald
Williams, the first United States Circuit
Judge of Kansas, appointed by Lincoln, comes
of a literary family. All of the men and some
of the women on the father's side of the family
and also, on the mother's to a great extent, had
literary talent.
As a child, she cherished an ambition to
write and when occasionally one of her letters
to St. Nicholas saw publication, she felt she had
crossed the Alps of her desire. Her first real
story, however, was written as she rocked the
cradle of her first born. The day, when she
first saw her ``stuff'' in print, stands out in her
memory second only to the hallowed days of
her personal history, her wedding day and the
days upon which her children were born.
Since then, Mrs. Jarrell has contributed
to almost all the high class magazines and has
furnished special feature articles to newspapers.
Some years ago, a small book, ``Meg, of
Valencia,'' was written and now, a novel, ``The
Hand of The Potter'' is ready for publication.
In 1894, Myra Williams and J. F. Jarrell
were married. This union was blest with four
children, three sons and one daughter. Mr.
Jarrell is Publicity Agent of the Santa Fe. A
number of years ago, he bought the Holton
Signal and in trying to help her husband put
some individuality into the paper, Mrs. Jarrell
began a department headed ``Ramblings.'' Later
this was syndicated and finally issued in book
form.
Last winter, a play, ``The Plain Clothes
Man,'' was produced by the North Brothers
Stock Co., at the Majestic Theatre, Topeka.
This well written play, with its novel and original
characterization and its effective comedy
lines, is now in the hands of two New York
play brokers. Before many months, Mrs. Jarrell
will be enjoying a royalty.
In preparation, are two plays, as yet nameless;
also, a play in collaboration with Mr.
North of the North Stock Co. With her
brother, Burus L. Williams, of Kansas City,
Mo., Mrs. Jarrell has written an opera, ``The
Mix Up in the Kingdom of Something-Like,''
which awaits only the lyrics Mr. Williams is
writing and the music. An opera, ``The Kingdom
of Never Come True,'' also, in collaboration
with Mr. Williams, is being set to music
by Arthur Pryor, the bandmaster.
A serial story, ``John Bishop, Farmer,'' a
collaboration with Albert T. Reed, the artist,
is to be published soon in the Kansas Farmer.
Later, this will appear in book form. A novel,
which Mrs. Jarrell believes will be her best
work, is in construction and is clamoring to
be written.
ELLEN PALMER ALLERTON.
Ellen Palmer Allerton, the sweet and gentle
poetess, beloved of Kansas, lived at Padonia,
in Brown County, when she wrote her famous
poem, ``Wall of Corn.''
She was past her prime when she came to
Kansas from the Wisconsin home, the subject
of many of her noble gems. As she grew older,
she grew stronger in poetic strength.
Three volumes of poems have been
published, ``Walls of Corn and Other Poems,''
``Annabel and Other Poems,'' and ``Poems of the
Prairie.'' Her ``Walls of Corn,'' written in
1884, famous from the first, as used as railroad
immigration advertising, was translated in
several languages and distributed all over
Europe. This and her ``Trail of Forty-nine''
are her best, although the classic beauty of
``Beautiful Things'' is unsurpassed by any
other American writer.
``Beautiful twilight, at set of sun,
Beautiful goal, with race well run,
Beautiful rest, with work well done.''
is a fitting close to the beautiful, useful life
of the author.
Mrs. Allerton was born in Centerville. New
York, in 1835 and began writing verse at the
age of seventeen. Much as she has written,
yet writing was only a pastime. She never let it
interfere with her housework. Thoroughly
practical, she did all her own work, just
because she loved to do it. Her flowers of which
she had many, in doors and out, resulted in
many noble, inspiring lines. In 1862, she was
married to A. B. Allerton of Wisconsin, coming
to Kansas in 1865. She was best appreciated
for her social qualities and her interest
in charity--that broader charity that praises
the beauty and ignores the blemishes. Her
last poem, ``When Days Grow Dark'' is a beautiful
pen picture of her sweetness and resignation
in her growing blindness and her love
and trust in him who had been her companion
down the years.
``You take the book and pour into my ear
In accent sweet, the words I cannot see;
I listen charmed, forget my haunting fear,
And think with you as with your eyes I see.
In the world's thought, so your dear voice be left,
I still have part, I am not all bereft.
And if this darkness deepens, when for me
The new moon bends no more her silver rim,
When stars go out, and over land and sea
Black midnight falls, where now is twilight dim,
O, then may I be patient, sweet and mild,
While your hands lead me like a little child!''
She died in 1893, at Padonia, and was
buried in a bed of her favorite white flowers,
donated by loving friends. In the little graveyard
at Hamlin, one reads ``Beautiful Things''
on a modest stone at the head of her little bed.
EMMA TANNER WOOD.
Mrs. Emma Tanner Wood (Caroline
Cunningham), a Topeka woman, began newspaper
work in 1872. The result of those early years'
work was ``Spring Showers,'' a volume of prose.
After thirty years of study and experience
among the defectives, she wrote ``Too Fit For
The Unfit,'' advocating surgery for the feeble-
minded. The story of Mrs. Benton, one of the
characters, led Mrs. Wood to introduce a law
preventing children being sent to the poor
house. This was the first law purely in the
interest of children ever passed in Kansas.
Later, a law preventing traveling hypnotists
from using school children as subjects in
public exhibitions was drawn up by Mrs. Wood
and passed.
Several years ago, a book on hypnotism,
far in advance of the public thought, was written
and is to be published this year.
Mrs. Wood is seventy years young and as
she says: ``finds age the very sweetest part of
life. It is no small satisfaction to laugh at the
follies of others and know that you are past
committing them. It is equally delightful to
be responsible only to one's self and order one's
life as one chooses. Every day is a holy day
to me now and the sweetness of common
things, grass, flowers, neighborly love, grand-
children, and home comforts fill me with satis-
faction. To think kindly of all things under
the sun (but sin); to speak kindly to all; to
do little kindly acts is a greater good to the
world at large than we think while we are in
the heat of battle.''
CORNELIA M. STOCKTON.
A cheerful little room in the East wing of
St. Margaret's Hospital, Kansas City, Kansas;
an invalid chair wheeled up to a window over
looking the street; and the eager, expectant
face and the warm hand clasp of the occupant,
Mrs. Cornelia M. Stockton, assures the visitor
of a hearty welcome.
Greatly enfeebled by long illness and with
impaired sight, this bright, little woman's keen
interest in current events and the latest ``best
seller'' puts to shame the half-hearted zeal of
the average woman.
For four years, Mrs. Stockton has lived at
St. Margaret's, depending upon the visits of
friends and the memory of an eventful life to
pass the days. Prominence in club work in
her earlier years has brought reward. The
History Club of Kansas City, Kansas, of which
she was once a member, each week sends a
member to read to her and these are red letter
days to this brave, patient, little woman.
Mrs. Stockton began writing very young.
When a little girl, back in the village of Walden,
New York, she stole up to the pulpit of
the church and wrote in her pastor's Bible:
``I have not seen the minister's eyes,
And cannot describe his glance divine,
For when he prays he shuts them up
And when he preaches he shuts mine.''
She was born in 1833 in Shawangunk, New
York, and came to Kansas City in 1859, living
in Missouri some years but most of the time
in Kansas City, Kansas.
In 1892, she published a limited edition of
poems, ``The Shanar Dancing Girl and Other
Poems.'' dedicated to Mrs. Bertha M. Honore
Palmer, her ideal of the perfect type of
gracious and lovely womanhood. ``The Shanar
Dancing Girl'' was first written for the Friends
in Council, a literary club of Kansas City, Mo.
It has received the encomiums of Thomas
Bailey Aldrich, John J. Ingalls and others for
its beauty of expression and dramatic qualities.
``Invocation,'' an April idyl; ``The Sea-shell;''
and ``Mountain Born'' sing of the love of nature.
``In the Conservatory;'' ``My Summer Heart;''
and ``Tired of the Storm'' hint of sorrow and
unrest and longing. Then in 1886, ``Compensation''
was written. ``Irma's Love For The
King'' is a favorite; also, `` `Sold'--A Picture,''
written for her daughter, ``yes, but she never
came.
``The Sorrowful Stone'' Mrs. Stockton
considers her best.
``The story without a suspicion of rhyme,
And dim with the mists of the morning of Time,
Is told of a goddess, who, wandering alone,
Did go and sit down on the Sorrowful Stone.
We find our Gethsemane somewhere,
though late;
The Angel of Shadows
throws open the gate.
We creep with our burden of pain,
to atone,
For all of life's ills,
to the Sorrowful Stone.
Above is the vault of the pitiless stars;
The trees stretch their arms all blackened
with scars;
The gales of lost Paradise are faintly
blown
To where we sit down on the Sorrowful
Stone.''
``From a Poem `Vagaries' '' warns of * * *
--the product of the age and clime,
We do too much! grow old before our
time,
Yet--would we stray to Morning Hills
again?
Unlearn sad prophecies, and dream as
then!
Ah, no! with sense of peace the shadows
creep,
There droppeth on tired eyes the spell of
sleep--
We left the dawn long leagues behind, and
stand,
Waiting and wistful in the Evening Land!
The patient Nurse of Destiny, at best,
Leads us like children to the needed rest!
A ghostly wind puts out our little light,
And we have bid the busy world ``Good Night!''
Mrs. Stockton was married twice. Her
first husband was the father of her two sons,
one of whom, Dr. Henry M. Downs, in his
practice, came often to St. Margaret's. The
second marriage, as the wife of the late Judge
John S. Stockton, was a very happy one. Last
year, a brother the only surviving member of
her family, died, leaving Mrs. Stockton the
last of a family of five children. The two
sons have also passed into the Great Beyond.
In her younger days, she contributed many
poems and some prose to newspapers and
magazines over the name of Cora M. Downs.
Ex-Gov. St. John appointed her one of the
regents of the University of Kansas.
Her beautiful poem: ``In Memoriam'' to
Sarah Walter Chandler Coates was her last.
`` `We seem like children,' she was wont to
say,
`Talking of what we cannot understand,'
And in the dark or daylight, all the way,
Holding so trustfully a Father's hand.
And this was her religion, not to dwell
On tenets, creeds, or doctrines, but to
live
On a pure faith, and striving to do well
The simple duties that each hour should
give.''
MARGARET HILL McCARTER.
The most successful Kansas woman writer
financially and the most prolific is Margaret
Hill McCarter of Topeka. From the advent
of her little book in 1901, ``A Bunch of Things,
Tied Up With Strings'' to the hearty reception
of her latest novel every step of the way spells
success.
Margaret Hill was born in Indiana and
came to Kansas in 1888 to teach English in
the Topeka High School. Two years later, she
became the wife of Dr. William McCarter. Of
this union there are two daughters, students
at Baker University and the Topeka High
School and a young son, his mother's literary
critic.
A wife and a mother first, a Kansas woman
second, and an author third is the way Mrs.
McCarter rates herself. She is capable of and
does do all her housework.
Her love for literature she owes to her
mother, who believed in higher education and
taught Margaret to prize the few books that
came her way.
After leaving the school room, the teacher
instinct still strong within her, she argued if
she could teach out of books written by others,
why not out of books of her own? Then followed
poems, short stories, biography, textbooks,
the editing of Crane Classics, ``One
Hundred Kansas Women'' and miscellanies.
In 1902, ``Cuddy and Other Folks'' was
written and in 1903, ``The Cottonwood's Story.''
This same year, ``The Overflowing Waters,''
the story of the 1903 flood, and one of her best
bits of heart writing paid for the school books
of almost a thousand unfortunate children.
``Cuddy's Baby'' appeared in 1908, followed the
next year with ``In Old Quivera,'' a thread of
Coronado history. ``The Price of The Prairies,''
three weeks after publication in the fall
of 1910, became Kansas' best seller. ``The
Peace of The Solomon Valley'' came out in 1911
and proved a popular gift book. ``The Wall of
Men,'' Mrs. McCarter's 1912 offering should
be one of the required books in Kansas schools.
It is authentic history and the close of the story
leaves every Kansan with a greater respect and
love for the state and the heroic pioneers who
stood as a living wall between Kansas and the
slave question. 1913 gave us the ``Master's
Degree,'' considered by many her best work.
This year we have ``Winning The Wilderness.''
Mrs. McCarter founded the Club Member
and organized the Sorosis, serving as president
seven years and two terms as president of the
Topeka Federation of Women's Clubs. Baker
University, at Baldwin, Kansas, gave her an
honorary Master's Degree in 1909, its semi-
centennial anniversary.
BESSIE MAY BELLMAN.
----
JUNE BELLMAN HENTHORNE.
Bessie May Bellman and June Bellman
Henthorne, her daughter, hail from Winfield.
They write both prose and verse and Mrs.
Henthorne was a reporter for years. Mrs.
Bellman, when a girl, lived five years on a
cattle ranch and to those five lonely years she
credits her habit of introspection, meditation
and writing. Much of her poetry and short
stories are used in platform work.
Red Leaves.
Red leaves--
Aflame in the air, aflame in the trees.
Blue streams, smoky hills--
Gold, gold the sunlight spills--
Red leaves!
Dead Leaves--
A swirl in the air-asleep 'neath the
trees.
Gone every lark and swallow--
Haunting echoes bid me follow--
Dead leaves!
Bessie May Bellman--
Mrs. Henthorne's ``If'' is published in a
New York reader.
``If, in a bird-heart, beating 'neath the gray
There chants a song, no matter what the
day.
If, in a bird-heart happy sunbeams shine,
Why not in mine?
If, in a flower-face, beat down by rain,
The hope of clear skies be in spite of
pain--
If, in a flower-face a great hope shine,
Why not in mine?''
AMANDA T. JONES.
One of the few Kansas women to have
a place in ``Who's Who'' was the late Amanda
T. Jones of Junction City. She was one of
the most prolific poets of Kansas.
Her ``Atlantic'' is a story of the rebellion;
``Utah and Other Poems;'' ``A Prairie Idyl;''
``Flowers and a Weed;'' and ``Rubaiyat of
Solomon Valley'' are volumes of verse. Her
prose: ``Children's Stories,'' ``Fairy Arrows''
and ``The White Blackbird;'' ``A Psychic
Autobiography,'' published in 1908; ``Man and
Priest,'' a story of psychic detection; ``Mother
of Pioneers,'' and a novel ready for publication,
``A Daughter of Wall St.''
Miss Jones originated a working women's
home and patented many inventions, mostly
household necessities.
* * * *
CHARLOTTE F. WILDER.
Charlotte Frances Wilder, Manhattan, has
been writing half a century and it has won for
her a place in Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,
``entitled to go down to posterity, her life-
work preserved as information for future
generations.'' She has written ``Land of The Rising
Sun,'' ``Sister Ridenour's Sacrifice,'' ``Christmas
Cheer In All Lands,'' ``Easter Gladness,''
``Mission Ships,'' ``The Child's Own Book'' and
``The Wonderful Story of Jesus.'' Her essays,
alone, would make a volume, original and
interesting. She has written for the press since
sixteen years of age and has been a Bible
teacher forty years.
ANNA L. JANUARY.
Osawatomie claims Anna L. January, the
author of ``Historic Souvenir of Osawatomie,
Kansas,'' ``John Brown Battle Grounds,'' ``Calvin
Monument,'' and ``Lookout and Park;'' also,
numerous poems.
Mrs. January is a native of Wilmington,
Ohio, coming to Kansas in 1898. She taught
school three years and in 1901 married D. A.
January of Osawatomie. They have one child,
a son of four years. An active worker in the
Congress of Mothers and interested in temperance
and suffrage work, Mrs. January still
finds time to write many short poems.
****
HATTIE HORNER LOUTHAN.
Hattie Horner Louthan, a former White
Water, Kansas girl, is the author of five books
and many contributions to newspapers and first
class magazines. After graduation at the Normal
School, Emporia, in 1883, Miss Horner
engaged in teaching and literary work. Ten
years later, she became the wife of Overton
Earl Louthan, who died in 1906.
She is editor of the Great Southwest and
a member of the staff of the Denver Republican.
Her first volume of poems came out in
1885; the next year, ``Some Reasons For Our
Choice.'' ``Not At Home,'' a book of travels,
was published in 1889; ``Collection of Kansas
Poetry,'' in 1891; and ``Thoughts Adrift,'' in
1902. Her work is versatile; the rhyme easy
flowing and strong.
GEORGIANA FREEMAN McCOY.
----
MARY FREEMAN STARTZMAN.
Georgiana Freeman McCoy, Wichita, has
taught music in Kansas longer than any other
teacher in the state and incidently writes verse.
She remodeled Elizabeth Browning's ``A Drama
of Exile'' and wrote the musical setting for
Simon Buchhalter, the Viennese pianist and
composer. A sister, Mary Freeman Startzman,
while living in Fort Scott, wrote a volume of
poems, ``Wild Flowers.''
* * * *
EVA MORLEY MURPHY.
Eva Morley Murphy of Goodland, recent
candidate for Congress, is author of two books:
``The Miracle on the Smoky and Other Stories,''
and ``Lois Morton's Investment.''
She is a descendant of Nathaniel Perry of
Revolutionary fame, and of Rodger Williams;
an active temperance worker; and one of the
women who made equal suffrage possible in
Kansas.
* * * *
SALLIE F. TOLER.
Mrs. Sallie F. Toler, Wichita, has written
on every subject from pigs and pole cats to
patriotism. She is the author of several plays and
three vaudeville sketches. A comedy, a racing
romance, ``Handicapped;'' ``Thekla,'' a play in
three acts; ``On Bird's Island,'' a four-act play;
and ``Waking Him Up,'' a farce, are played in
stock now.
Mrs. Toler contributes to many papers and
lectures on ``The Short Story'' and ``The Modern
Drama.''
MARGARET PERKINS.
As a 1914 Christmas offering, Margaret
Perkins, a Hutchinson High School teacher,
gave us her volume of beautiful poems. ``The
Love Letters of a Norman Princess'' is the
love story, in verse, of Hersilie, a ward and
relative of William, The Conqueror, and Eric,
a kinsman of the unfortunate King Harold.
``I thought once, in a dream, that Love
came near
With silken flutter of empurpled wings
That wafted faint, strange fragrance from
the things
Abloom where age and season never
sear.
The joy of mating birds was in my ear,
And flamed my path with dancing daffodils
Whose splendor melted into greening hills
Upseeking, like my spirit, to revere.''
* * * * * *
``Before you came, this heart of mine
A fairy garden seemed
With lavender and eglantine;
And lovely lilies gleamed
Above the purple-pansy sod
Where ruthless passion never trod.''
* * * * * *
``If Heaven had been pleased to let you be
A keeper of the sheep, a peasant me,
Within a shepherd's cottage thatched with
vine
Now might we know the bliss of days
divine.''
--``We are part of Heaven's scheme,
You and I:
Child of sunshine and the dew
I was earthly--born as you.
* * * * * *
``Yet my little hour I go,
Troubled maid,
Even where the storm blasts blow,
Unafraid;
Confident that from the sod
All things upward wend to God.''
* * * * * *
``Dear heart, the homing hour is here,
The task is done.
Toilers, and they who course the deer
Turn, one by one,
At day's demise,
Where dwells a deathless glow
In loving eyes.
I hear them hearthward go
To castle, or to cottage on the lea;
But him I love comes never home to me.''
* * * * * *
The peaks that rift the saffron sheen
Of sunset skies
In purple loveliness, when seen
By nearer eyes,
Are bleakly bare.
To brave those boulders gray
No climbers dare.
O, in some future may
This mountain mass of unfulfilled desires
Be unto me as yonder haloed spires!''
* * * * * *
Miss Perkins is the compiler of ``Echoes of
Pawnee Rock,'' and writes short stories and
poems for the magazines. Some of her verse
is published in Woolard's ``Father.''
ANNA E. ARNOLD.
Anna E. Arnold, Cottonwood Falls,
Superintendent of Chase County Schools, is a
thorough Kansan, and a farm product. She
was born at Whiting, Jackson County, but
when a very small child, her parents moved to
Chase and all her life since has been spent in
that county. Until the last few years, she lived
on a farm.
She is a graduate of the State University
and has taught in the grade and high schools.
In 1905, she became a candidate for Superintendent
of Schools of Chase County. Her success
and her unusual ability as a teacher were
rewarded by a two to one majority on a close
county ticket. At the second term, she had no
opposition and out of 1214 votes cast, she
received all but 29. The present year, after
four elections, is her seventh continuous year
as Superintendent of Chase County. In addition
to her official duties, Miss Arnold has
written two text-books. Her ``Civics and
Citizenship'' in 1912 was adopted as the state
text-book on civil government for use in the
public schools of Kansas. It is being used by
a large number of womens' clubs. Many
outlines for club work on civic subjects have come
from Miss Arnold's pen. Her second textbook,
``A History of Kansas,'' the first book printed
under the new State Publication Law, has
also been adopted by the text-book commission.
Miss Arnold is considered one of the foremost
educational leaders of the state.
Topeka gives us Anna Deming Gray, a
writer of negro dialect stories, stories for
children, and some verse. Elizabeth Barr Arthur,
has written a number of books, histories
of several Kansas counties and some volumes
of poems, ``Washburn Ballads.'' Mrs. Sarah
E. Roby is a writer of both prose and verse.
A granddaughter, Marjory Roby, has written
a number of stories and plays. Eva Bland
Black contributes poems and song lyrics to the
magazines. She served her apprenticeship as
reporter and city editor of the Journal and
Evening News of Garnett and as associate
editor of the Concordia ``Magnet.'' Mrs. Isabel
McArthur is a natural poet and song writer.
She has published one volume of verse, ``Every
Body Loves a Lover.'' Her last song, ``When
The Bloom Is On The Cherry At Sardou'' is
widely sung. Edna E. Haywood is author of
``Fifty Common Birds Around the Capital.''
Mrs. Mary A. Cornelius, while a resident of
Topeka, wrote four books, ``Little Wolf,''
``Uncle Nathan's Farm,'' ``The White Flame,''
and ``Why? A Kansas Girl's Query.'' Another
book is ready for publication. Mrs. Mary
Worrall Hudson, wife of the late General J. K.
Hudson, former editor of the Topeka Capital,
is author of ``Two Little Maids And Their
Friends,'' ``Esther, The Gentile,'' and many
short stories and poems. Her classic prose-
poem: ``In The Missouri Woods'' is considered
her masterpiece. Mrs. Sara Josephine Albright,
formerly of Topeka, now of Leavenworth, is
a sweet singer of childlife. Her volume of
verse, ``With The Children'' is lullabies and
mother-love poems. A book of stories for
children will soon be ready for publication.
Jessie Lewellyn Call, deceased, the clever and
beautiful daughter of the first Populist governor
of Kansas, was a well-known essayist and
short story writer. For many years she was
one of the editors of the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
Lawrence claims Dorothy Canfield Fisher,
a writer of both fiction and text-books and
many short stories. She is the author of
``Corneille And Racine In England,'' ``English
Rhetoric And Composition,'' ``What Shall We
Do Now,'' ``Gunhild,'' ``The Squirrel Cage'' and
``The Montessori Mother.'' Louise C. Don
Carlos has written ``A Battle In The Smoke,'' one
of the best Kansas works on fiction. She did
special work on the Nashville Tennessee
Banner and writes a great deal of magazine verse.
Mrs. Anna W. Arnett, a Lawrence teacher,
writes verse and songs. In addition, she has
issued a primer, the Kansas text-book and a
primary reading chart for which she has a
United States patent. Margaret Lynn, one of
the faculty of Kansas University, is a writer
of short stories and ``A Step-Daughter Of The
Prairies.''
* * * *
Mrs. A. B. Butler of Manhattan wrote
``The Trial And Condemnation of Jesus Christ
From a Lawyer's Point of View;'' a novel,
``Ad Astra Per Aspera;'' and much newspaper
work. Mrs. Elizabeth Champney, a former
teacher in the Kansas State Agricultural
College, is the author of more than twenty books
and many short stories. ``Three Vassar Girls
Abroad,'' ``Witch Winnie Series,'' ``Dames And
Daughters of Colonial Days,'' ``Romance of
French Abbeys,'' Romance of Italian Villas,''
and ``Romance of Imperial Rome'' are her most
popular works.
* * * *
Sadie E. Lewis, Hutchinson, is the author
of ``Hard Times In Kansas'' and other verse.
Her daughter, Ida Margaret Glazier, is a poet
and song writer. Mrs Alice McAllily wrote
``Terra-Cotta'' and many other books.
Lillian W. Hale, Kansas City, is author
of verse, short stories, and a novel. Another
novel will be ready for publication this autumn.
Lois Oldham Henrici, a one-time Sabetha and
Parsons woman, is the author of ``Representative
Women'' and many good short stories.
Laura D. Congdon, a Newton pioneer, is
a verse and short story writer. Mary H. Finn,
Sedgwick, writes beautiful verse and much
prose. Jennie C. Graves, Pittsburg, writes
poetry and moving picture plays. Mrs. Johannas
Bennett, another Pittsburg woman, has
written an historical novel, ``La Belle San
Antone.'' Florence L. Snow, Neosho Falls, is an
artistic and finished writer of verse and prose.
She is the author of ``The Lamp of Gold.''
Sharlot M. Hall, Lincoln, writes prose and
verse. A volume of poems, ``Cactus And Pine,''
``History of Arizona,'' ``A Woman of the Frontier,''
``The Price of The Star'' and short stories
are her important works. Mrs. A. S. McMillan,
Lyons, a poetess, song writer and licensed
preacher, writes clever verse, much of which
has been set to music. ``Land Where Dreams
Come True'' is her best known poem. Kittie
Skidmore Cowen, a former Columbus woman,
is author of ``An Unconditional Surrender,'' a
civil war story. ``The Message of Hagar,'' a
study of the Mormon question will be in the
press soon. Miss Mary E. Upshaw, McPherson,
wrote verse at the age of seven and published
her first story at fifteen. She has a
book in preparation which she expects to
publish at an early date. Jeanette Scott Benton,
formerly of Fort Scott, writes short stories
novelettes, and stories for children. May
Belleville Brown of Salina, has a very clever pen,
as has, also Mrs. Lulu R. Fuhr of Meade, the
author of ``Tenderfoot Tales.'' Mrs. E. M.
Adams, Mound City, writes exquisite verse and
in the past, had many short stories to her
credit. Mrs. C. W. Smith, Stockton, writes
both prose and verse. Cara A. Thomas Hoover,
formerly of Halstead, Harvey County, now
living in Rialto, California, writes prose and
beautiful verse. Rose Hartwick Thorpe, the
author of ``Curfew Shall Not Ring To-night,''
was a Kansan in the early sixties. She lived
at Wilmington.
* * * *
Miss Margaret Stevenson, Olathe, is a
writer of books for the blind. She has some
short stories, nature and text-books published.
* * * *
Lelia Hardin Bugg, Wichita, has written
``The Prodigal Daughter,'' ``The People of Our
Parish,'' and ``Orchids.'' Edna Thacher Russ,
also of Wichita, writes short stories and
educational articles.
* * * *
Mrs. E. Hamilton Myers, Englewood, is
a dramatic writer and a poet of rare talents.
Being a musician, much of her verse is used
for songs.
Mrs. Myers contributes to the English
papers. Her first story was published by a
magazine which had accepted writings of her
mother's.
* * * *
Other than literature proper, we have Mrs.
Lillian M. Mitchner, of Topeka, a scientific
writer; Mrs. Lumina C. R. Smythe, a writer
of verse, also of Topeka, who is co-author with
her late husband in the revised ``Flora And
Check List of Kansas.''
Among the clever newspaper women of
the state are Margie Webb Tennal, Sabetha;
Maud C. Thompson, Howard; Frances Garside,
formerly of Atchison, now with the New York
Journal; Mrs. E. E. Kelley, Toronto; Anna
Carlson, Lindsborg; Mrs. Mary Riley, Kansas
City; and Isabel Worrel Ball, a Larned woman,
who bears the distinction of being the only
woman given a seat in the congressional press
gallery. Grace D. Brewer, Girard, has been a
newspaper woman and magazine short story
writer for ten years.
* * * *
Among the early Kansas writers are Clarinda
Howard Nichols, Mrs. A. B. Bartlett,
Lucy B. Armstrong, Sarah Richart, Mrs. Porter
Sherman, and Mary Tenny Gray, all of
Wyandotte and Mrs. C. H. Cushing of Leavenworth.
* * * *
Sara T. D. Robinson, the wife of the first
governor of Kansas, was one of the very first
women writers of the state. Her ``Kansas,
Interior And Exterior'' was published in 1856 and
went through ten editions up to 1889.
INDEX.
Adams, Mrs. E. M.
Albright, Sara Josephine
Allerton, Ellen Palmer
Aplington, Kate A.
Armstrong, Lucy B.
Arnett, Anna W.
Arnold, Anna E.
Arthur, Elizabeth Barr
Ball, Isabel Warrel
Bartlett, Mrs. A. B.
Bellman, Bessie May
Bennett, Mrs. Johannas
Benton, Jeanette Scott
Black, Eva Bland
Brewer, Grace D.
Brown, May Bellville
Bugg, Leila Hardin
Butler, Mrs. A. B.
Call, Jessie Lewellyn
Carlson, Anna
Champney, Elizabeth
Clark, Esther M.
Congdon, Laura D.
Cornelius, Mary A.
Cowen, Kittie Skidmore
Cushing, Mrs. C. H.
Don Carlos, Louise C.
Finn, Mary H.
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
Fuhr, Lulu R.
Garside, Frances
Glazier, Ida Margaret
Graham, Effie
Graves, Jennie C.
Gray, Anna Deming
Gray, Mary Tenny
Hale, Lillian W.
Hall, Sharlot M.
Haywood, Edna E.
Henrici, Lois Oldham
Henthorne, June Bellman
Hoover, Cara A. Thomas
Hudson, Mary Worrell
Humphrey, Mary Vance
January, Anna L.
Jarrell, Myra Williams
Jones, Amanda T.
Kelley, Mrs, E. E.
Lewis, Sadie E.
Louthan Hattie Horner
Lynn, Margaret
McAllily, Alice
McArthur, Isabel
McCarter, Margaret Hill
McCoy, Georgiana Freeman
McMillan, Mrs. A. S.
Mitchner, Lillian W.
Murphy, Eva Morley
Myers, Mrs. E. Hamilton
Nichols, Clarinda Howard
Perkins, Margaret
Richart, Sarah
Riley, Mary
Robinson, Sara T. D.
Roby, Marjory
Roby, Sara E.
Russ, Edna Thatcher
Sherman, Mrs. Porter
Smith, Mrs. C. W.
Smythe, Lumina C. R.
Snow, Florence L.
Startzman, Mary Freeman
Stevenson, Margaret
Stockton, Cornelia M.
Tennal, Margie Webb
Thompson, Maude C.
Thorpe, Rose Hartwick
Toler, Sallie F.
Upshaw, Mary E.
Vaughn, Emma Upton
Whitcomb, Jessie Wright
Wilder, Charlotte F.
Wood, Emma Tanner
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