USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 30
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real flair for writing, she met some little success with poems and articles for the less known magazines and at one time she acted as society editor of the Toledo Blade, incognito, doing a remarkable job of it and delighting in her contacts with members of her set who quite highhatted the poor society reporter ! All this time she was interested, too, in amateur dramatic attrac- tions, taking part in many, in musical productions, singing valiantly in the choruses, but most of all in charitable movements, for hers is a heart full of sympathy for the underdog, wherever found. Mrs. Lewis was chairman of the committee which raised the money to establish the Women's and Chil- dren's hospital on Summit street.
During those affluent days before the 1929 crash Mrs. Lewis financed a talented Toledo singer seven years in Italy, only to reap disappointments when the girl's voice or temperament failed to achieve the brilliant success which Mrs. Lewis felt within its reach. Yet she had no regrets for the thousands of dollars thus invested in a vicarious career on the operatic stage and still considers the money well spent.
When the dark October day of 1929 laid her fortune low, Mrs. Lewis set her face to pay every financial liability, legal or moral. The fact that she did not have to pay at behest of a court of law deterred her not at all. She saw others escape their liabilities but with the innate honesty of the Chesbrough clan she determined to pay every cent of her and her husband's obligations. Building after building in the downtown business sector, in- herited from her father, went under the hammer. Her beautiful new home, designed as a perfect replica of a Versailles chateau, she sold and poured the money into the slowly decreasing sand pit of, to her, honorable debt. Her friends marvel when she appears as a guest in the house she built for a lifetime home and which fitted her personality like a gem, but she de- clares she was lucky to secure cash at a time when there was so little of that commodity and that she is happy to see someone own the estate who can do for it what she had planned to do.
Outside of New York and Paris Mrs. Lewis was one of the first so-called society women to go into business. She owned and operated a dress shop, known as the Lorel Shop on Jefferson avenue for several years. During this time her two daughters were married and Mrs. Lewis declared that her sav- ings on their trousseaux through her wholesale buying connections in New York more than compensated for the failure of the shop to prove a money getter. In Toledo at that time it was difficult to overcome a feeling against a wealthy woman-for that she still was-taking business or work away from the more needy. So she sold out her shop and turned her attention to newspaper work. For more than a year she furnished a weekly feature to the Toledo Sunday Times, which because of her social connections and her entre into the finest homes in the city, proved of tremendous worth to the paper. During this time,
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when she began to understand the problems of the newspaper photographer, with whom she had many dealings in securing art for her feature stories, she herself became greatly interested in photography-a hobby which she has pursued diligently up to the present time. In her travels, which have been extensive, and here at home she has aimed her camera at the most interesting and fascinating angles and her work has been gladly accepted for reproduction in the newspapers and magazines. Nor has she restricted her efforts to the camera end of the game-she has one of the best equipped dark rooms in the city in her studio on downtown Erie Street and herself does all her own developing and enlarging. Always skillful with her hands and never afraid to soil their beauty, she dabbles contentedly in the chemical solutions used in devel- oping, emerging often with stains and callouses.
Ethel Lewis should have been a man, and what a success in life she would have made! Too much energy and too much initiative have set the gossip going time after time in her colorful and gay life, but with all her daring and origi- nality the tongue of slander has never been able to reach any of her activities. Devoted wife and mother, the best housekeeper and cook in town, her perfectly managed menage is the wonder of friend and foe alike. For such strong person- alities as Ethel Lewis meet with unkindness as well as acclaim. To be better looking than one's associates is in itself a definite hazard. Those days are now gone by and no one recognizes the fact more than Mrs. Lewis. Still handsome and smart to the nth degree in line and figure, nearing fifty and proud of it, a grandmother at forty and delighted to be, Ethel Chesbrough, Toledo's most talked about daughter, enters a period in her life when she has the admiration and respect of every man and woman in the city that gave her birth. Charitable in her judgments, true friend and wise counsellor, she enters upon her later life with happiness and assurance.
A devout Episcopalian, Mrs. Lewis rejoices that her husband, lifetime staunch Baptist, has joined her in membership in the little Episcopal Church in Maumee, near their present home in Perrysburg-a century-old house which Mrs. Lewis with her innate flair for decorating and her impeccable taste has restored and transformed into a real home. Her Sunday afternoon teas and her simple dinner parties draw the smartest groups which gather anywhere in this section and her ready wit makes her and her equally brilliant husband the most eagerly sought after guests in the social register. Living in Europe, while her children were in school, and a linguist of no small attainment, she has a wide acquaintance in the most select circles in New York, where she spends much of her time. Her first love, however, is and always has been Toledo.
ANNE O'HARE MCCORMICK
ANNE O'HARE McCORMICK, awarded the Pulitzer prize in 1936 as the most distinguished foreign correspondent of that year, was born in
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England, attended St. Mary's Dominican School at Columbus, O., and got her first newspaper job on the old Catholic Universe, of Cleveland.
Her ability as writer may well be regarded as an hereditary gift, for her mother, formerly Beatrice O'Hare, was a literary light in her day.
Anne McCormick is now member of the editorial staff of the New York Times. She is regarded by many authorities as one of the keenest as well as one of the soundest of foreign correspondents in the employ of any American newspaper.
MARY K. MEANS
MARY K. MEANS, traveller and social leader, had also the distinction of being the first newspaper woman of Steubenville, O. She was until shortly before her death, society editor of the Herald-Star.
MAUDE MURRAY MILLER
Writer, politician, civic leader-MAUDE MURRAY MILLER of Colum- bus, was all of these. Her death, on March 28, 1935, brought to a close a long career devoted to public service and which included many important positions in the Buckeye state.
Her bearing was aristocratic and her speech bespoke her Southern birth. Her personal charm and insight into human nature placed her in great de- mand as a public speaker. Her writings, both in the daily press and in leading national magazines, appealed to all.
Although she was born in Marion, Ala., it was in Ohio that Mrs. Miller began her career. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. James Wimberly Cook and she received all her education at Judson College, beginning there in the primary grades.
After five years as a member of the editorial staff of the Springfield Daily News, Mrs. Miller joined the staff of the Columbus Dispatch in 1910, con- tinuing in that position until ill health forced her to retire in 1931.
Her "Human Progress" department in The Dispatch gained state-wide acclaim and out of it grew her appointment by the governor of Ohio to the state board of visitors for all state penal and charitable institutions. Through her efforts, a laundry was constructed at the Girls' Industrial School at Delaware. Labor was furnished by 30 honor prisoners at the Ohio Peniten- tiary, who not once betrayed her faith in them, although the governor had been reluctant to consider her proposition that prison labor be used.
When Ohio passed its law regulating motion pictures, Mrs. Miller was made the first member of the Ohio Censor Board, serving for eight years under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Ohio's first Democratic national committeewoman, she attended the San Francisco convention as a delegate. For several years she was affiliated with the National Women's Democratic Club of Washington, D. C.
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Newspaper readers of Central Ohio knew Mrs. Miller best for the "Betty Fairfax" advice column which she conducted in The Dispatch. Under this pseudonym she appeared on lecture platforms throughout the state for many years.
The Ohio Newspaper Women's Association was close to Maude Murray Miller's heart from the day she helped organize it, in 1902, until her death.
Twice married, both of Mrs. Miller's husbands preceded her in death. Her son, Wallace C. Murray, is chief of the division of Near East affairs in the state department in Washington, D. C.
ETHEL MYERS
ETHEL MYERS (Mrs. Jack Adair Chambers), society editor of the Akron Beacon Journal and head of a department said to compare favorably with that of any metropolitan newspaper of the country, was born at Creston, O., the daughter of Charles Reuben and Alice Smith Boley.
She started her newspaper career on the former Akron Press in 1920 and two years later went to the Beacon Journal, of which widely known paper she has been a leading staff member ever since.
Ethel served as president of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association, 1928 and 1929, she was chairman of the annual prize competition in 1937 and 1938 and has long been an important member of the organization. She is a former president of the Akron Altrusa Club, and has served on leading committees of the international Altrusa Association, is a charter member and board of trustees member of the Akron Woman's City Club, and is on the executive board of the Akron Little Theater. She is active also in the Akron Business Women's Club, is a charter member of the Akron Chapter, National Aeronautics Association (first organized in this country) and has travelled extensively, notably in 1933 to Uruguay to attend the Pan American Congress.
Married in 1937 to Jack Adair Chambers, of Akron, Ethel Myers retains her newspaper name in her professional work, which is well and widely known throughout the state.
JESSIE M. PARTLON
The late Murat Halstead, world famous journalist, was really responsible for the newspaper career of JESSIE M. PARTLON (Mrs. Millard Tyree) "Star reporter" from 1901 to 1907 of the Cincinnati Post and of other Scripps Howard papers all over the country. While visiting in Cincinnati-her home was at LeRoy, Ohio-she saw Halstead's photograph with a story of his adventurous life. She dashed to the Halstead home, then on lower Fourth Street. She begged the editor of the then "Cincinnati Commercial Gazette"
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to tell her how to go about getting a job on a newspaper. "Not society," she said, "whatever men reporters are doing, that's what I want to do."
Halstead advised her to select a paper where no other women were em- ployed. "And stick with it until you know what it is all about." So Jessie Partlon sought out the offices of the Cincinnati Post, following Mr. Halstead's advice as to careful timing-"Wait until the Home Edition is on the street." She succeeded somehow in convincing the editors that a woman reporter was needed on the staff.
Less than a year after the job was landed, Jessie Partlon became the No. 1 woman reporter of the entire Middlewest. She took the same assign- ments as the men-with no quarter given and no holds barred.
Politics, murder, suicide, fires, plain and fancy robbery were all in the day's routine. All this in the day when young women of education were expected to become school teachers or stenographers at the worst-and they never even entered a dirty voting booth !
Within three years, Jessie Partlon rose to the top of her chosen pro- fession. The last time she ever saw the brilliant war correspondent, editor and author, who (she still insists) had made possible her success, she was on a train bound for the St. Louis World's Fair. Her assignment was to inter- view Wm. Jennings Bryan, sundry Vanderbilts and Belmonts, write a story on the Ohio building, and turn in a daily column of human interest stories.
Before turning her loose on St. Louis her astute employers had tried her out on the Prohibition convention in Indianapolis. Her sole aim in life was to live up to their astounding faith in her ability to cover any story that might break, anywhere on earth, in the shortest possible time.
Tom Johnson, then a popular idol, was elected mayor of Cleveland. He had started as a motor man on a Cleveland street car. "Our Miss Partlon" was sent to spend with him the first day in office, and write the story of what actually happened. That story made page one with an eight column headline.
A messenger boy tracked her down at a suffragist meeting with a note from the city editor. She was to beat it to the anthracite regions in Eastern Pennsylvania and report the greatest mine strike of the century.
This was the first coal mine strike settled by Presidential intervention; a request from the White House that all parties get together and arbitrate their differences to prevent further suffering-history making 1902.
As usual, Jessie was the only woman among reporters from all points of the compass. Most of the men ignored her completely but there were a few who were kind and even helpful.
"Our Miss Partlon" was selected to carry the petition of thousands of citizens of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, to Governor White of Vermont, in an effort to save the life of Mary Rodgers, who, with her lover's help, killed
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the woman's husband. The point of the petition was-why should the woman be "hanged by the neck until dead" when the equally guilty man got off with a light prison sentence ?
Jessie doubtless began to feel like a suburban commuter from Cincinnati to New York when sent to write special articles on the Thaw trial, and later did a series of articles on the newly opened Night Court of Manhattan, and on the Children's Court. That was the beginning of the Juvenile Court -strange to think there was a time when we did not have such a tribunal !
During the spectacular Thaw trial other reporters often mistook Miss Partlon for Evelyn Thaw. They both were slight in build, both wore navy blue wool suits with white blouse and navy blue sailor hats. Evelyn wore the costume because it looked simple and unsophisticated. To Jessie it was a business uniform and the upkeep was small.
While trying to get Evelyn's story, arguing with her lawyers and interviewing Harry Thaw in the dismal Tombs Prison it suddenly occurred to Jessie to try her journalistic card-of which she was very proud-on the District Attorney, Wm. Travers Jerome. It worked. Or something did. She secured the only interview with the District Attorney on the Thaw case -and was it hot!
The late Marlen E. Pew was at the time editor of the Newspaper Enter- prise Association, the feature service of Scripps papers, with offices in Cleve- land, to which Jessie sent her copy. When the Jerome interview went out, telegraphic queries began pouring in to Mr. Pew's desk. "Who is this Miss Partlon ? Can you guarantee her story ?"
Like the grand person he was, Mr. Pew wired back, "I personally guarantee Miss Partlon's veracity !"
When Tammany Hall and "Boss" Croker parted company, and Croker retired to his estate in Ireland to spend his last days, he first paid a visit, with a large retinue of friends and hangers-on, to his old friend Tom Taggart at French Lick Springs.
Miss Partlon was sent to French Lick to get a last interview from the big "Boss"-from a man who had cause to hate all newspapers, and never gave interviews!
When Croker arrived he went straight to the hotel desk and asked Mr. Taggart to call all newspaper men.
Being a newspaper woman, totally unknown to every one present, "Our Miss Partlon" sat calmly rocking with the other ladies on the side lines and didn't mix in Mr. Croker's newspaper party.
"Now I want all you reporters to get out of here on the next train." bellowed the boss. "Ain't that right, Tom?" turning to Mr. Taggart, hotel manager and influential politician from Indiana. "Whatever you say goes," replied Tom. And it went.
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The girl reporter tackled Croker on his morning walk-got a good bawling for her pains-and the admonition to "get to hell out of here!"
Undaunted she followed him into gambling rooms, into bars and wherever he appeared in public. This kept up for one week. Finally Mr. Croker was discovered alone in the writing room and in order to get some urgent tele- grams off, agreed to compromise. But no discussion of politics-that subject was banned forever.
He talked about his estate in Ireland, the blooded horses he intended to keep and race. Then an adroit question brought in politics. With a roar of rage Croker cursed, up and down, the politicians-and was that a break!
Between "big" stories, there were long, hard days of fighting to make Cincinnati a better city to live in. Playgrounds for poor children, safe and sanitary schools, votes for women.
The city paid tribute to "Boss Cox." His word was law. His power was finally broken but it took years of the hardest kind of work and con- stant hammering at an indifferent or fear driven public.
"Jessie M. Partlon" wrote special articles exposing the dark corners. The girl reporter was out at dawn on election day probing into the stench of "flop" houses, checking on the number of non-resident voters and re- peaters, who helped to roll up a majority for whomever Boss Cox wanted in office.
Those were the days! There was worthwhile work in the world to be done. But the "girl reporter" was riding for a fall.
In 1903 Jessie Partlon married Millard Tyree, a young Cincinnati attorney who came, however, from Kentucky and had a decided allergy for the roaming reporter type of helpmate.
So the girl reporter left her newspaper office almost as abruptly as she had entered it.
When, however, her happy marriage was cut short by her husband's death, "Jessie Partlon's" newspaper training proved its value not only to herself but to an entire nation.
For now it was war time. She went to France, drove a camion for the American Committee for Devastated France and presently was made pub- licity director, in which capacity she served four years.
In recent years Mrs. Tyree has devoted much of her time to travel. But she comes back to Cincinnati frequently, for Cincinnati is "home." Why? Perhaps because here are carefully kept two of her most valued possessions-the honor medal presented to her by the French Department of the Aisne-and her old newspaper typewriter.
PENELOPE PERRILL
PENELOPE PERRILL (Mrs. Gainor Jennings), Ohio newspaper woman who served her profession nearly 34 years, was born in Columbus and died
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in Dayton in 1933 after having definitely set standards for her sister news- women of both cities and of her entire native state.
Penelope found it necessary to become a bread-winner for herself and two children after years of plenty had accustomed her to ease and gracious living.
Applying to the managing editor of the Columbus Dispatch for a place on the editorial staff, she was assigned to duty as editor of a page devoted to women and the home. Later her work brought a promotion to theater assignments. For 15 years she covered this department for the Dispatch and later in Dayton. During her leisure hours she created a new department, the first of its kind on any Columbus newspaper, a "Betty Fairfax" column.
Then in the passing of time Penelope Perrill went to London to work for a syndicate; but the syndicate was short-lived. Since London was a long way from Columbus, she was again thrown upon her own resources, and again she came face to face with the struggle for bread. Acquainted with Fleet Street, she brought to it the offerings of a free-lance writer. The London Daily Mail was the property of Lord Northcliffe, and on his paper she worked at space rates. The years of work brought something of repu- tation. She was the only woman who had, up to that time, been granted an interview with Lord Kitchener and likewise the first of her sex to in- terview for any newspaper Lord Roberts, commander-in-chief of the British army.
Mrs. Perrill was the only person, man or woman to interview Sarah Bern- hardt alone, and without attendants, on her last appearance in this country. Lord Asquith and the Duchess of Devonshire were other notables who found it impossible to resist her appeal for interviews. Her theatrical work in Columbus stood her well in stead during the stay in London. She knew Philip Gibbs and spent a day with Ellen Terry at her suburban home. She inter- viewed Sir Henry Irving, Sir Beerbohm Tree, Sir George Bancroft, St. Charles Wyndham-all stars of the British stage.
One day she tagged the former King of Spain and Princess Ena when these young people escaped from an entourage of servants and roamed through London window-shopping. These two held hands and chatted merrily. It made a marvelous newspaper story but no one dared spy on royalty and report such doings.
Back in her native land she was just as successful in talks with American notables. She recalls conversations with General Grant and with Paul du Chaillu, famous explorer. Singers, actors, musicians, explorers, warriors- all made copy for this remarkable newspaper woman who stayed on the job until she was past 70 years old.
For nearly 14 years, day in and day out, Penelope Perrill tapped the keys of a typewriter in the office of the Dayton Daily News. To Daytonians she
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was known best as the author of their favorite column "From the Window" and for her book and musical reviews. Her co-workers knew her for a genius far beyond these simple tasks. There is no type of story going into the makeup of a modern daily newspaper that Penelope Perrill could not "cover" they believed.
In an article by Lelia Routzohn, published shortly before Penelope Per- rill's death, in the Ohio Newspaper-from which much of this story of Pene- lope Perrill was obtained-the writer said:
"The life of this pioneer newspaper woman reflects the soul which is lacking in so many of us. Living for others is her philosophy. The stage is set at the window of the world. The rattle of typewriters and the incessant, click of telegraph instruments make the music. Her theme is people, and the rumble of the heavy presses as they labor at their task is her prompter."
MARIAN BUSH REEDER
MARIAN BUSH REEDER has attained a professional goal as yet seldom reached by newspaper women. She is part owner as well as woman's page and feature editor of the Athens Messenger and is an outstanding member of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association. One of the high marks of her journalistic career was made when, during an extensive tour abroad, she syndicated her travel stories for the London Express and the London Daily Mail. Marion was born at Athens, received her B.S. at Ohio University and later did graduate work at Ohio State. She served on the staff of the Cleve- land Press, was a member of the editorial department of King Feature Serv- ice, a member of the Sunday feature staff of the Boston Globe and served as reporter of the Tampa, Fla., Globe. She is the author of a number of newspaper serials. When the O. N. W. A. roster is scanned by interested editors, one of the names which arrest attention and special inquiry is al- most sure to be that of Marian Bush Reeder.
Nor is knowledge of her varied abilities confined to her profession. Al- most a year in advance of the International Congress of Women to meet at Paris, France, during July, 1939, special invitation was extended to Marian Reeder to participate as speaker, in their significant and world wide pro- gram.
WINIFRED LAUER ROGERS
WINIFRED LAUER ROGERS (Mrs. Guy H. Rogers), known far and wide as editor of the "Advice" column of the Cleveland Press, was born in Buffalo, N. Y. and educated in Buffalo schools.
She had the excellent experience of working in the Roycroft Shops un- der Elbert Hubbard, and there mastered the art of illuminating fine hand
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made books. On her marriage to Guy H. Rogers, of East Aurora, Mrs. Rog- ers gave up her work to devote herself to the rearing of their son, Halford E. Rogers.
She entered newspaper work, June 1926, as "Mrs. Maxwell" adviser for the Cleveland Press and has conducted this department continuously ever since. Mrs. Rogers also writes feature stories and women's page articles under her own byline.
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