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Jennie Scott Griffiths

May 12, 2024

Jennie Scott Griffiths (October 30, 1875 – June 29, 1951) was an American newspaper editor, journalist, and political and women's rights activist. Born in Texas, from the age of two, she performed as an orator and was a well-known elocutionist and child prodigy. Mostly homeschooled, she did attend formal institutions briefly and learned shorthand and typing. Her first job was typing the History of Texas from 1685 to 1892. Then she worked as a journalist and as a promoter for the Hagey Institute, which led to her traveling abroad. While on a world tour to promote the institute, she went to Fiji and married. Griffiths began editing for the Fiji Times, a newspaper owned by her husband. In 1913, the family moved to Australia where she became active in feminist, labor, and socialist organizations. As a pacifist, she opposed drafting personnel for war service. She wrote regularly for The Australian Worker and the socialist press. In the 1920s her family moved to San Francisco and naturalized as American citizens. She worked on the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration and continued publishing in journals like the Industrial Worker. She served as the secretary of the California branch of the National Woman's Party in the 1940s and lectured frequently in favor of the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Her papers are housed in the National Library of Australia.

Jennie Scott Griffiths
Griffiths, Brisbane, 1920
Born
Jennie Scott Wilson

(1875-10-30)October 30, 1875
Woodville, Texas, U.S.
DiedJune 29, 1951(1951-06-29) (aged 75)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Citizenship
  • United States (until 1897)
  • United Kingdom (1897–1928)
  • United States (from 1928)
Occupation(s)Journalist, activist
Years active1893–1951
Employers
  • Fiji Times
  • Australian Woman's Weekly
  • freelance writer
Known for
  • Feminist, labor, and socialist organizing
  • pacifism
Children10, including Ciwa

Early life and education edit

Jennie Scott Wilson was born on October 30, 1875, near Woodville, in a log cabin built by her father on the banks of Wolf Creek in Tyler County, Texas, to Laura (Cowart née Nettles) and Stephen Randolph Wilson.[1][2][3] Her mother was from Louisiana,[4] and her father, known as Randolph, was a cotton farmer from Tennessee.[1] He had served in Hood's Texan Brigade of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and her mother had lost all of her brothers in the conflict.[2][Notes 1] After their marriage, the couple would have two daughters together, R. Ellen (b. 1874) and Jennie,[2][8][9] who was named after a family friend.[3]

Wilson was the youngest child, very small for her age weighing only 14 pounds (6.4 kg) at nearly age three (as an adult she stood 4 feet 9 inches (145 cm)), and was considered a child prodigy in elocution.[2][3] She began to deliver speeches when she was just two years old and went on to cover subjects such as temperance and spirituality when addressing veterans groups and Sunday schools.[2] The orations were written by her father, or included well known works, such as Rose Hartwick Thorpe's Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight and Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven and were presented throughout the state.[2][3] She also recited prose and poetry, for which newspapers reported about her remarkable memorization skills.[10][11] At the end of her performances she collected offerings from the audience.[3] The family moved to Limestone County, Texas, when she was young, first settling in Pottersville and later in Lost Prairie.[3]

When Wilson was twelve, the family moved again, settling in Huntsville, Texas. She enrolled in school for the first time there, but quickly rose to the top of the class and left,[2] continuing her education with a tutor at home, studying the works of Edward Bellamy, Charles Darwin, Henry George, Thomas Huxley, and Thomas Paine.[1] The family moved again in 1890 to Austin, and Wilson began learning shorthand and typing at a local business school.[3][Notes 2] She did not finish the course, as she received a job offer to type John Henry Brown's History of Texas from 1685 to 1892.[3] In 1893, she moved to San Antonio and began writing for and editing the youth column of the journal Texas Farmer.[16][17] Simultaneously, she also began working as a court reporter and became involved in the work of the Hagey Institute, an organization which promised to cure alcoholism and narcotic addiction.[1][16] Her main income came from her promotional work with Hagey, frequently traveling from Texas to California, Colorado, and Mexico over the next three years on their behalf.[16]

Career edit

Fiji (1896–1912) edit

In 1896, Wilson left Texas with her half-brother Thomas Cowart and his family to promote the establishment of Hagey Institutes internationally. After stopping in Honolulu, Hawaii, the group made their way to Auckland, New Zealand, before arriving in Suva, Fiji.[16] Upon her arrival, she met Arthur George Griffiths, oldest son of the editor of the Fiji Times newspaper. Arthur proposed to her upon their meeting and despite her brother's protests, the two were married the following day, November 9, 1897, at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral, in Suva.[16][18] Under the nationality laws in place at the time, United States nationals who were women, lost their nationality upon marriage, as it was assumed that they acquired the nationality of their husband.[19][20] Because of the legislation, Wilson lost her United States' citizenship.[21] Fiji, at the time was a British colony and under the Fijian nationality law, Europeans living in Fiji were British subjects.[22][23] Under terms of the British Aliens Act 1844, foreign women marrying British husbands became British subjects.[24] The couple would have ten children together: Randolph (1898), Tom (1900), Don (1901), Max (1902), Laura (1903), Leonard (1905), Stephen (1907), Leonie (1908), Ciwa (1911), and Hazel (1913).[1][16]

Despite her duties as a mother, Griffiths became a contributor and editor at the Fiji Times, out of financial necessity. The couple engaged a nanny to help with the children and both Arthur and she worked as unpaid help to keep the paper going. When Jennie's father-in-law George Littleton Griffiths died in 1908, Arthur inherited the businesses. He had little training in writing, as he had focused on the management side of the business and keeping the equipment running.[25] As Griffiths' experience was in writing, she took over editing the paper and wrote a regular column "Passing Notes", a society page, as well as reporting on the news, including coverage of foreign events and the legislature.[1][26] Arthur was not suited to running the business and because of a lack of schooling opportunities, Griffiths urged him to sell it so that they could relocate to Australia in 1912.[27]

Australia (1913–1920) edit

"Australian Woman's Weekly" redirects here. Not to be confused with The Australian Women's Weekly.

Arthur invested the proceeds from the sale in a large house in Sydney and the B & R Motor Company. The business went bankrupt, causing them to have to move. As the children reached the age of fourteen, each had to go to work to help with the family finances.[27] Three months after having given birth to her last child in 1913, Griffiths went to work at Australian Woman's Weekly, a women's journal which was operated by Denton & Spencer from 1911 to 1921 before folding.[28][Notes 3] The paper focused on household hints, fashion, handicrafts, and short fiction pieces. Under her editorship, Griffiths began to add articles on professional women and employment issues, as well as political and social movements.[29] Eventually, she added more radical commentary in an opinion column which covered issues such as cooperative child care centers and kitchens to help the poor, the plight of unemployed women immigrants, equal pay, child welfare programs, legal reforms of divorce laws, women's participation in politics, sexual hygiene and birth control.[1][30]

By 1915, Griffiths was publishing articles in other journals and newspapers like The Australian Worker, Sydney's The International Socialist and The Sunday Times, which allowed her to express her pacifist and socialist views.[30] By 1916, she was publishing more articles on feminism and politics in other journals than she was writing for Australian Woman's Weekly.[31] In the debates on the draft, which emerged in women's groups in 1916 and 1917 after Australia entered into World War I, she argued strongly against the policy.[32] She joined organizations like the Australian Labor Party, Social Democratic League, the Women's Anti-Conscription Committee, and the Women's Peace Army and actively took an anti-war stance. She participated in peace demonstrations, petition drives, and used her skill from her youth as an elocution performer to speak perched upon boxes in the street proclaiming the evils of war and its ties to power and wealth for those who benefited from the profits of increased manufacturing of weapons and other war-related products.[31] These activities led the publishers of the Australian Woman's Weekly to fire her in October 1916.[31]

After her termination, Griffiths was unable to find permanent employment and took assignments to write articles for numerous papers both in and out of Australia. In addition to publishing in the Sunday Times, the International Socialist and Brisbane's Daily Standard, she wrote articles on feminism and against the war for Britain's Social Democrat and Chicago's Industrial Worker.[33] She also wrote articles criticizing racism and the prosecution of people who opposed the war.[34] Federal policies in favor of the war, the uncertain employment of both herself and Arthur, and the fact that T. J. Ryan, Premier of Queensland, was the only remaining Labor Party leader in power, convinced Griffiths to move to Queensland in 1917, where the family settled in Brisbane.[1][35] She became very active there, speaking at meetings in support of the Bolshevik revolution, International Workers' Day, and the Sydney Twelve, members of the Industrial Workers of the World who had been arrested and charged with treason.[1] She attempted to revive the Queensland Socialist League and was involved in the Red Flag riots, both in sewing banners and participating in demonstrations.[1][36] When participants in the March 1919 protest were arrested, she campaigned for their release, but was disillusioned by the Australian turn toward conservatism and decided after the prisoner release to return to the United States.[37]

United States (1920–1951) edit

In June 1920, Griffiths returned to Texas, first settling in San Benito in Cameron County.[1][38] Family members followed a few at a time over several months, with some of the boys taking positions as crew on sailing vessels to pay for their passage.[37] Two of her sons, Randolph and Don, remained behind in Australia.[21] In 1922, they were back in San Antonio, and Griffiths was campaigning for the pardon of George McKinley Grace, a Black man who had been found guilty of assaulting a White woman. Griffiths and his other supporters opposed his hanging, believing that he was wrongfully convicted, but they were unsuccessful.[39][40] Unable to make a living there, by 1923 the family had moved to San Francisco, California.[1][21] She became a regular contributor of poetry to the Industrial Worker and wrote for the San Francisco Examiner and other local newspapers.[21] She was involved in speaking engagements and activities of the Children's Protection Society, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Women's Peace Union, and the National Woman's Party.[21][41][42] In 1928, she regained her United States nationality, when she and Arthur naturalized.[1][21]

During the 1930s Griffiths was recognized in the book American Women Poets of 1937 published by Henry Harrison in 1937[43] and was involved in the California division of the Federal Writers' Project for the Works Progress Administration.[1] She gave lectures and worked for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1940s and in 1943 was elected as secretary-treasurer of the California branch of the National Woman's Party.[44][45] Griffiths was one of the featured lecturers on women's gains toward equality for the National Woman's Party's commemoration of Susan B. Anthony's 125th birthday in 1945.[21][46] In 1947, she was one of the women honored by the National Woman's Party for their work to gain suffrage and advance women's rights and in 1949, she was the California delegate to the party convention.[47][48]

Death and legacy edit

Griffiths died on June 29, 1951, in San Francisco and was buried on July 2 at the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Colma, California.[1][49] Her papers were donated to the National Library of Australia in 1993.[50] The leather bag which was presented to her by the Red Flag prisoners, for whose release she had pressed, is also part of the collection of her memorabilia at the National Library.[37] Griffiths is remembered as an activist who championed equal opportunity and equal rights for women, in part because she was often the main breadwinner in her family and in part because of her beliefs and idealism to defend those she felt had been wronged by social conventions and injustice.[51] Her daughter, Ciwa, became a pioneering speech therapist who founded the HEAR Center in California and spent her career advocating for the use of technology and speech education to help people with hearing difficulties.[21][52]

Notes edit

  1. ^ Laura had previously been married to William J. Cowart and had four children with him: Thomas (b. 1860), John (b. 1862), William (b. 1864), and James (b. 1866).[4][5] Randolph had previously been married to Rachael A Charlton with whom he had three children: Mary (b. 1854), J.C. (b. 1856), and Sarah (b. 1864).[6][7][8]
  2. ^ Wilson later claimed that she enrolled in law school in 1890, at the University of Texas at Austin, but left before graduating because women were not allowed to practice law.[1][12] The university credits Ella Crim Lynch as the first woman to enroll in 1906, in their law school[13] and the Texas District and County Attorneys Association confirms that women could not be licensed until 1913.[14] A 1909 newspaper story about Griffiths published in The Panola Watchman indicates only that she attended business school in Austin when she was sixteen.[3] Law school records for the University of Texas do not show Wilson as a student, but do show her half-brother Thomas Cowart as a student in 1892.[15] T. H. Irving, who wrote the entry on Griffiths for the Australian Dictionary of Biography, speculated that she might have learned law from her brother.[1]
  3. ^ Per Clarke, the Australian Woman's Weekly published by Denton & Spencer had no affiliation with the current magazine The Australian Women's Weekly which was founded in 1931.[28]

References edit

Citations edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Irving 2002.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Clarke 2016, p. 1.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Panola Watchman 1909, p. 7.
  4. ^ a b US Census 1860, p. 37.
  5. ^ US Census 1870b, p. 68.
  6. ^ Marriage Records 1854.
  7. ^ US Census 1870a, p. 1.
  8. ^ a b US Census 1880, p. 32.
  9. ^ The Daily Express 1906, p. 7.
  10. ^ The San Antonio Light 1884, p. 1.
  11. ^ The Fort Worth Daily Gazette 1888, p. 6.
  12. ^ Clarke 2016, pp. 1–2.
  13. ^ University of Texas at Austin 2021.
  14. ^ Kaspar 2014.
  15. ^ Tarlton Law Library 2021.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Clarke 2016, p. 2.
  17. ^ The Democrat 1893, p. 3.
  18. ^ The Weimar Mercury 1898, p. 7.
  19. ^ Sapiro 1984, p. 9.
  20. ^ Smith 1998, p. 1.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h Clarke 2016, p. 12.
  22. ^ Fransman 2011, p. 925.
  23. ^ Newbury 2011, p. 45.
  24. ^ Llewellyn-Jones 1929, p. 122.
  25. ^ Clarke 2016, p. 3.
  26. ^ Clarke 2016, pp. 3–4.
  27. ^ a b Clarke 2016, p. 4.
  28. ^ a b Clarke 2016, pp. 5, 8.
  29. ^ Clarke 2016, p. 5.
  30. ^ a b Clarke 2016, p. 6.
  31. ^ a b c Clarke 2016, p. 8.
  32. ^ Clarke 2016, p. 7.
  33. ^ Clarke 2016, pp. 8–9.
  34. ^ Clarke 2016, p. 9.
  35. ^ Clarke 2016, pp. 9–10.
  36. ^ Clarke 2016, p. 10.
  37. ^ a b c Clarke 2016, p. 11.
  38. ^ The Worker 1920, p. 20.
  39. ^ The Austin American 1922a, p. 13.
  40. ^ The Austin American 1922b, p. 8.
  41. ^ The San Francisco Examiner 1951, p. 27.
  42. ^ The Peninsula Times Tribune 1925, p. 1.
  43. ^ The Press Democrat 1937, p. 11.
  44. ^ The Peninsula Times Tribune 1943, p. 8.
  45. ^ Los Angeles Daily News 1943, p. 25.
  46. ^ The Oakland Tribune 1945, p. 35.
  47. ^ The Oakland Tribune 1947, p. 4.
  48. ^ The Washington Post 1949, p. 22.
  49. ^ The Peninsula Times Tribune 1951, p. 9.
  50. ^ National Library of Australia 1993.
  51. ^ Clarke 2016, pp. 12–13.
  52. ^ Leisure World News 2004, p. 37.

Bibliography edit

  • Clarke, Patricia (December 2016). "Jennie Scott Griffiths: How A Conservative Texan Became a Radical Socialist and Feminist in World War I Australia". ISAA Review. 15 (2). Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Independent Scholars Association of Australia: 31–51. ISSN 1444-0881. OCLC 8600186764. Retrieved September 19, 2022. (Cited page numbers refer to on-line version)
  • Fransman, Laurie (2011). Fransman's British Nationality Law (3rd ed.). Haywards Heath, West Sussex: Bloomsbury Professional. ISBN 978-1-84592-095-1.
  • Irving, T. H. (2002). "Scott Griffiths, Jennie (1875–1951)". In Ritchie, John; Langmore, Diane (eds.). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 16: 1940-1980, Pik–Z. Acton, Australian Capital Territory: Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84997-4. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  • Kaspar, Lori J. (March–April 2014). "Meet Nellie Gray Robertson, the First Female County Attorney in Texas". The Texas Prosecutor. Austin, Texas: Texas District and County Attorneys Association. from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  • Llewellyn-Jones, Frederick (1929). "The Nationality of Married Women". Transactions of the Grotius Society. 15. London: Grotius Society: 121–138. ISSN 1479-1234. JSTOR 742756. OCLC 5544683551. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  • Newbury, Colin (June 2011). "History, Hermeneutics and Fijian Ethnic 'Paramountcy': Reflections on the Deed of Cession of 1874". The Journal of Pacific History. 46 (1). London: Taylor & Francis: 27–57. doi:10.1080/00223344.2011.573631. ISSN 0022-3344. JSTOR 41343775. OCLC 7973272270. S2CID 142204566. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  • Sapiro, Virginia (March 1984). "Women, Citizenship, and Nationality: Immigration and Naturalization Policies in the United States". Politics & Society. 13 (1). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications: 1–26. doi:10.1177/003232928401300101. ISSN 0032-3292. OCLC 4650679194. S2CID 153555230. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  • Smith, Marian L. (Summer 1998). "'Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married...': Women and Naturalization, ca. 1802–1940". Prologue Magazine. 30 (2). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration: 146–153, , . ISSN 0033-1031. OCLC 208742006.
  • "1860 US Census, Jasper County, Texas". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. August 3, 1860. p. 37. NARA Microfilm series #M653, Roll 1298, lines 37–40. Retrieved September 18, 2022.(subscription required)
  • "1870 US Census, Woodville, Tyler County, Texas". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 13, 1870. p. 1. NARA Microfilm series #M593, Roll 1606, lines 16–20. Retrieved September 18, 2022.(subscription required)
  • "1870 US Census, Tyler County, Texas". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. July 16, 1870. p. 68. NARA Microfilm series #M593, Roll 1606, lines 36–40. Retrieved September 18, 2022.(subscription required)
  • "1880 US Census, Limestone County, Texas". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 14, 1880. p. 32. NARA Microfilm series #T9, Roll 1317, lines 9–16. Retrieved September 18, 2022.(subscription required)
  • "Council Names New Officers". Los Angeles Daily News. Los Angeles, California. June 2, 1943. p. 25. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  • "Died at Age of 71". The Daily Express. Vol. 41, no. 269. San Antonio, Texas. September 26, 1906. p. 7. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via The Portal to Texas History.
  • "Dr. Ciwa Griffiths". Leisure World News. Laguna Hills, California. January 8, 2004. p. 37. Retrieved September 21, 2022 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Equal Rights". The Washington Post. No. 26594. Washington, D.C. April 8, 1949. p. 22. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  • "Grace to Hang Neff Decides". The Austin American. Vol. 8, no. 211. Austin, Texas. January 4, 1922. p. 8. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via The Portal to Texas History.
  • "Guide to the Papers of Jennie Scott Griffiths". Trove. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: National Library of Australia. 1993. MS 1071 et al. from the original on January 5, 2022. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  • "History-Makers: The First Women At Texas Law". University of Texas School of Law. Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin. March 8, 2021. from the original on November 28, 2021. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  • "Jennie Scott Wilson". The San Antonio Light. San Antonio, Texas. March 20, 1884. p. 1. Retrieved September 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Miss Jennie Scott Wilson". The Democrat. Mckinney, Texas. August 17, 1893. p. 3. Retrieved September 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Mrs.Griffiths Rites Held". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. July 3, 1951. p. 27. Retrieved September 18, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Mrs. Jennie Griffiths, Kin of Wilson Dies". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. July 3, 1951. p. 9. Retrieved September 18, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Pioneers of Suffrage To Be Honored at Reception". The Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California, California. November 22, 1947. p. 4. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  • "Printed on Bark". The Weimar Mercury. Weimar, Texas. January 22, 1898. p. 7. Retrieved September 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Seek Pardon in Death Case". The Austin American. Vol. 8, no. 209. Austin, Texas. January 1, 1922. p. 13. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via The Portal to Texas History.
  • "Sumner County, Tennessee Marriage Records: Charlton/Wilson". FamilySearch. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives. July 25, 1854. Sumner County, 1850–1859, volume L-Z. Retrieved September 18, 2022.(subscription required)
  • "Texas Girl in Fiji Islands". The Panola Watchman. Vol. 37, no. 2. Carthage, Texas. July 21, 1909. p. 7. Retrieved September 19, 2022 – via The Portal to Texas History.
  • "The Department of Law 1890-1899". Tarlton Law Library. Austin, Texas: University of Texas School of Law. 2021. pp. , , . from the original on September 19, 2022. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  • "Woman's Party Hears Debate on Equality Bill". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. March 12, 1943. p. 8. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Woman's Party Honor Founder". The Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California, California. February 11, 1945. p. 35. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Women's Successes, Responsibilities Are Outlined by Speaker". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. January 9, 1925. p. 1. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Woman's Ways". The Worker. Brisbane, Queensland. November 25, 1920. p. 20. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via Trove.
  • "Women Poets Known in Bay Cities Recorded in Book". The Press Democrat. Vol. 81, no. 309. Santa Rosa, California. December 26, 1937. p. 11. Retrieved September 20, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  • "Woodville". The Fort Worth Daily Gazette. Fort Worth, Texas. January 14, 1888. p. 6. Retrieved September 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.

External links edit

  • Photographs

May 12, 2024
jennie, scott, griffiths, october, 1875, june, 1951, american, newspaper, editor, journalist, political, women, rights, activist, born, texas, from, performed, orator, well, known, elocutionist, child, prodigy, mostly, homeschooled, attend, formal, institution. Jennie Scott Griffiths October 30 1875 June 29 1951 was an American newspaper editor journalist and political and women s rights activist Born in Texas from the age of two she performed as an orator and was a well known elocutionist and child prodigy Mostly homeschooled she did attend formal institutions briefly and learned shorthand and typing Her first job was typing the History of Texas from 1685 to 1892 Then she worked as a journalist and as a promoter for the Hagey Institute which led to her traveling abroad While on a world tour to promote the institute she went to Fiji and married Griffiths began editing for the Fiji Times a newspaper owned by her husband In 1913 the family moved to Australia where she became active in feminist labor and socialist organizations As a pacifist she opposed drafting personnel for war service She wrote regularly for The Australian Worker and the socialist press In the 1920s her family moved to San Francisco and naturalized as American citizens She worked on the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration and continued publishing in journals like the Industrial Worker She served as the secretary of the California branch of the National Woman s Party in the 1940s and lectured frequently in favor of the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment Her papers are housed in the National Library of Australia Jennie Scott GriffithsGriffiths Brisbane 1920BornJennie Scott Wilson 1875 10 30 October 30 1875Woodville Texas U S DiedJune 29 1951 1951 06 29 aged 75 San Francisco California U S CitizenshipUnited States until 1897 United Kingdom 1897 1928 United States from 1928 Occupation s Journalist activistYears active1893 1951EmployersFiji TimesAustralian Woman s Weeklyfreelance writerKnown forFeminist labor and socialist organizingpacifismChildren10 including Ciwa Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2 1 Fiji 1896 1912 2 2 Australia 1913 1920 2 3 United States 1920 1951 3 Death and legacy 4 Notes 5 References 5 1 Citations 5 2 Bibliography 6 External linksEarly life and education editJennie Scott Wilson was born on October 30 1875 near Woodville in a log cabin built by her father on the banks of Wolf Creek in Tyler County Texas to Laura Cowart nee Nettles and Stephen Randolph Wilson 1 2 3 Her mother was from Louisiana 4 and her father known as Randolph was a cotton farmer from Tennessee 1 He had served in Hood s Texan Brigade of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and her mother had lost all of her brothers in the conflict 2 Notes 1 After their marriage the couple would have two daughters together R Ellen b 1874 and Jennie 2 8 9 who was named after a family friend 3 Wilson was the youngest child very small for her age weighing only 14 pounds 6 4 kg at nearly age three as an adult she stood 4 feet 9 inches 145 cm and was considered a child prodigy in elocution 2 3 She began to deliver speeches when she was just two years old and went on to cover subjects such as temperance and spirituality when addressing veterans groups and Sunday schools 2 The orations were written by her father or included well known works such as Rose Hartwick Thorpe s Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight and Edgar Allan Poe s The Raven and were presented throughout the state 2 3 She also recited prose and poetry for which newspapers reported about her remarkable memorization skills 10 11 At the end of her performances she collected offerings from the audience 3 The family moved to Limestone County Texas when she was young first settling in Pottersville and later in Lost Prairie 3 When Wilson was twelve the family moved again settling in Huntsville Texas She enrolled in school for the first time there but quickly rose to the top of the class and left 2 continuing her education with a tutor at home studying the works of Edward Bellamy Charles Darwin Henry George Thomas Huxley and Thomas Paine 1 The family moved again in 1890 to Austin and Wilson began learning shorthand and typing at a local business school 3 Notes 2 She did not finish the course as she received a job offer to type John Henry Brown s History of Texas from 1685 to 1892 3 In 1893 she moved to San Antonio and began writing for and editing the youth column of the journal Texas Farmer 16 17 Simultaneously she also began working as a court reporter and became involved in the work of the Hagey Institute an organization which promised to cure alcoholism and narcotic addiction 1 16 Her main income came from her promotional work with Hagey frequently traveling from Texas to California Colorado and Mexico over the next three years on their behalf 16 Career editFiji 1896 1912 edit In 1896 Wilson left Texas with her half brother Thomas Cowart and his family to promote the establishment of Hagey Institutes internationally After stopping in Honolulu Hawaii the group made their way to Auckland New Zealand before arriving in Suva Fiji 16 Upon her arrival she met Arthur George Griffiths oldest son of the editor of the Fiji Times newspaper Arthur proposed to her upon their meeting and despite her brother s protests the two were married the following day November 9 1897 at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral in Suva 16 18 Under the nationality laws in place at the time United States nationals who were women lost their nationality upon marriage as it was assumed that they acquired the nationality of their husband 19 20 Because of the legislation Wilson lost her United States citizenship 21 Fiji at the time was a British colony and under the Fijian nationality law Europeans living in Fiji were British subjects 22 23 Under terms of the British Aliens Act 1844 foreign women marrying British husbands became British subjects 24 The couple would have ten children together Randolph 1898 Tom 1900 Don 1901 Max 1902 Laura 1903 Leonard 1905 Stephen 1907 Leonie 1908 Ciwa 1911 and Hazel 1913 1 16 Despite her duties as a mother Griffiths became a contributor and editor at the Fiji Times out of financial necessity The couple engaged a nanny to help with the children and both Arthur and she worked as unpaid help to keep the paper going When Jennie s father in law George Littleton Griffiths died in 1908 Arthur inherited the businesses He had little training in writing as he had focused on the management side of the business and keeping the equipment running 25 As Griffiths experience was in writing she took over editing the paper and wrote a regular column Passing Notes a society page as well as reporting on the news including coverage of foreign events and the legislature 1 26 Arthur was not suited to running the business and because of a lack of schooling opportunities Griffiths urged him to sell it so that they could relocate to Australia in 1912 27 Australia 1913 1920 edit Australian Woman s Weekly redirects here Not to be confused with The Australian Women s Weekly Arthur invested the proceeds from the sale in a large house in Sydney and the B amp R Motor Company The business went bankrupt causing them to have to move As the children reached the age of fourteen each had to go to work to help with the family finances 27 Three months after having given birth to her last child in 1913 Griffiths went to work at Australian Woman s Weekly a women s journal which was operated by Denton amp Spencer from 1911 to 1921 before folding 28 Notes 3 The paper focused on household hints fashion handicrafts and short fiction pieces Under her editorship Griffiths began to add articles on professional women and employment issues as well as political and social movements 29 Eventually she added more radical commentary in an opinion column which covered issues such as cooperative child care centers and kitchens to help the poor the plight of unemployed women immigrants equal pay child welfare programs legal reforms of divorce laws women s participation in politics sexual hygiene and birth control 1 30 By 1915 Griffiths was publishing articles in other journals and newspapers like The Australian Worker Sydney s The International Socialist and The Sunday Times which allowed her to express her pacifist and socialist views 30 By 1916 she was publishing more articles on feminism and politics in other journals than she was writing for Australian Woman s Weekly 31 In the debates on the draft which emerged in women s groups in 1916 and 1917 after Australia entered into World War I she argued strongly against the policy 32 She joined organizations like the Australian Labor Party Social Democratic League the Women s Anti Conscription Committee and the Women s Peace Army and actively took an anti war stance She participated in peace demonstrations petition drives and used her skill from her youth as an elocution performer to speak perched upon boxes in the street proclaiming the evils of war and its ties to power and wealth for those who benefited from the profits of increased manufacturing of weapons and other war related products 31 These activities led the publishers of the Australian Woman s Weekly to fire her in October 1916 31 After her termination Griffiths was unable to find permanent employment and took assignments to write articles for numerous papers both in and out of Australia In addition to publishing in the Sunday Times the International Socialist and Brisbane s Daily Standard she wrote articles on feminism and against the war for Britain s Social Democrat and Chicago s Industrial Worker 33 She also wrote articles criticizing racism and the prosecution of people who opposed the war 34 Federal policies in favor of the war the uncertain employment of both herself and Arthur and the fact that T J Ryan Premier of Queensland was the only remaining Labor Party leader in power convinced Griffiths to move to Queensland in 1917 where the family settled in Brisbane 1 35 She became very active there speaking at meetings in support of the Bolshevik revolution International Workers Day and the Sydney Twelve members of the Industrial Workers of the World who had been arrested and charged with treason 1 She attempted to revive the Queensland Socialist League and was involved in the Red Flag riots both in sewing banners and participating in demonstrations 1 36 When participants in the March 1919 protest were arrested she campaigned for their release but was disillusioned by the Australian turn toward conservatism and decided after the prisoner release to return to the United States 37 United States 1920 1951 edit In June 1920 Griffiths returned to Texas first settling in San Benito in Cameron County 1 38 Family members followed a few at a time over several months with some of the boys taking positions as crew on sailing vessels to pay for their passage 37 Two of her sons Randolph and Don remained behind in Australia 21 In 1922 they were back in San Antonio and Griffiths was campaigning for the pardon of George McKinley Grace a Black man who had been found guilty of assaulting a White woman Griffiths and his other supporters opposed his hanging believing that he was wrongfully convicted but they were unsuccessful 39 40 Unable to make a living there by 1923 the family had moved to San Francisco California 1 21 She became a regular contributor of poetry to the Industrial Worker and wrote for the San Francisco Examiner and other local newspapers 21 She was involved in speaking engagements and activities of the Children s Protection Society the Women s International League for Peace and Freedom the Women s Peace Union and the National Woman s Party 21 41 42 In 1928 she regained her United States nationality when she and Arthur naturalized 1 21 During the 1930s Griffiths was recognized in the book American Women Poets of 1937 published by Henry Harrison in 1937 43 and was involved in the California division of the Federal Writers Project for the Works Progress Administration 1 She gave lectures and worked for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1940s and in 1943 was elected as secretary treasurer of the California branch of the National Woman s Party 44 45 Griffiths was one of the featured lecturers on women s gains toward equality for the National Woman s Party s commemoration of Susan B Anthony s 125th birthday in 1945 21 46 In 1947 she was one of the women honored by the National Woman s Party for their work to gain suffrage and advance women s rights and in 1949 she was the California delegate to the party convention 47 48 Death and legacy editGriffiths died on June 29 1951 in San Francisco and was buried on July 2 at the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Colma California 1 49 Her papers were donated to the National Library of Australia in 1993 50 The leather bag which was presented to her by the Red Flag prisoners for whose release she had pressed is also part of the collection of her memorabilia at the National Library 37 Griffiths is remembered as an activist who championed equal opportunity and equal rights for women in part because she was often the main breadwinner in her family and in part because of her beliefs and idealism to defend those she felt had been wronged by social conventions and injustice 51 Her daughter Ciwa became a pioneering speech therapist who founded the HEAR Center in California and spent her career advocating for the use of technology and speech education to help people with hearing difficulties 21 52 Notes edit Laura had previously been married to William J Cowart and had four children with him Thomas b 1860 John b 1862 William b 1864 and James b 1866 4 5 Randolph had previously been married to Rachael A Charlton with whom he had three children Mary b 1854 J C b 1856 and Sarah b 1864 6 7 8 Wilson later claimed that she enrolled in law school in 1890 at the University of Texas at Austin but left before graduating because women were not allowed to practice law 1 12 The university credits Ella Crim Lynch as the first woman to enroll in 1906 in their law school 13 and the Texas District and County Attorneys Association confirms that women could not be licensed until 1913 14 A 1909 newspaper story about Griffiths published in The Panola Watchman indicates only that she attended business school in Austin when she was sixteen 3 Law school records for the University of Texas do not show Wilson as a student but do show her half brother Thomas Cowart as a student in 1892 15 T H Irving who wrote the entry on Griffiths for the Australian Dictionary of Biography speculated that she might have learned law from her brother 1 Per Clarke the Australian Woman s Weekly published by Denton amp Spencer had no affiliation with the current magazine The Australian Women s Weekly which was founded in 1931 28 References editCitations edit a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Irving 2002 a b c d e f g Clarke 2016 p 1 a b c d e f g h i The Panola Watchman 1909 p 7 a b US Census 1860 p 37 US Census 1870b p 68 Marriage Records 1854 US Census 1870a p 1 a b US Census 1880 p 32 The Daily Express 1906 p 7 The San Antonio Light 1884 p 1 The Fort Worth Daily Gazette 1888 p 6 Clarke 2016 pp 1 2 University of Texas at Austin 2021 Kaspar 2014 Tarlton Law Library 2021 a b c d e f Clarke 2016 p 2 The Democrat 1893 p 3 The Weimar Mercury 1898 p 7 Sapiro 1984 p 9 Smith 1998 p 1 a b c d e f g h Clarke 2016 p 12 Fransman 2011 p 925 Newbury 2011 p 45 Llewellyn Jones 1929 p 122 Clarke 2016 p 3 Clarke 2016 pp 3 4 a b Clarke 2016 p 4 a b Clarke 2016 pp 5 8 Clarke 2016 p 5 a b Clarke 2016 p 6 a b c Clarke 2016 p 8 Clarke 2016 p 7 Clarke 2016 pp 8 9 Clarke 2016 p 9 Clarke 2016 pp 9 10 Clarke 2016 p 10 a b c Clarke 2016 p 11 The Worker 1920 p 20 The Austin American 1922a p 13 The Austin American 1922b p 8 The San Francisco Examiner 1951 p 27 The Peninsula Times Tribune 1925 p 1 The Press Democrat 1937 p 11 The Peninsula Times Tribune 1943 p 8 Los Angeles Daily News 1943 p 25 The Oakland Tribune 1945 p 35 The Oakland Tribune 1947 p 4 The Washington Post 1949 p 22 The Peninsula Times Tribune 1951 p 9 National Library of Australia 1993 Clarke 2016 pp 12 13 Leisure World News 2004 p 37 Bibliography edit Clarke Patricia December 2016 Jennie Scott Griffiths How A Conservative Texan Became a Radical Socialist and Feminist in World War I Australia ISAA Review 15 2 Canberra Australian Capital Territory Independent Scholars Association of Australia 31 51 ISSN 1444 0881 OCLC 8600186764 Retrieved September 19 2022 Cited page numbers refer to on line version Fransman Laurie 2011 Fransman s British Nationality Law 3rd ed Haywards Heath West Sussex Bloomsbury Professional ISBN 978 1 84592 095 1 Irving T H 2002 Scott Griffiths Jennie 1875 1951 In Ritchie John Langmore Diane eds Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 16 1940 1980 Pik Z Acton Australian Capital Territory Australian National University ISBN 978 0 522 84997 4 Retrieved September 18 2022 Kaspar Lori J March April 2014 Meet Nellie Gray Robertson the First Female County Attorney in Texas The Texas Prosecutor Austin Texas Texas District and County Attorneys Association Archived from the original on October 20 2021 Retrieved September 19 2022 Llewellyn Jones Frederick 1929 The Nationality of Married Women Transactions of the Grotius Society 15 London Grotius Society 121 138 ISSN 1479 1234 JSTOR 742756 OCLC 5544683551 Retrieved March 25 2021 Newbury Colin June 2011 History Hermeneutics and Fijian Ethnic Paramountcy Reflections on the Deed of Cession of 1874 The Journal of Pacific History 46 1 London Taylor amp Francis 27 57 doi 10 1080 00223344 2011 573631 ISSN 0022 3344 JSTOR 41343775 OCLC 7973272270 S2CID 142204566 Retrieved May 2 2021 Sapiro Virginia March 1984 Women Citizenship and Nationality Immigration and Naturalization Policies in the United States Politics amp Society 13 1 Thousand Oaks California SAGE Publications 1 26 doi 10 1177 003232928401300101 ISSN 0032 3292 OCLC 4650679194 S2CID 153555230 Retrieved December 11 2020 Smith Marian L Summer 1998 Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married Women and Naturalization ca 1802 1940 Prologue Magazine 30 2 Washington D C U S National Archives and Records Administration 146 153 part 1 part 2 ISSN 0033 1031 OCLC 208742006 1860 US Census Jasper County Texas FamilySearch Washington D C National Archives and Records Administration August 3 1860 p 37 NARA Microfilm series M653 Roll 1298 lines 37 40 Retrieved September 18 2022 subscription required 1870 US Census Woodville Tyler County Texas FamilySearch Washington D C National Archives and Records Administration June 13 1870 p 1 NARA Microfilm series M593 Roll 1606 lines 16 20 Retrieved September 18 2022 subscription required 1870 US Census Tyler County Texas FamilySearch Washington D C National Archives and Records Administration July 16 1870 p 68 NARA Microfilm series M593 Roll 1606 lines 36 40 Retrieved September 18 2022 subscription required 1880 US Census Limestone County Texas FamilySearch Washington D C National Archives and Records Administration June 14 1880 p 32 NARA Microfilm series T9 Roll 1317 lines 9 16 Retrieved September 18 2022 subscription required Council Names New Officers Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles California June 2 1943 p 25 Retrieved September 20 2022 via California Digital Newspaper Collection Died at Age of 71 The Daily Express Vol 41 no 269 San Antonio Texas September 26 1906 p 7 Retrieved September 20 2022 via The Portal to Texas History Dr Ciwa Griffiths Leisure World News Laguna Hills California January 8 2004 p 37 Retrieved September 21 2022 via Newspaperarchive com Equal Rights The Washington Post No 26594 Washington D C April 8 1949 p 22 Retrieved September 21 2022 Grace to Hang Neff Decides The Austin American Vol 8 no 211 Austin Texas January 4 1922 p 8 Retrieved September 20 2022 via The Portal to Texas History Guide to the Papers of Jennie Scott Griffiths Trove Canberra Australian Capital Territory National Library of Australia 1993 MS 1071 et al Archived from the original on January 5 2022 Retrieved September 18 2022 History Makers The First Women At Texas Law University of Texas School of Law Austin Texas University of Texas at Austin March 8 2021 Archived from the original on November 28 2021 Retrieved September 19 2022 Jennie Scott Wilson The San Antonio Light San Antonio Texas March 20 1884 p 1 Retrieved September 19 2022 via Newspapers com Miss Jennie Scott Wilson The Democrat Mckinney Texas August 17 1893 p 3 Retrieved September 19 2022 via Newspapers com Mrs Griffiths Rites Held The San Francisco Examiner San Francisco California July 3 1951 p 27 Retrieved September 18 2022 via Newspapers com Mrs Jennie Griffiths Kin of Wilson Dies The Peninsula Times Tribune Palo Alto California July 3 1951 p 9 Retrieved September 18 2022 via Newspapers com Pioneers of Suffrage To Be Honored at Reception The Oakland Tribune Oakland California California November 22 1947 p 4 Retrieved September 20 2022 via California Digital Newspaper Collection Printed on Bark The Weimar Mercury Weimar Texas January 22 1898 p 7 Retrieved September 19 2022 via Newspapers com Seek Pardon in Death Case The Austin American Vol 8 no 209 Austin Texas January 1 1922 p 13 Retrieved September 20 2022 via The Portal to Texas History Sumner County Tennessee Marriage Records Charlton Wilson FamilySearch Nashville Tennessee Tennessee State Library and Archives July 25 1854 Sumner County 1850 1859 volume L Z Retrieved September 18 2022 subscription required Texas Girl in Fiji Islands The Panola Watchman Vol 37 no 2 Carthage Texas July 21 1909 p 7 Retrieved September 19 2022 via The Portal to Texas History The Department of Law 1890 1899 Tarlton Law Library Austin Texas University of Texas School of Law 2021 pp 1890 1891 1892 Archived from the original on September 19 2022 Retrieved September 19 2022 Woman s Party Hears Debate on Equality Bill The Peninsula Times Tribune Palo Alto California March 12 1943 p 8 Retrieved September 20 2022 via Newspapers com Woman s Party Honor Founder The Oakland Tribune Oakland California California February 11 1945 p 35 Retrieved September 20 2022 via Newspapers com Women s Successes Responsibilities Are Outlined by Speaker The Peninsula Times Tribune Palo Alto California January 9 1925 p 1 Retrieved September 20 2022 via Newspapers com Woman s Ways The Worker Brisbane Queensland November 25 1920 p 20 Retrieved September 20 2022 via Trove Women Poets Known in Bay Cities Recorded in Book The Press Democrat Vol 81 no 309 Santa Rosa California December 26 1937 p 11 Retrieved September 20 2022 via California Digital Newspaper Collection Woodville The Fort Worth Daily Gazette Fort Worth Texas January 14 1888 p 6 Retrieved September 19 2022 via Newspapers com External links editPhotographs Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Jennie Scott Griffiths amp oldid 1167795952, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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