



Produced by Ari J Joki and PG Distributed Proofreaders




Caroline M. Morse, editor

  JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY
    "JENNY JUNE"


1904



[Illustration: Portrait]

[Illustration: Facsimile of signature
              "With sincere affection
               yours-ever
                      J.C. Croly"]



       Memories of
  Jane Cunningham Croly
      "Jenny June"



                TO THE
   GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS
              IN AMERICA
  THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

                  BY

        THE WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB

                  OF
            NEW YORK CITY

Foreword


On January 6, 1902, a Memorial Meeting was called by Sorosis jointly
with the Woman's Press Club of New York City, and a month later the
Press Club formally authorized the preparation of a Memorial Book to
its Founder and continuous President to the day of her death, Jane
Cunningham Croly.

In addition to a biographical sketch to be prepared by her brother,
the Rev. John Cunningham, this book, so it was planned, should contain
such letters, or excerpts from letters, as would illustrate her
lovable personality and her life philosophy.

A Committee of Publication was appointed, consisting of Mrs. Caroline
M. Morse, Chairman, Mrs. Mary Coffin Johnson, Mrs. Haryot Holt Dey,
Mrs. Miriam Mason Greeley, Miss Anna Warren Story and Mrs. Margaret W.
Ravenhill. These began their work by sending a printed slip to club
members and to Mrs. Croly's known intimates, asking for her letters.
But the response came almost without variation: "My letters from Mrs.
Croly are of too personal a nature for publication." A few, however,
were freely offered, and these it was decided should be used,
depending for the bulk of the Memorial upon copious extracts from
Mrs. Croly's "History of the Woman's Club Movement in America," from
her editorial work on _The Cycle_, and from her miscellaneous
writings. To this characteristic material her long cherished friends,
Mr. and Mrs. Thaddeus B. Wakeman, added an account of the "Positivist
Episode," that objective point in her career, with which her husband
was closely identified.

With these are: Mrs. Croly's Club Life, a sketch by Mrs. Haryot Holt
Dey; the Sorosis-Press Club Memorial Meeting; the Resolutions of the
Woman's Press Club of New York City, the General Federation of Clubs,
and the Society of American Women in London; tributes from London
clubwomen; Essays and Addresses; Letters and Stray Leaves and Notes,
written by Mrs. Croly; tributes from many of her friends, and my own
recollections.

                    CAROLINE M. MORSE,
                                   Chairman.




Contents


  "JENNY JUNE."--Ethel Morse

  A BROTHER'S MEMORIES.--John Cunningham, D.D.

  SOROSIS-PRESS CLUB MEMORIAL MEETING ADDRESSES:
    Dimies T.S. Denison
    Charlotte B. Wilbour
    Phebe A. Hanaford
    Orlena A. Zabriskie
    Carrie Louise Griffin
    Cynthia Westover Alden
    May Riley Smith
    Fanny Hallock Carpenter

  RESOLUTIONS AND TRIBUTES FROM CLUBS:
    Resolutions of the New York State Federation
    From the Croly Memorial Fund of the Pioneer Club of London

  THE POSITIVIST EPISODE.--Thaddeus B. Wakeman

  MRS. CROLY'S CLUB LIFE.--Haryot Holt Dey

  ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES BY JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY:
    Beginnings of Organization
    The Moral Awakening
    The Advantages of a General Federation of Women's Clubs
    The Clubwoman
    The New Life
    The Days That Are
    A People's Church

  NOTES, LETTERS, AND STRAY LEAVES.--Jane Cunningham Croly

  THE TRIBUTES OF FRIENDS:
    Miriam Mason Greeley
    Marie Etienne Burns
    Izora Chandler
    Janie C.P. Jones
    Catherine Weed Barnes Ward
    Sara J. Lippincott--"Grace Greenwood"
    Jennie de la M. Lozier
    Genie H. Rosenfeld
    S.A. Lattimore
    Ellen M. Staples
    Margaret W. Ravenhill
    T.C. Evans
    St. Clair McKelway
    Laura Sedgwick Collins
    Mary Coffin Johnson
    Caroline M. Morse
    Ella Wheeler Wilcox




Illustrations


  JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY (JENNY JUNE) AT THE AGE OF 61

  MRS. CROLY AT THE AGE OF 40 (ABOUT THE TIME
  SOROSIS WAS INAUGURATED)

  FACSIMILE OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE
  WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB OF NEW YORK, JANUARY
  11, 1902

  FACSIMILE OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE
  SOCIETY OF AMERICAN WOMEN IN LONDON,
  MARCH 24, 1902

  DAVID GOODMAN CROLY

  FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF A LETTER WRITTEN
  BY MRS. CROLY, OCTOBER, 1900

  MRS. CROLY AT THE AGE OF 18




Jenny June


  The South Wind blows across the harrowed fields,
    And lo! the young grain springs to happy birth;
  His warm breath lingers where the granite shields
    Intruding flowers, and the responsive Earth
  Impartially her varied harvest yields.
    Through long ensuing months with tender mirth
    The South Wind laughs, rejoicing in the worth
  Of the impellent energies he wields.

    Within our minds the memory of a Name
  Will move, and fires of inspiration that burned low
    Among dead embers break in quickening flame;
  Flowers of the soul, grain of the heart shall grow,
  And burgeoned promises shall bravely blow
    Beneath the sunny influence of Her fame.

ETHEL MORSE.




A Brother's Memories

_By John Cunningham, D.D._


The most interesting and potent fact within the range of human
knowledge is personality, and in the person of Jane Cunningham Croly
(Jenny June) a potency was apparent which has affected the social life
of more women, perhaps, than any other single controlling factor of
the same period.

Jane Cunningham was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire,
England, December 19, 1829. She was the fourth child of Joseph H. and
Jane Cunningham, and though small in stature and delicate in organism,
was full of vivacity, and abounding in natural intelligence. Her rich
brown hair, blue eyes and clear complexion proclaimed her of
Anglo-Saxon origin. She was the idol of her parents and the admiration
of her school teachers. Her comradeship with her father began early in
life and was continued to the time of his death. The family came to
the United States in 1841, making their home at first in Poughkeepsie,
and afterwards in or near Wappinger's Falls, where the father bought a
large building-lot and erected a neat and commodious house, which
remained in the possession of the family until sold by Mrs.
Cunningham after the death of her husband. The lot was soon converted
into a garden by its owner who tilled it with the spade and allowed no
plough to be used in his little Eden. It was characteristic of his
generous spirit, too, that none of the surplus product was ever sold,
but was freely given to less favored neighbors. Happy years were spent
by Mr. Cunningham in his shop, in his garden, with his books, and in
visiting his daughter Jennie in New York after her marriage when she
became established there. It was as nearly an ideal life as a modest
man could desire. He lived respected by the best people in the
community, and died in peace, with his children around him.

As I remember my sister in early life, the sunniness of her nature
is the first and prevailing characteristic that I call to mind;
occasional moods of reverie bordering on melancholy only made brighter
the habitual radiance and buoyancy of a nature that diffused happiness
all around her. She was a perfectly healthy girl in mind and body. A
sound mind in a sound body was her noble heritage. She was always
extremely temperate in food and drink, fastidious in all her tastes
and personal habits, indulgent never beyond the dictates of perfect
simplicity and sobriety. Proficient in all branches of housekeeping,
her apparel was mostly of her own making. Good literature was a
passion with her, and while never an omnivorous reader, she had a
natural instinct for the best in language. A spirit of indomitable
independence, courage and persistence in purpose characterized her
from childhood. She must think her own thoughts, and mark out and
follow her own path. Suffering from a degree of physical timidity that
at times caused her much pain, she possessed a spirit that sometimes
seemed to border on audacity in the assertion and maintenance of her
own convictions. From childhood she developed a personality which
charmed all with whom she came in contact. Persons of both sexes,
young and old, the sober and the gay, alike fell under the influence
of her magnetic power. Living for a time in the family of her brother,
to whom she proffered her services as housekeeper when he was pastor
of a Union church in Worcester County, Mass., she drew to her all
sorts of people by the brightness and charm of her personality.
Self-forgetful and genuine, interested in all about her, she lived
only to serve others, valuing lightly all that she did. Here it was
that her remarkable capacity for journalism first developed itself.
One of the means by which she interested the community was the public
reading of a semi-monthly paper, every line of which was written by
herself and a fellow worker. The reading of that paper every
fortnight, to an audience that crowded the church, was an event in her
history.

Jennie was no dreamer. She was no speculative theorist spinning
impossible things out of the cobwebs of her brain. She was no Hypatia
striving to restore the gods of the past, revelling in a brilliant
cloudland of symbolisms and affinities. If she was caught in the mist
at any time, she soon came out of it and found her footing in the
practical realities of daily life. Never over-reverential, she never
called in question the deeper realities of soul-life. She was no
ascetic: she would have made a poor nun. But she was a born preacher
if by preaching is meant the annunciation of a gospel to those who
need it. Jennie was always an ardent devotee of her sex, and whatever
else she believed in, she certainly believed in women, their instincts
and capacities.

In the year 1856, on February 14th, St. Valentine's Day, my sister
Jennie was married to David G. Croly, a reporter for the New York
_Herald,_ and they began life in the city on his meagre salary of
fourteen dollars a week. The gifted young wife, however, soon found
work for herself on the _World_, the _Tribune_, the _Times_, _Noah's
Sunday Times_ and the _Messenger_. The first money she received for
writing was in return for an article published in the New York
_Tribune_. Their joint career in metropolitan journalism was
interrupted however by a short term of residence in Rockford,
Illinois, where Mr. Croly was invited to become editor of the Rockford
_Register_, then owned by William Gore King, the husband of our
sister Mary A. Cunningham. Mr. Croly was aided in the editorial
management by his wife, and while the work was agreeable and
successful, it was due to Mrs. Croly's ardent desire for a larger
field, that at the end of a year they decided to return to New York.
The results for both abundantly justified the change. As managing
editor of the daily _World_ for a number of years