POLLY PRY AND MOLLY BROWNModupe Labode, NEH Seminar, July 13, 2010

Introduction

Modupe Labode, Assistant Professor of History and Museum Studies at IUPUI (Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis).

Email: mlabode@iupui.edu Worked as a docent at the Molly Brown House

Museum and as Chief Historian of Colorado Historical Society

Introduced to Leonel Ross Anthony O’Bryan through Kristen Iversen’s biography of Margaret Brown.

Why does Polly Pry matter?

Fits the model of a western women about whom tall tales have been told: Alfred Packer connection “Sob sister”

What do we discover about journalism, society, and gender when we go deeper into the story?

All images, unless otherwise noted, are from the Denver Public Library website.

Source of Images:

Polly Pry

Leonel Ross Campbell Anthony O’Bryan. Born in Mississippi in 1857 Died in Denver, 1938

Denver Post, founded in 1893

Founded by Frederick Bonfils and Henry Tammen

“So the People May Know.”

Embellished story of Pry and Bonfils meeting in Timberline, by Gene Fowler

Image: Frederick Bonfils with Amelia Earhart, 1931

Simon Guggenheim

1867-1941: Born in Philadelphia

Moved to Colorado in 1888, first to Pueblo and then to Denver.

Head of Philadelphia Smelter US Senator from Colorado,

1907-1913 Moved to NY: Head of

American Smelting and Refining

He established he John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 1925 in memory of his son, who died as a teenager in 1922.

Charles Hoyt, playwright, 1859-1900

How would you use this article? Example of political

reporting? Gender issues in the

west? Influence of the

theatre? Origins of philanthropy? Example of popular

anti-Semitism?

Image: USS Maine

http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html

Alfred Packer, 1842-1907

“Man-eater of the San Juans”

Hinsdale County, Colorado

Alfred Packer’s Release

Polly Pry, Denver Post, and Packer

Paroled in 1901 Died in Littleton,

CO in1907. Resources:

Colorado State Archives

http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/pen/packer/

Labor Struggles

Mine Owners’ Associations

Labor Organizing in hard-rock mining (silver and gold) led by the Western Federation of Miners

Organizing in coal fields

Colorado’s Labor Wars Vincent St. John

Polly Pry Journal, 1903-1905: Covered society and politics

1340 Pennsylvania Ave. & 1344 Pennsylvania Ave: William Henry Jackson, photographer

Margaret Brown, Leadville, 1889 with Larry and sister Ellen

Polly Pry on Margaret Brown (Iversen: 138)

“Mrs. Brown was Irish, when Leadville saw her first, with a certain charm and frankness that went well with the face full of irregular features and laughing blue eyes, [although] the mouth generally smiling was not altogether lacking in good qualities.”

Helen Brown, dressed in a “medieval costume,” ca. 1900, Denver

From Polly Pry, Feb. 11, 1905

“Helen Brown, the Titianesque beauty, will at look well in the play. . .Here’s luck to the annual Lindsey-bad-boy-Mrs.-J.J. Brown-show. We’ll all be there Molly darlin’”

Helen Brown Benzinger (left) and Margaret Brown, Littleton, Colorado, 1909.

Margaret Brown, Denver, ca. 1900-1910

From Polly Pry, Nov. 26, 1904

“Mrs. Eddy-Ernest Smith was there, chaperone by Mrs. Rose; Mrs. J.J. Brown looked like a full-blown tiger lily. . .”

Margaret Brown, Denver, ca. 1910-1914.

From Polly Pry, April 15, 1905

Our New Philanthropist

So Mrs. Brown has leased a mine

To help the youngsters! Well, that’s fine

All that it makes will go to aid

The juveniles!. . .

I doff my hat to Mrs. Brown!

Philanthropy is scarce in town. . .

Margaret Brown, ca. 1915

From Polly Pry, Dec. 13, 1904

“Some of our society matrons have a pretty wit of their own—especially when enhanced by an Irish quickness to see and opportunity and take advantage of it. . .”

Polly Pry and Colorado’s Labor Wars WFM activities in hard-rock mining areas as well as

smelting areas (Telluride, Silverton, Durango, Georgetown, Cripple Creek, Victor, etc.) WFM leaders: Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer,

Attempts by coal miners to organize under the United Mine Workers of America (UMW)—led by John Mitchell

Widespread union activity and organization (carpenters, hod-carriers, waiters, bakers, electricians, teamsters, barbers, etc.)

Governor James Peabody repeatedly called out the Colorado National Guard in mining regions during 1903-1904

Many business and mine owners organized Citizens Alliances.

Cripple Creek during the strike, September 1903

Cripple Creek Strike: National Guard, 1903

Polly Pry, April 2, 1904: On Colorado’s labor conflict

“A dangerous spirit is abroad in our land. It is bringing ruin and desolation upon thousands of people. It threatens the very life and soul of our most cherished institutions. It is a hydra-headed evil, replete with possibilities for infinite calamity. . . It is a think of foreign growth. Its disciples know nothing of the spirit of liberty, of broad tolerance, and splendid independence that animates the American people. It is called—anarchy, and its twin brothers are ignorance and assassination.”

Mother Jones (Image from history.umd.edu)

Mary Harris: born in Ireland in 1830

1901-1904 Organizer for the United Miners Workers of America, a time when the union was attempting to organize in Colorado, among other places

Image: http://www.history.umd.edu/Gompers/update/motherjones.htm

Polly Pry vs. Mother Jones

From Polly Pry, March 5, 1904, p. 15

“. . . ‘Mother’ Jones, otherwise Mary Harris, alias Pauline Blair, who, according to the police records, trafficked in the vileness of one sex and the degradation of another in Denver, Omaha, Kansas City, even far-off San Francisco.

“Who, herself, while mistress of a house which is now 2114 Market Street, had a consort known as ‘Black-leg!’”

Rumor picked up in newspapers such as Deseret Evening News (Utah).

Image: http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/majones.htm

Impact of Rumor

“If the biography of ‘Mother Jones’. . .is true, intelligent coal miners with handsome buxom young daughters, should hesitate in taking ‘Mother’ in their homes . . .”

“No good woman will blaspheme the character of another. ‘Mother Jones,’ we believe is much more sincere in her mission among strikers than Polly Pry is among the Capitol Hill elite of Denver. . .”

Telluride Journal: 1/7/04 Silverton Standard: 1/16/04

From The Autobiography of William D. Haywood (1929): page 135

“A notorious magazine, called Polly Pry’s Magazine, printed a frightful tirade against Mother Jones. John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers seemed to think that there was some truth in the things that were written, and to his lasting disgrace, he discharged Mother Jones as an organizer, after all the brave work she had done for the miners of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. I was glad to get her as an organizer for the WFM. She worked for us a short time during the Cripple Creek strike, but then took up her work among the coal miners again.”

Blatherskite: Merriam-Webster Dictionary Main Entry: blath·er·skite Pronunciation: \ˈbla-thər-ˌskīt\ Function: noun Etymology: Scots, alteration of blather

skate, from blather, blether blather + skate a contemptible person

Date: circa 16501 : a person who blathers a lot2 : nonsense, blather

How do we discuss this rumor? Letter in Miners’

Magazine: “What do You Think It?” by George Hilleary

Gender and Sexuality Journalism and Ethics Mother Jones remained

active in Colorado (and elsewhere). She died 1930

Image: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/motherjones/p/mother_jones.htm

Colorado National Guard in front of Independence Mine, 1903

Independence Depot, June 6, 1904: 13 non-union miners were killed in the explosion

Polly Pry: The Later Years

Journal closed in 1905 Began the short-lived Saturday Sun Wrote plays, short stories Reported for a Denver Times during

Mexican Revolution (ca. 1914), and therefore wrote little about the 1913-1914 coal strike and Ludlow Massacre in April 1914.

April 1914: Ludlow Massacre

Polly Pry: Later Years

Life after World War I Lakeside Amusement Park Died in Denver in 1938 Obituary, Denver Post, July 16, 1938, p. 1“‘Polly Pry’ passes to ‘The Next Scene’: Mrs.

Leonel Ross O’Bryan, One of the Most Brilliant Stars in American Journalism, Dies of Heart Attack After Long Illness. . . Wherever she went, eyes followed Polly Pry. . .”

Thank you!