NAWSA GEN CORRESP DEY, HARYOT H. now I am out of the way! My sons are magnificent men, and I have lived long enough to know that good men do not happen! Don't let me be sad--but a friend has sent me the enclosed, and I am sending it to you. I have passed my 90th birthday, and my friends got quite excited about it. I put my arms around you and thank you for remembering me. Lovingly yours, Haryot Holt Dey 30 Glenbrook Road Stanford, Conn. March 16, 1947 Dear Miss Blackwell: Thank you for your greeting and the poems, quite two generations have come and gone since I knew the Blackwells. You were a very young lady. I lived in Little Rock. Browning says: "What I strove to be, and was not,--comforts me!" I am living in the Haegney Nursing Home--and am happy here. First I was in the way--and 625 Fairfield Ave Stanford, Conn Dec. 17/47 Dear A.S.B.:- (It seems a long time since we worked together for Suffrage.) Thank you for your lovely card and for remembering me-to send me the messages of love and wisdom! I am still here. I have two sons; one pays me visits and the other pays my board in this kindly Nursing Home. First, I was in the way; now I am out of the way! I send you 91 years of loving memory--all so interesting! Love to you and a Happy New Year. Haryot Holt Dey Darien, Conn., Dec. 6, '44 II Herman Ave. Dear Alice Stone Blackwell: Thank you for remembering me with the card and your verses. Your name was a familiar one when I lived in Little Rock nearly sixty years ago. My education started with THE WOMANS CHRONICLE as my neighbor Catherine Cunningham had invited me to be an associate editor. I feel so thrilled that you should remember me. The American Woman's Association of N.Y. gave a Friendship Tea on November 19, and I am enclosing a notice of the proceedings. When the Massachusets women had a party at Radcliffe, Laura Simmons send me the wonderful program. I have read that A.S.S. is not especially exuberant over the progress the women have made. I think that at the beginning of the era it was Jesus who put women on the map. At least he did away with the begetters. The enclosed program tells us that there were [75] 750 present with the TEA as $2.75 a cup (if that means anything.) I am Honorary President of the N.Y. Woman's Press Club. This letter carries to you the love and faithful memory. Affectionately yours, Haryot Holt Dey Dec 14/39 New York-101 W. 85th St Dear Alice Stone Blackwell:- How pleased I am to have your card! The last card from you is in my secret drawer in my desk- and I have just been looking at it. All these years! The card has on it verses by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Stetson)-- about an anti suffragist ! The Womans Journal back in 1895 when I was Associate Editor of The Womans Chronicle in Little Rock! Thank you for not forgetting me! My years are many and have been interesting, and I have tried to be faithful. I think of you as an institution, as I think of Lucy Stone and Henry B.B.--your noble background. Time seems to take his toll. I who went on four tracks at once, --both ways at the same time - am now a [?] in with a crutch to help me. Old friends are sweet to come to see me, and I have written my autobiography - "The Last Clinging Vine" = If it doesn't "go" -- all right ! - the diversion of writing it amused me, and it won't be missed ! Affectionately yours with a Christmas wish and a New Year Prophesy ! Harriet Holt Day 101 W. 85th St New York - Apr. 11/42 Dear A. S. B.: Beloved: - Thank you so much for remembering me; and for the lovely quotations on the Easter card - especially your own - from an understanding heart. As I begin on my second 85 stretch of life here, I look back to the time when your name and Lucy Stone's were household words! With an ear to the ground - back in 1873 - we heard the approaching footsteps of the "coming woman." When she arrived she became the "new woman." Now - with an ear to the ground we may hear the approaching footsteps of the matriarchy - very faintly - maybe 200 years hence? Maybe sooner. Gabriel Heater says "the world needs mothering." Good enough! Yes - as you say: "a better world shall yet be born," - I send you my love, Sincerely, Haryot Holt Dey Jan 11 - 1941 New York - 101 W. 85th St Dear Alice Stone Blackwell: It was heartening to be remembered with the inspiring messages you gathered together for your Holiday greeting. Mary Carolyn Davies gives us there lives: Not snow or sleet or cold or heat can ever quite prevail To stop these bits of paradise From coming through the mail Your name carries me back to the 1880's and "The Womans Journal" and Lucy Stone & H.B.B.! Reverent Memories! I learned on "The Woman's Chronicle" in Little Rock; it was my School of Journalism. On Feb 6 I begin my 85th trip across the calendar of Anno Domini. Affectionately yours, Haryot Holt Dey Darien, Conn., March 17, '45 II Berman Ave. Dear Alice Stone Blackwell: Thank you very much for your Easter card with its words of wisdom, your own verses--and for the pleasant memories it calls to my mind. It was in Little Rock--my date of knowing you. Evolution is a slow process of development, but the world do move. I am recalling that my neighbor, Catharine Cunningham came in to see me one winter morning, and after taking her seat on the floor directly back of the base burner stove, told as she was going to start a weekly paper to be called THE WOMANS CHRONICLE, and she would like to have me help her. I gathered from her that it was to be a suffrage paper, and asked her if Susan B. Anthony was respectable, and in a gray and uncompromising tone she said "Yes, she is respectable." . . . Thus I came to know you and your wondrous Mother. And now, here am I writing to you around seventy [*?] years later. Yes, evolution is slow, but if the Principle is there we finally arrive. I had great success in Park Row, and brought up my little boys to become such splendid men, now taking tender tender care of their Old Mother. Life has been wonderful. Our mutual friend, Laura Simmons, sent me the program of exercises when the Massachusetts Suffragists had their celebration at Radcliff. It was interesting. I hear from Laura occasionally. Not long ago two old gents, Uncle Sam and Father Time came up the road looking for me---Uncle Sam had to show him where I lived. Father Time gathered everything he found lying around loose, and finally gave me a receipt for my taxes. So here I am a shut-in with a crutch and a cane, not much eye sight, no hearing and only love and humor to stand by when needed. Thank you again for the quotations on your Easter card. I have a lovely step-grand'aughter living at 14 Hawthorn St., Cambridge. She is a bride, and her name now is Hohwieler. Her Mother is one of my choicest blessings. Thank you again, dear and beloved A.S.S. for your letter which has aroused tender memories. (Incidentally: I was the he head of the Press department of the Empire State Campaign Committeen, working with Mrs. Catt.) Yes, Evolution is slow, but it does get there. It was the Founder of the present Era who first put woman on the map. Let us not forget that. This letter is from an old and faithful friend whose name is Haryot holt Day [*(My fountain refuses to sign)] ALICE STONE BLACKWELL 1010 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. CAMBRIDGE 38, MASS. In these letters to Alice Stone Blackwell, Mrs. Haryot Holt Day, formerly of Arkansas, relates the main events of her life, and tells how she came to edit the Noman's Chronicle. RECORDER BRANCH of The International Sunshine Society, Inc. MRS. HARYOT HOLT DEY,. PRESIDENT 1[?] Herman Ave., Darien, Conn. December, 1945 Beloved: Instead of a Holiday card, I am sending you a copy of the International Sunshine Bulletin, which is dear to my heart. I was present at the [barning?] of the Sunshine Society, which occurred in the Editorial Department of the New York Recorder at 15 Spruce St. In 1896, when I was the editor of the Only Woman's page, before Cynthia Westover Alden took it over. I have contributed to the bulletin for several years. It is my contribution. Maybe you will subscribe? One dollar a year. Membership in Recorder Branch, of which I am president, is fifty cents annually. Wouldn't you like to join? Love to you, (Dictated but not signed) HARYOT HOLT DEY. P.S. This year marks the Golden Jubilee of the Sunshine Society. Money contributed to the Society is tax exempt. 11 Herman Ave Darien, Conn. Jan. 3, 1946 Dear Miss Blackwell-Beloved: You surely are the child of my old age. This period - in which I live, contains all the "answers." And as I say: "In the midst of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my Soul!" You are sweet to write to me. I love to hear from you. Was it in 1882 when I lived in Little Rock, Ark, that I knew 3 you - When you were Editor of "The Woman's Journal." It was our Bible. Also the little "Chronical" was my "School of Journalism." Miss Cunningham and Mrs. Brooks -teachers- taught school to support it. The Editors said "it supports seven people - the printer and his wife and their five children!" I must have had a lot of nerve, for when we moved to New York, I became the Editor of the "only woman's page" and 4 proceeded to tell the N.Y. women readers how to do it. Then too I knew something about the ballot for women -- and that was several steps in advance. Well, dear A.S.B. I brought up two sons, and they are magnificent men, and take good care of their momma. Forgive me for taking up so much of your time -- and now tell me something of yourself. This letter is from your loving friend Haryot Holt Dey [*I am sending you the Dec. + Jan. "Bulletin."*] Darien, Conn., August 10, '45 11 Herman Ave. Dear Miss Blackwell---Beloved: May I thank you for the beautiful BOSTONIA Magazine that is now on my table? The little lady in some of the illustrations [are] is fine too---as I have never seen you face to face, I WILL say that the pictures suit me. I also love President Marsh"s Baccalaureate Sermon on our Best Seller. ....How wonderful is life! That after all these years I should be writing to you! THE WOMAN'S CHRONICLE proved to be my School of Journalism. I am now the unofficial Dean of newspaper women in New York. I was the editor of the first woman's page in a N.Y. Daily paper. Then came the Suffrage period. I was the chairman of Press in Mrs. Catt's Empire State Campaign Committee. Can you send me a dictated letter telling me a lot of things? I am nearly blind and very [dead] deaf. Shall I send an ad' to the Little Rock paper asking is some one has a copy of the Chronicle? This letter is from a loving old friend named Haryot Holt Dey Darien, Conn., Aug. 11, '45 11 Herman Ave. Dear Alice Stone Blackwell---Beloved: I am so excited over your letter and the book about Pioneer Women that I cant wait. The vibrations are still bumping the ceiling. My machine--my cooperative, corresponding secretary invites me to spell out the following few lines today--more to follow.....I had always heard of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. I had understand that she had to rent a whole house in Boston [*NY*] in order to hang out her sign. Thank you for the book; I will return it later. "We gather shells from youth to age, and then we leave them, like a child." I was born in 1857--in [N?les] Michigan. I was an orphan at five, and the uncle who brought me up said he would rather see me married unhappily than for me to be independent. He had an ear to the ground in 1873, and heard the footsteps of the suffragists approaching. But I was married at eighteen, and lived in Little Rock, and it was there under the influence of Kate Cunningham in 1886 that I was her assistant editor of the Chronicle. My name was in the editorial corner as Mrs. W. Cahoon Jr. My husband had a habit of whistling to announce his coming. One day I was with Miss Cuningham when he whistled and I said: "I must go." She said: "Do you have to go when he whistles for you?" I learned to think things out, and later when we came East to N.Y. City, I 2 made a place for myself and even became the editor of the first Woman's page in a N.Y. daily paper. so you see the Chronicle was my School of Journalism. I ran into Arthur Brisbane and Helen Watterson. She said: "You can write, but you dont know what to write about" adding "if you will stick to me I will show you." That was in 1890. The Chronicle lasted about five years. From '86 to '91. In '88 I had a baby. The Editor od the Boston Transcript jeered and asked "Could a woman suffragist have a baby?" I was teased. It was called the Chronicle Baby. The Baby died. Miss Cunningham said: "Now that the Chronicle Baby is dead, the Chronicle will die." It did. We women editors were very unpopular in town. Our friends crossed the street to avoid cutting us. However, later, on when we presented our claim to the Constitutional Convention, it was only that there was a Motion ahead of us, and only one amendment was allowed, that we waited another twenty years. Then we had our story in the papers along with our pictures, and Arkansas was among the first in The South to sign the Amendment. Mr. Cunningham gave us a pair of Indian ponies and with the lovely Chronicle Baby in my lap we drove around about business. It's a story--true enough. Mr. Cunningham was a reformer. He ran for Vice President on the Populist ticket of Streeter & Cunningham. Later, Sunday, Aug. 12 Precious Dear: I was responding all night to your letter--with it under the pillow of my mind. The little book about Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell is a treasure. 3 I cannot thank you enough--nor can I lay it down. My one eye feels the effect of wear, but with a good light and my faithful corresponding, cooperative secretary. I shall continue with my letter. My life's work is in the bringing up of my two sons. I was left alone to do it, and it worked out to perfection. I have protection under the roof of the younger one, Stanley Cahoon, clerk of the Selectmen's Board, and of the Town Court. The older one is a proficient electrical engineer, for the past ten years with the TVA in Knoxville. He is my supply banker. The two men are my life's work. Aint that sumpin? In 1925 I wrote the story of how I did it, and I got 750 dollars for it in The American Magazine. That is really something else. I should state that Miss Kate and Mrs. Brooks another teacher-- taught school to support THE CHRONICLE. Miss Kate (as she was known to every kid in town) used to say: "The Chronicle supports seven people--the printer & his wife and five children." (It had a grim sound.) Did I say that Mrs. Brooks was an Associate Editor? She was. (There are some people and events that never die.) The International Sunshine Society is bringing out my book-- "A Talking Autobiography" -- entitled "Fifty Years of Sunshine." The society has its 50th anniversary in '46. I am sending you the August issue of their Bulletin. I have had a page of drivel in it for five years. My picture is an assent on youth. This letter is from a loving old friend whose name is (written but not signed) Haryot Holt Dey Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.