2570 / Winifred Gray

Winifred Gray

Set next to the profile of Miss Hetty Cattell, in A. C. Haeselbarth his series “Women Writers of American Press” ( 2568 ) is a piece by one Winifred Gray. It is beautifully written — Here I found a man... Here I discovered... — and is the first of the pieces transcribed below.

Most of what I can find by and about Winifred Gray is provided here; she lived in (and near), and wrote about Newaygo, Michigan.

“Digging Up Correspondence.
Some of the Stories a Young Woman Unearthed in a Small Town.”
By Winifred Gray.
No town is so small that the correspondent of a city paper cannot find plenty of stories in a field that is comparatively unworked. For it is undeniable that the home weekly is expected to keep in a groove, as it is hampered in more ways than one, and the editor is liable to be visited with personal violence if he states a too unpleasant fact, though it may be legitimate news. I have known, however, more than one editor of a country weekly who upset all precedent, but that is not in point here.
Just why the correspondent’s chance came to me I do not know, as I had never had any experience in writing for the newspapers; but the opportunity did come and I seized it. As a big story was only occasionally available and in order to make my position profitable it became necessary for me to dig for material.
To show what can be found in a small town let me tell of my experience in Newaygo, Mich, which at the time I began writing for the newspapers had a population of 1,500 souls. The town had as beautiful a natural setting as one could ask. Indian tradition lay behind it. The Muskegon River was the longest river in the State, with a promise of water power more than fulfilled today. Many fascinating tales of log-driving days were associated with it. Pine stumps on the hills suggested a basis for several lumber stories of a day when Eastern men made vast fortunes and went back home to spend them.
Newaygo was the county seat, and the court house a historic structure, so annals as well as current news were forthcoming. I studied the old landmarks with new interest and their history furnished material for special articles. A lake chain near by was opening up for a summer resort, and an article on the subject proved acceptable to the editor.
Here I found a man who had thought out a formula for removing the smell from an onion, and a family of dwarfs whose parents had refused a good offer for all concerned to travel with P. T. Barnum’s circus. Here I discovered a professional dancer who never had worn a hatpin, for humanity’s sake. Down by the river there lived a woman whose father had been associated with Nathaniel Hawthorne in the Salem Custom House and who is said to have been the original of “Little Nannie.” Here resided a judge who held humane and advanced ideas in dealing with erring youth. On the outskirts of the town dwelt a Quakeress, a niece of the late Levi Coffin, who in thirty years prior to the Civil War passed 3,500 slaves to freedom.
In Hesperia, a long drive from Newaygo, for the place had no railroad, the main street ran through two counties. The river near-by had always been a temptation to smugglers. The local print shop did not print dance bills and Curfew rang at night.
East of Newaygo lay Oak Grove, settled by a few scattered farmers. In this hamlet occurred a tragedy that shook the State [this may refer to Clyde Bowen’s murder of his wife Vera Bowen in a jealous rage]. Oak Grove sent a highway cow case to the Supreme Court that became famous because of the important ruling on a law point that had not before been decided. A black-hand letter scare drew long-distance calls from city dailies.
In my wish to get on I have not always remained in a small town, yet it is my firm belief that a diligent correspondent who has the nose for news and learns to see can find in his small town most interesting facts which, if properly presented in the form of special articles and correspondence, will gladly be accepted and paid for by city newspapers.
The Editor and Publisher (November 29, 1913) : 460 : link
Record, The People of the States of Michigan vs. Clyde Bowen
The People to further maintain the issue on their part called as a witness Erastus G. Branch, who being sworn, testified as follows :
I am a Deputy Sheriff of Newaygo County and saw the respondent on the first day of November last in the parlor or sitting room of the jail, and later saw him in jail. I was present at the time he talked with Winifred Grey [sic]. I asked him if he desired to talk about this crime, and that there was a reporter outside who would like to know if he wished to tell his story regarding the matter. I said to him, “you don’t have to do it if you don't want to,” and he says, “well, the report that has gone through the papers is not true.” I said if you care to give a report just as you want it, — just as it happened, you have the opportunity, but you don’t have to do it. He said, “tell her to come in and I will tell her all about it.” I heard the statement. Q. You may relate that to the jury as near as you can? A. I cannot relate very much of it. He started along with the time he was married, — the different places that he and she had gone to...
—
Q. You said this lady’s name was Winifred Gray?
A. Yes, sir, as I understand she was a reporter for the Fremont paper and sometimes for the Grand Rapids Herald. I think she lives in in Newaygo, and I understand she was getting a report for the Grand Rapids Herald. A part of it was published in the Herald, but not the full story. I stood right by her as she wrote it, she wrote down all the principal part of the conversation. She wrote it down in her own way. The interview lasted 15 minutes I should think, maybe more. He mentioned about his being at Petoskey, Flint, Ionia and Belding. I don’t recall that he spoke of Traverse City and McBrides. He said that his wife had worked at the Harbor Springs or Harbor Point Hotel.

ex People v. Bowen, 165 MICH 231 (1911) : Record : pp 17-21 (19) : link
“What’s the Matter With Girls?”
By Winifred Gray
The article lately published in Leslie’s on co-educational standards of morality, giving a young man’s side of the matter, reminds me not of just that from a girl’s standpoint, but the state of schoolboy and schoolgirl life in our town. Strange to say that, moving in and out as I do among the townspeople, I have to hear much of this from outsiders, who get it, it appears, from those well on the inside track. But I have no reason to doubt its truth, and may say that, in all my experience as newspaper woman, as lawyer’s clerk, as one familiar with the work of superintendent of the poor and juvenile court lately come under jurisdiction of the probate court, the state of growing youth in so-called good families of the village has all regular departments beaten when it comes to conduct — for there is such lack of cause.
To save me from the wrath of my own village, call the place St. David’s. It is as good as any name, for the conditions are typical of almost any town in the middle West, conditions not changing really with the size of the place. The object of these remarks can be taken either as schoolgirl or the same girl when she enters some form of public service in the same town.
The average girl wants a beau, wants attentions, even before old enough to have them. In one or two instances, where exceptionally well situated, she can, if lively enough, have much that is going. But if not well placed, she has, in my opinion, need to possess marked magnetism to make her principles go down with the boys. For the beaus she has to compete for are not always through school, seldom sent abroad in the country for advantages, and, if fairly upon their own foot, often take a fast turn. If a girl wants a “fellow home,” if she longs to be danced with at parties and suffers agonies at being a wallflower, she has to lower her standards, or at least does lower them. For the bugaboo in any spirited girl’s mind is that she be considered “dull” and “poky.” None such in our town ever receives so much as an apple or a peach, except in a job-lot way. So much I can positively vouch for, since I have been one of the so-called “poky” girls. Respect, lots of it, worlds of it; but no fun to speak of.
On the other hand, certain girls hurt the cause of the other girls. The telephone girls put themselves in a dangerous position by their dress. I have recently seen a young girl operator sitting with her beau close at her side inside the railing, she clad in the scantiest sleeveless thing allowed in public. She would have worn the same attire all day if on duty during those hours. I remember a very cold day, in the presence of head men and workmen who were removing and installing apparatus for a change of office, the operator wore the thinnest shivering clothing. She had charms and was displaying them. Now she is rapidly going to pieces, and, when such a thing becomes really obvious, St. David’s has no more patience than any other place. So the fault is not all with the boys — not at all!
If her parents try to restrain her, she worries over the fear she may become an old maid, and finally quits telling her mother about the intimate things of her life.
It is something worth the consideration of local organizations of women to seek the remedy of this state of things. The daughters or sons of these women are, when the weather permits, to be found in some one of the leafy retreats in which this village abounds, not necessarily on wickedness bent, but just out nights, which they ought not to be.
There are hospitable homes by the score here, but the habit of throwing them open has not been formed. One of the ways by which a city keeps hold of its youth might be made practicable. One can argue till black in the face that the principles of right should be enough. Where one sees a thoroughly respectable girl having all the fun going, there are a dozen who would not have any unless of fast or at least mannerless turn. Then there are boys whose mothers dread to have them go with girls, lest they be contaminated. So there it is — a condition of things for which either side may be blamed. Our school has furnished more than one scandal of late; local society could furnish many a one. I have a brother who draws the line at upright girls and keeps strictly to it. So do I know a girl who could not imagine anybody sinning. But an instance here or there does not make up the whole.

Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper (October 17, 1912) : 396 : link (google books)
“Effect of Striking Drink Ad.”
Newaygo, Mich., May 11, 1914.
The Editor and Publisher:
I take issue with Mr. Harry Hammond, editor and publisher of Byron (Cal.) Times, who in your issue of May 2 speaks his mind on the difference between good and bad taste in the advertising of whisky and beer. It is possible that editor Hammond has had limited experience with drink problems and is but a moderate drinker himself.
I never read a well written drink ad or see a fascinating illustration attached to a drink ad without being afraid my younger and gifted brother will see it. He is making an earnest and strenuous effort to overcome an appetite inherited from a father who never took a drink until middle age. I never read such an ad or see such a picture, especially the latter, without aching to run for a drink, though none suspect me of ever having that ache. So much for the temptation of the clean and intelligent and striking drink ad.
Now for the effect of temptation indulged on the helpless relative of the drinker. Let me again draw on personal experience and more deeply than before — never before for the public eye: My father, eastern in birth and tradition, and I might say upbringing, lost his property in the middle west through drink; my mother died from ten to twenty years sooner than she ought from reverses through drink, of which she had never known at close range. A cousin of mine is today an educated fool through drink. A second brother of mine is confined at present, lest he seek to injure, or rather destroy, himself or us, through past drink. He is expected back soon, and if he blows up the house and some of us in his disturbed mental state I shall never again be the one to shut him up, and no one of us is willing to take that step which puts him into an insane asylum.
Personally I am emerging with new health from years succeeding a partial break on account of loss of prospects and good times at the age of twenty; and during that time I have earned money, though untrained in business. I am leaving family drink behind, but I have promised myself that if ever the time should come, and I passed safely through drink troubles to do it, I would write for those silent.
Cut out the well written and clean advertisement of drink ! Let the stuff stand for what it is, not on the merits of the skilled newspaper pen.
Winifred Gray.
The Editor and Publisher 13:47 (May 16, 1914) : 1010 : link (wikimedia upload, pdf)
“Only for a Day...”
brief note on funeral of three Grand Rapids Evening Press men who lost their lives by drowning in Reed’s Lake August 31.
The Editor and Publisher 48:16 (September 25, 1915) : 388 : link (google books)

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