Effie Woodward Fifield
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February 17, 1857
Effie Woodward Fifield | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Effie Woodward Fifield, 1935 | |
| Born | Effie Woodward February 17, 1857 |
| Died | November 21, 1937 (aged 80) |
| Resting place | Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Other names | Effie Woodward Merriman |
| Occupations | Writer, editor, philanthropist |
Effie Woodward Fifield (née Woodward; 17 February 1857[1] – 21 November 1937) was an American writer, editor, and philanthropist.[2][3]
Effie Woodward was born on 17 February 1857 in Hyde Park, Wabasha County, Minnesota, the daughter of Charles E. and Marie (Sias) Woodward.[1] She had some local schooling, but was largely self-educated.[1]
She married her first husband, Frank T. Merriman, on 28 February 1879, and published much under her married name of Effie Woodward Merriman.[1] The couple had one daughter, Beulah Merriman (1880 – 1883).[4]
In 1906, Merriman married Joseph Clark Fifield, a Minnesotan publisher, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.[5]
She was an organizer for the Progressive Women of America,[6] and its director for four years, as well as organizer of the Work and Play Club for young people.[1]
Her entry in the Woman's Who's Who of America 1914-1915, listed her interests as in "helping the back-to-the-farm movement, the union of Protestant Churches, the spread of the so-called New Thought ideas, [and] the introduction of the Golden Rule into the servant girl problem".[4] Her recreations were given as "Traveling, reading, writing".[4]
Writing
Effie Woodward Merriman began writing in 1880, and working as an editor from 1887.[1] She was deputy editor of Spectator, a Minneapolis weekly journal, and subsequently edited The Housekeeper, also published out of Minneapolis, for fifteen years.[1][7] The Housekeeper was a leading women's journal in the United States, and Merriman was described as bringing "little touches of sentiment and intimacy" which made her successful as editor.[8]
Merriman published a number of serials and short stories, but particularly favored stories for children.[3] One of her first, Pards, was "an illustrated story of two homeless boys" which followed them from "absolute destitution to comfort and respectability".[9] Mollie Miller (1894) was described as "an inspiration to any boy and girl and a valuable aid to parents... full of incidents... bright, fresh, clean and wholesome".[10]
Death and legacy
Effie Woodward Fifield died on 21 November 1937 in La Crescenta, California.[11] She willed her thirteen-room home, Twelve Oaks Lodge, to the International Sunshine Society, for the benefit of the elderly homeless.[12][13]
