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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
CHAPTER XIX.LITERARY DEVELOPMENT. (CONT'D)
So busily have the men and women of Shelby county been engaged in the material development of the county that they have had little time for the development of a literature. They have, however, been interested in literary matters and in literary culture from the very early days to the present.
A former teacher of Shelby county of long years' successful experience, a former resident of Panama, Mrs. Mary Katherine Moore, has done some creditable literary work. She was brought up in Scott county, Iowa, and her first writing, outside of a country literary society, which was held in a country school house, was for the home paper, the LeClaire City Enterprise, of LeClaire, Scott county, Iowa. For one year she was editor of the "Woman's Rights" page. Speaking of this experience, she says, "That was fifty years since and, while I have always stood firm, I have not yet had the great blessing of casting a vote, for suffrage must come to Iowa. I will not go somewhere else to enjoy what rightfully belongs to me in my native beloved Iowa." About the time that Mrs. Moore was doing editorial work for the LeClaire paper the Youth's Companion was asking for pioneer stories and she contributed to this magazine occasionally until her marriage. The material was chosen from actual experiences among the people of the "long time ago," and was all true. The every-day life of the acquaintances of her childhood, in Scott county. Iowa, she wove sometimes into a sketch and sometimes a story. These stories and sketches Mrs. Moore lost in moving. Among the subjects developed by Mrs. Moore in her writing were: "When I Went to Church in Jack's Barn," "Mrs McConstrey and her Split-Bottomed Chair" and the "Colporter." About 1903 the Youth's Companion offered a prize of five steel engravings to the three schools in Iowa that, under the supervision of their teacher, would make the greatest improvement in the appearance of their school grounds for that year. Mrs. Moore was then teaching in Shelby county. The school yard where she was teaching consisted of a thicket of scrub oak, with the school house in the middle of it, to which a little path led. She and her pupils went to work with a will and after three months' hard work had the satisfaction of knowing that nothing remained of the scrub oaks but ashes and that in their stead was growing a beautiful garden of lettuce, radishes and onions, which the teacher and pupils enjoyed at their luncheons. George A. Luxford was then county superintendent and it was through his recommendation that Mrs. Moore and her school received one of the prizes, which consisted of five historical engravings. No frames were ever purchased for them by the district and Mrs. Moore still has them, as she says, in the "original package in which they came," and she is yet waiting for the frames. Mrs. Moore has contributed a great many articles to educational journals, to the Banner of Gold and to various newspapers. For some time she was the Panama correspondent of the Harlan Tribune. Mrs. Moore hopes to live to finish a book for which undoubtedly she has been long gathering and shaping material. The beautiful literary style she commands is well illustrated by this paragraph from a letter to the author: "To have lived and enjoyed going out for pleasure and duty in an ox wagon, and then clapping our hands for very joy when the first horse team was bought and brought to us. our very own. from Galena, Illinois, followed by the steamboat, the railroad, and now the auto, is certainly a great experience. I am thankful to have lived the life of it, but my greatest love is the dear old Mississippi and the cemeteries where I go to linger for a time with the friends of memory, not with sadness, but with thankfulness that God blessed my life with a friendship and relationship of earth's noblest men and women." J. K. P. Baker, who for some years was a resident of the north part of the county, but during the last years of his life a resident of Harlan, possessed much more than ordinary literary ability. For a number of years he carried on a correspondence with the famous George William Curtis and with other prominent literary men of the country. Mr. Baker was county surveyor of Shelby county and at one time had a very wide acquaintance in the county. Perhaps the best literary composition from his pen is the following poem, which was composed by him at the grave of his daughter, Louise: AT HER GRAVE.
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