Jane Agnes Stewart
{{Short description|American author (1860–1944)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Jane Agnes Stewart
| image = Jane A. Stewart (The Chautauquan, 1902).png
| birth_date = August 16, 1860
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = February 2, 1944
| death_place = Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
| pseudonym = Jane A. Stewart
| resting_place =
| occupation = {{hlist|author|editor|contributor to periodicals}}
| notable_works = The Frances Willard Book
}}
Jane Agnes Stewart (August 16, 1860 – February 2, 1944) was an American author, editor, and contributor to periodicals.{{cite book |last1=Leonard |first1=John William |title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada |date=1914 |publisher=American Commonwealth Company |page=783 |volume=1 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89080103955&seq=769 |via=HathiTrust |access-date=18 October 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}{{cite book |title=Who's who in the Central States |date=1929 |publisher=Mayflower Publishing Company |page=940 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XF9PAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA940 |access-date=18 October 2022 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=Who's who in America |date=1923 |publisher=A.N. Marquis |page=2939 |volume=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2s_W7HRk90gC&pg=PA2939 |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}{{cite book |last1=Ringrose |first1=Hyacinthe |title=The International Who's who: Who's who in the World, Incorporated with the International Blue Book ... a Biographical Dictionary of the World's Notable Living Men and Women. Printed in English, French, German and Italian |date=1910 |publisher=International Who's Who Publishing Company |page=417 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZH0-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA417 |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} She was a special writer for many journals on subjects related to woman's, religious, educational, sociological, and reform movements.{{cite journal |title=Makers of Recent Chautauqua Literature |journal=The Chautauquan |date=July 1902 |volume=35 |issue=4 |page=337 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_chautauquan_1903-07_35_4/page/337 |access-date=19 October 2022 |publisher=Open Court Publishing Co |language=English}} {{Source-attribution}} Stewart was a suffragist and temperance activist. She traveled to London, Edinburgh, and Paris as a delegate of world's reform and religious conventions.
Early life and education
Jane Agnes Stewart was born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 16, 1860. Her parents were Alexander Paton and Mary Davidson (Denyven) Stewart. Jane was a descendant of Robert the Bruce, whose daughter, Marjorie Bruce, married Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland.
Stewart was educated in the public and private schools of Glasgow, Scotland; Boston, Massachusetts; and Toledo, Ohio, graduating in 1876 from Toledo High School.
Career
She was a contributor to the Toledo Blade. She was an associate editor of The Union Signal, Chicago, Illinois (1892–97); editor of the Oak and Ivy Leaf, Chicago and Young Women, Chicago (1891–96); editorial writer, at the Boston Evening Transcript (1898–?) and the Boston Beacon (1898–1902); press correspondent in Europe; and on the editorial staff of the American Sunday School Union, Philadelphia (1909–?).
Stewart favored woman suffrage. She was a member of the Philadelphia Woman's Suffrage Society as well as the Philadelphia County Suffrage Association whose monthly newsletter she helped edit. She also contributed on suffrage to various periodicals. In 1906, it was announced that Stewart was the inventor of the first equal rights calendar. Technically, it was known as the "Birthday Calendar of Suffrage Women'. It was perpetual, that is, by an arrangement of the dates, it could be made to fit any year simply by shifting a small slip. The pictures on each page were likenesses of many of the earliy suffrage leaders, including portraits of Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Livermore, Frances Willard, and Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens. There were also many quotations from prominent women in favor of equal suffrage. Those on the first page were from Carrie Chapman Catt and M. Carey Thomas.{{cite news |title=EQUAL SUFFRAGE CALENDAR |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/159862014/?terms=Birthday%20Calendar%20of%20Suffrage%20Women&match=1 |access-date=19 October 2022 |work=The Evening Journal |via=Newspapers.com |date=8 January 1908 |page=3 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}{{cite news |title=NOTES AND NEWS. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/533332247/?terms=Birthday%20Calendar%20of%20Suffrage%20Women&match=1 |access-date=19 October 2022 |work=Woman's Exponent |via=Newspapers.com |date=1 November 1906 |page=8 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}
Ever since the death of Frances Willard, Stewart observed the anniversaries of the leader's death by writing articles for various periodicals on some phase of Willard's life and work. These appeared in the Christian Endeavor World and the Journal of Education, Boston; the School Journal and the Christian Intelligencer, New York; the Interior, Chicago; the Presbyterian Banner, Pittsburgh; Little Folks, the Boston Transcript, and the Philadelphia Record. These sketches, with some others, were brought together in The Frances Willard Book.{{cite journal |title=BOOK TABLE |journal=Journal of Education |date=4 October 1906 |volume=64 |issue=13 |pages=372–73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAs5AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA372 |access-date=19 October 2022 |publisher=Boston University, School of Education |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} Stewart was also the author of The Kindergarten, What Is It?; The Christmas Book; Birthday Calendar Suffrage Women; and Birthday Calendar Temperance Women.
She visited Europe in 1895 in the interest of temperance work, was two years in California, returned to Boston for editorial work, went abroad again in 1900 to visit parts of France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Italy, covering the Paris Exposition, World's W.C.T.U. Convention at Edinburgh, and the International Christian Endeavor Convention at London.
Stewart served as Chair of the National Press Committee, the National Congress of Mothers (1900–10), and the American School Peace League. She was the president of the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) of Toledo, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and a member of the Philadelphia W.C.T.U.
She was the treasurer of the Pennsylvania State Woman's Press Association; director, Pennsylvania Arbitration and Peace Society (1908–21); and a leader of the Christian Civic Club (children). She was a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Pennsylvania Society of New England Women, the National Geographic Society, the Pennsylvania State Women's Press Association, the Philadelphia League of Home and School Association, the Philadelphia Public Education Association, the Toledo Sunday School Association, the League of Women Voters, as well as the Shakespeare Club, Women's Educational Club, Samagama Club, and the 1896 Literary Club.
Personal life
In religion, Stewart was a Congregationalist, and a member of the Central Congregational Church, Philadelphia. In politics, she was independent.
Jane Agnes Stewart died in Toledo, Ohio, February 2, 1944.{{cite web |title=Jane Agnes Stewart 16 August 1860 – 2 February 1944 • 9HSS-5SP |url=https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/9HSS-5SP |website=ident.familysearch.org |access-date=18 October 2022}}
Selected works
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
=Books=
- The Frances Willard Book (1906){{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Jane Agnes |title=The Frances Willard Book |date=1906 |publisher=Current Syndicate Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8hA-AQAAMAAJ |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=en}}
- The Christmas Book (1908){{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Jane Agnes |title=The Christmas Book |date=1908 |publisher=Griffith & Rowland Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHUDHQAACAAJ |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=en}}
- Peace on Earth (1914){{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Jane Agnes |title=Peace on Earth |date=1914 |publisher=American Peace Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t6PoOwAACAAJ |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=en}}
- I Have Recalled: A Pen-panorama of a Life (1938){{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Jane Agnes |title=I Have Recalled: A Pen-panorama of a Life |date=1938 |publisher=Chittenden Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dUraAAAAMAAJ |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=en}}
- Frances E. Willard: A Great Teacher (with Lillian M. N. Stevens, between 1898 and 1925){{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Jane Agnes |last2=Stevens |first2=Lillian M. N. |title=Frances E. Willard: A Great Teacher |date= |publisher=National W.C.T.U. Publishing House |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dP01HAAACAAJ |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Frances E. Willard : a great teacher |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/51943779 |website=worldcat.org |access-date=19 October 2022}}
- The Girl from Ohio: One of Frances Willard's Girls (1939){{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Jane Agnes |title=The Girl from Ohio: One of Frances Willard's Girls |date=1939 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xYOlHAAACAAJ |access-date=19 October 2022 |language=en}}
=Articles=
- "The Kindergarten, What Is It?"
- "Women Deans of Women's Colleges" (1902)
- "Public Swimming Baths" (1902)
- "What is Being Done in Textile Education" (1902)
- "Memories of Frances E. Willard. Kindly Thoughtfulness of Our Great Leader to One of Her Associates" (1919)
- "Patriotic Festival for Soldiers' Return" (1919)
- "Flowers in France for America's Dead" (1919)
- "Effects of the War on Beer Drinking in Germany" (1919)
- "The 'Win the War for Permanent Peace' Convention" (1919)
- "Sidelight on Coal Shortage Situation. Pennsylvania Miners and Drink." (1919)
- "A Great Teacher" (1919)
- "The Long, Long Trail That Led to the Suffrage Victory" (1919)
- "Christmas Cheer to Fighters in France" (1919)
- "Mothers' Day in France" (1919)
- "Mother's Day in Training Camp and Trench" (1919)
- "Pulling Together in Philadelphia" (1919)
- "Our Boys in France" (1919)
- "National Prohibition Prominent Feature of Convention of National Conference of Social Work" (1919)
- "With the Sailor Lads at a Philadelphia White Ribobn Social" (1919)
=Calendars=
- Birthday Calendar of Suffrage Women (1906)
- Birthday Calendar of Temperance Women
=Plays=
References
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Category:19th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:19th-century American newspaper editors
Category:20th-century American newspaper editors
Category:American women editors
Category:Suffragists from Pennsylvania
Category:American temperance activists
Category:Presidents of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union