Mary Hayes Davis

Mary Hayes Davis was born around 1884 in West Virginia,Florida State Population Census, 1945. Fort Myers, Lee County, Precinct 10. and grew up on a farm. She also lived in Kansas. She attended college for one year and was widowed.1940 United States Federal Census (May 6, 1940). Florida State, LaBelle City, Hendry County, Precinct 2.

{{Main|Chinese Fables and Folk Stories}}

File:Chinese fables 031 The snail and the bees.jpg

In the early 1900s, Davis received on-the-job training in Chicago as a reporter and features writer for one of the major daily newspapers.{{Cite news |date=June 24, 1923 |title=Mary Hayes Davis, Well Known Writer, Visits in Sebring |pages=18 |work=The Tampa Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38438155/ |access-date=March 23, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her reporting brought her into contact with people from "old" Chinatown,{{Cite news |title=Well Known Writer Interviews Indians |pages=October 22, 1911 |work=Arizona Republic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98148136/well-known-writer-interviews-indians/ |access-date=March 22, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} including Reverend Chow Leung, pastor of the Central Baptist Chinese Mission.{{Cite news |date=July 10, 1904 |title=These Chinese Tots Go to School the Year Round |pages=38 |work=The Inter Ocean |location=Chicago |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97995922/chinese-school-in-chicago/ |access-date=March 23, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Around this time, a widely syndicated newspaper article had stated, "There is no perfect collection of Chinese fables."{{Cite news |date=June 27, 1902 |title=Chinese Fables |pages=1 |work=Evening Standard |location=London |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98199734/chinese-fables/ |access-date=March 23, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=August 8, 1903 |title=The Bittern and the Mussel |pages=25 |work=The Minnesota Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98200063/the-bittern-and-the-mussel/ |access-date=March 23, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} Davis was intrigued when she discovered that Chinese folktales did in fact exist. As they were developing the book, Chow Leung narrated the stories to her in pidgin English, and occasionally sought help from an interpreter. She had also learned some Chinese herself.

In the preface to Chinese Fables and Folk Stories, Davis called Chow Leung "an invaluable collaborator" and thanked him for his patience in answering her many questions. Davis dedicated Chinese Fables and Folk Stories to her friend, Mary F. Nixon-Roulet, who was working on a similar collection of Japanese folktales in Chicago around the same time, also published by American Book Company.{{Cite journal |date=January 1909 |title=Book Reviews – Japanese Folk Stories and Fairy Tales |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/453833 |journal=The Elementary School Teacher |volume=9 |issue=5 |pages=278 |doi=10.1086/453833 |via=The University of Chicago Press Journals}} Wang Tsen-Zan of the University of Chicago wrote the introduction for the book, explaining that it was the first compilation of Chinese fables of its kind translated into English.

Following its publication in 1908, Chinese Fables and Folk Stories received extensive nationwide media coverage, immediately recognized as a "novelty".{{Cite news |date=July 18, 1908 |title=Other Books |pages=5 |work=The Sun |location=New York |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030272/1908-07-18/ed-1/?sp=5&q=%22Mary+Hayes+Davis%22 |access-date=March 23, 2022 |via=Library of Congress}} The book was particularly well received by education journals. The Journal of Education called Chinese Fables and Folk Stories "a delightful little reader",{{Cite journal |date=September 10, 1908 |title=Review: CHINESE FABLES AND FOLK STORIES |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42875696 |journal=The Journal of Education |volume=68 |issue=9 |pages=261 |doi=10.1177/002205740806800931 |jstor=42875696 |jstor-access=free}} while The Elementary School Teacher commended the co-authors for their efforts in providing "glimpses" into "a different life". By 1911, the book was being used by Chicago public schools as a supplemental reader.

Davis published two additional books in 1908: In the Realm of Make-Believe and Other Fairy Tales in Rhyme, a collection of illustrated children's stories from books that were out-of-print,{{Cite news |date=November 14, 1908 |title=New Books – Volumes at Hand From Publishers With Glance at Contents |pages=5 |work=The Inter Ocean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/34563643/ |access-date=March 17, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} and Cat Tales and Kitten Tails, Volume I.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7BADAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22cat%20tales%20and%20kitten%20tails%22&pg=PA89 |title=Catalogue of Copyright Entries: Books |publisher=Library of Congress |year=1910 |volume=6 |pages=89 |issue=1}} Mary Hayes Davis wrote the verses for Cat Tales and Kitten Tails, while her co-author Jennie Van Allen wrote the stories. Published by the Argus Press, Cat Tales was "dedicated to the memories of some of the most beautiful cats that have ever lived".{{Cite news |date=December 27, 1908 |title=New Books for Young Readers Are Received |pages=36 |work=Los Angeles Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38437513/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} The Los Angeles Herald called Cat Tales a "beautiful book" featuring "cat stories of every sort" which "exemplify the intelligence of these animals and their loyalty to friends or their mistresses."

Following the success of Chinese Fables and Folk Stories, Davis began her next project on Native American folklore. Dr. Carlos Montezuma, a Native American activist based in Chicago, introduced her to his contacts in the Pima and Apache tribes.{{Cite news |date=October 23, 1911 |title=Indians' View of Land Allotment: Dr. Montezuma of Chicago, an Apache, Hears Complaints |pages=9 |work=Arizona Republic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98142433/indians-view-of-land-allotment/ |access-date=March 23, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite web |date= |title=Mary Hayes Davis correspondence to Carlos Montezuma, 1908 |url=https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/nby_eeayer/id/4564 |access-date=March 18, 2022 |website=CARLI Digital Collections}} Between 1908 and 1912, Davis made several visits to Oklahoma and Arizona to collect stories.{{Cite news |date=January 7, 1912 |title=Folklore of Chinese |pages=68 |work=St. Louis Globe-Democrat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/571831981 |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} Although she wrote a series of American Indian tales, the book was never published.

File:Tiffany Mosaic Dome, Marshall Field & Co's Retail Store (NBY 415392).jpg

During her years in Chicago, Mary Hayes Davis worked as an advertising agent for Marshall Field's department store,{{Cite news |date=May 19, 1948 |title=Mary Hayes Davis Dies at Home Here |pages=1 |work=News-Press |location=Fort Myers, Florida |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20432048/mary-hayes-davis-of-labelle-former-owne/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} in addition to working as a journalist. She was an elected officer in the Chicago Press League,{{Cite book |url=http://livinghistoryofillinois.com/pdf_files/1910%20Chicago%20Blue%20Book.pdf |title=The Chicago Blue Book |publisher=The Chicago Directory Company |year=1910 |pages=113 |via=Digital History Library of Illinois History}}{{Cite news |date=April 11, 1909 |title=Press League Names Officers |pages=2 |work=The Inter Ocean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355165361/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} and was active in the Social Economics Club.{{Cite news |date=February 23, 1909 |title=The Whirl of Society |pages=6 |work=The Inter Ocean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/34553479/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} A member of the Chicago chapter of the Cat Fanciers' Association, she had a cream-colored Persian cat named Wu Tingfang.{{Cite news |date=January 3, 1909 |title=Down Town Cats to Have Their Innings |pages=30 |work=The Inter Ocean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/34555308/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} Named after the Chinese ambassador to the United States, her cat won a blue ribbon in 1909.{{Cite news |date=January 8, 1909 |title=Tramp Cats on Exhibit – Vie With Feline Aristocracy for Honors |pages=3 |work=The Inter Ocean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/34555391/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Davis then moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was a senior copywriter for Kaufmann's department store. In 1914, she started a businesswomen's club with 400 members from Kaufmann's.{{Cite news |date=March 8, 1914 |title=New Business Women's Club |pages=24 |work=Pittsburgh Daily Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98204860/new-business-womens-clubs/ |access-date=March 23, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} She also became a member of the Women's Press Club of Pittsburgh.{{Cite news |date=July 12, 1914 |title=Women's Press Club |pages=22 |work=Pittsburgh Daily Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97993818/womens-press-club/ |access-date=March 20, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}

After that, Davis lived in St. Louis, Missouri, where she was a copywriter for another major department store, and had a stint with the Associated Press. She was a member of the Women's Advertising Club of St. Louis,{{Cite news |date=October 14, 1919 |title=Women's Ad Club to Help Promote Symphony Season |pages=12 |work=St. Louis Globe-Democrat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/572454896/ |access-date=March 18, 2022}} and helped to raise money for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.{{Cite news |date=October 29, 1919 |title=Women's Ad Club to Back Symphony Concerts |pages=24 |work=St. Louis Globe-Democrat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/572458303/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}

She left St. Louis due to illness and spent some time in Kansas, followed by two years in Oklahoma, where she lived on a farm and continued to write.{{Cite news |date=June 1, 1922 |title=Former Kansan an Author |pages=4 |work=The Kansas City Kansan |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98143926/former-kansan-an-author/ |access-date=March 22, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Davis moved to Florida during the "land boom" of the 1920s, intending to buy an orange grove and retire.{{Cite news |date=June 11, 1944 |title=Three Theaters at Clewiston, Moore Haven Change Hands |pages=1–2 |work=News-Press |location=Fort Myers, Florida |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/221320642 |access-date=March 24, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} From 1922 to 1923, she worked as the associate editor of the Polk County Record, a newspaper published twice a week in Bartow, Florida. When the editor-in-chief became ill, she served as acting editor. Over a six-month period, her editorials and "Smilin' Thru" column became popular, and were republished throughout the state.

File:Royal Palm Hotel, Bridge Street, LaBelle, Florida (1925).png

In 1923, she accepted a position at The Fort Myers Press, but changed her mind on her way to Fort Myers, when her bus stopped for dinner in LaBelle, Florida. Fascinated by a picture of E. E. Goodno's local ranch, she started speaking to the owner of the hotel in LaBelle, who promptly offered her a salary of $100 a month to serve as publicity agent and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce at LaBelle.{{Cite news |date=April 20, 1924 |title=Hendry County News |pages=76 |work=The Tampa Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/325970588/ |access-date=March 20, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Within months, she purchased the local newspaper, and became editor and publisher of The Hendry County News, also known as LaBelle News.{{Cite book |last1=Stockbridge |first1=Frank Parker |url=https://archive.org/details/floridainmaking00stoc/page/336/mode/2up |title=Florida in the Making |last2=Perry |first2=John Holliday |publisher=De Bower |year=1926 |location=New York |pages=337 |via=Internet Archive}} At The Hendry County News, Davis wrote news articles and editorials, sold advertisements, and did the layout.{{Cite news |date=June 10, 1930 |title=Mary Hayes Davis is Times-Union Visitor |pages=6 |work=News-Press |location=Fort Myers, Florida |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35811189/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} She eventually employed a linotype operator, but did the rest of the work at the newspaper herself. Her perseverance despite frequent flooding in the area, prior to the construction of the dike at Lake Okeechobee, earned her the nickname "Mrs. Noah".

One of Davis's columns, "In the Realm of Make Believe", was written for children. Content from The Hendry County News was syndicated to other Florida newspapers such as The Tampa Tribune and The Fort Myers Press.{{Cite news |date=April 17, 1925 |title=Hendry County News |pages=5 |work=The Fort Myers Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/212611755/ |access-date=March 20, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1928, The Hendry County News received the Florida Newspaper Association award for Best Community News Service at its annual convention.{{Cite news |date=July 21, 1928 |title=Florida Woman Honored |pages=2 |work=News-Press |location=Fort Myers, Florida |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97993144/florida-woman-honored-mary-hayes-davis/ |access-date=March 20, 2022}} In 1933, she sold the newspaper to Keathley Bowden, who ran The Clewiston News.{{Efn|On May 12, 1927, The Tampa Tribune announced that Mary Hayes Davis had sold The Hendry County News to L. A. Morgan, but she resumed as editor, publisher, and owner of the newspaper soon afterwards.}}

On May 11, 1926, an African American man named Henry Patterson was murdered by a mob of between 40 and 60 men in LaBelle.{{Cite journal |last=Shofner |first=Jerrell |date=January 1981 |title=Judge Herbert Rider and the Lynching at LaBelle |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30147495 |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=292–306 |jstor=30147495}} The mob violence was triggered by a misunderstanding with Mrs. Bennett Crawford, who saw him approach her house and started screaming. The mob shot Patterson several times without killing him. Patterson managed to break away and staggered to the door of the offices of The Hendry County News as he was chased. Mary Hayes Davis, who was standing in the doorway, told him, "Man, I cannot help you. Pray to your God."{{Cite news |date=May 15, 1926 |title=Four Men Held for Lynching |pages=7 |work=Tampa Bay Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79961250/four-men-held-in-labelle-lynching-15/ |access-date=March 24, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} As Patterson ran away and tried to climb a wire fence, he was shot again and fell. Still alive, he was dragged down the main street in LaBelle, as he was kicked and maimed. Upon reaching the town's new courthouse, Patterson was hanged from a tree and shot yet again.

Davis was warned repeatedly not to report on the story. Her office door had circles of blood drawn on it, with a chisel thrust through. Nevertheless, she went ahead and published in-depth coverage of the incident, as well as editorials condemning mob violence. Commending her actions following the threats, The Tampa Tribune wrote:

What did Mary Hayes Davis do? In the next issue of her paper, she printed on the first page, a graphic description of the gruesome work of the mob – a story showing it to have been one of the most unprovoked, brutal and cowardly crimes of its kind ever committed in this or any other country, in this or any other period of the world's history. She printed double-column editorials denouncing the mob and demanding that its members be brought to justice. At the same time, she was loyal enough to her community to say that the outrage did not represent the best citizenship of LaBelle and that LaBelle's representative men, as a rule, deprecated and deplored it. So, Florida newspaperdom furnishes the shining example of a woman publisher who cannot be intimidated by threats or deterred by menacing violence from doing her duty to the public. Will she be made to suffer? ... At any rate, we may well applaud Mary Hayes Davis and wish her more power in her brave stand against lawlessness.

File:Clewiston FL Dixie Crystal Theatre01.jpg]]

In 1923, Mary Hayes Davis opened the first movie theater in Hendry County, in a tin building next to her newspaper office in LaBelle, featuring $1,000-worth of "opera chairs".Hartig, Mikki; Shiver, Carl (August 1988). [https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/52244470-a20b-4b02-bf32-bbef10d7bd2c Dixie Crystal Theatre – National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.] United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Section 8, pp. 5–8. The first film shown was a Western. On opening night, hunters, fur trappers, and cattle ranchers filled the theater, some of whom had never seen a motion picture before. As the villain galloped across the screen, two shots rang out in the theater.{{Cite journal |date=November 30, 1935 |title=Opening a Second Theatre in Florida |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher121unse/page/n503/mode/2up |journal=Motion Picture Herald |volume=121 |issue=9 |pages=74 |via=Internet Archive}} Davis was left with two bullet holes in the silver screen, where an audience member had shot the villain.

Her initial success inspired others to follow suit, leading Davis to lament in 1927 that "LaBelle which is credited with being the smallest town in the United States with two moving picture shows is now to have a third."{{Cite news |date=June 9, 1927 |title=Hendry County News – New $25,000 Theater |pages=4 |work=News-Press |location=Fort Myers, Florida |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/212766161/ |access-date=March 24, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} Soon Davis commissioned a new movie theatre to be built in LaBelle. In 1928, she opened her new LaBelle Theatre, in a two-story building with a painted mural of the Florida coast surrounding the screen. There, she showed the first talking picture in Hendry County in September 1931.

In 1934, she built the original Dixie Crystal Theatre in Clewiston, a masonry vernacular building north of Sugarland Highway.{{Cite news |date=August 5, 1934 |title=Clewiston Building Program Continues |pages=6 |work=The Palm Beach Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/133417731/ |access-date=March 24, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} Its name was a tribute to the local sugar industry. In 1940, Davis commissioned architect Chester A. Cone to design a new theater, with Earl Anderson as the contractor. The new Dixie Crystal Theatre opened in 1941 and was located at the corner of Sugarland Highway and Central Avenue, a unique one-story building in the Moderne style of architecture.{{Cite news |date=January 30, 1941 |title=Preview Magnate Visits Clewiston |pages=2 |work=News-Press |location=Fort Myers, Florida |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/219364393/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} She also built a 300-seat movie theater in the Harlem district of Clewiston for African Americans.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Eric Ledell |title=African American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Historical Directory |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers |year=2015 |isbn=9781476604664 |location=United Kingdom |pages=47}} The Harlem Theater was bombed with dynamite, which delayed its opening in 1938.{{Cite news |date=July 29, 1938 |title=Harlem Theater Is Dynamited |pages=1 |work=Clewiston News |url=https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00028415/00693/1x?search=Clewiston+%3dNews |access-date=March 26, 2022}}{{Cite news |date=July 27, 1938 |title=Clewiston Theater Wrecked by Blast |pages=2 |work=News-Press |location=Fort Myers, Florida |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35760619/news-press/ |access-date=March 25, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} Davis's theaters in Clewiston did well as the local community began to thrive.

In 1935, she took over the movie theater in Pompano Beach. In addition, she built a movie theater in Moore Haven, and operated theaters in Naples and Venice. Around 1942, she built a movie theater at Fort Myers Beach in a modern stucco building, which she ran on a seasonal basis, closing during the summer. At one point, she owned a chain of seven theaters. She was also a frequent contributor of film reviews to Motion Picture Herald.{{Cite journal |date=November 30, 1935 |title=What the Picture Did for Me |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher121unse/page/n511/mode/2up |journal=Motion Picture Herald |volume=121 |issue=9 |pages=82 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite journal |date=March 19, 1938 |title=What the Picture Did for Me |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher1301unse/page/n285/mode/2up |journal=Motion Picture Herald |volume=130 |issue=12 |pages=60 |via=Internet Archive}}

She died at her home in Fort Myers, Florida, on May 18, 1948. In 1998, the Dixie Crystal Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in Hendry County, Florida.{{Cite news |date=October 8, 1998 |title=Digest – Historic Places |pages=10 |work=The Bradenton Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/720178363 |access-date=March 18, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}

• Chinese Fables and Folk Stories, with Chow Leung (Wikisource)
• In the Realm of Make-Believe and Other Fairy Tales in Rhyme
• Cat Tales and Kitten Tails, Vol. I, with Jennie Van Allen

• [https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/nby_eeayer/id/4564 Letter to Carlos Montezuma, 1908] (CARLI Digital Collections)

• [https://lynchinginlabelle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/News-of-Hendry-County-Pages-on-Lynching.pdf The News of Hendry County, 1926] (Excerpt from Lynching in LaBelle)

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Category:American folklorists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:Chinese folklore

Category:American women folklorists

Category:1948 deaths

Category:20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)

Category:20th-century American businesswomen

Category:Journalists from Chicago

Category:Writers from Chicago

Category:People from Hendry County, Florida

Category:Film exhibitors

Category:20th-century American newspaper editors