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Myra Douglas
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Myra
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Myra Douglas (1844–?) was an American writer and poet.
Since her childhood she has written stories and verse for The Waverly
Magazine and Literary Repository and Ballou magazine, both of Boston,
and other prominent periodicals. Her poems were included in nearly all
standard collections of American verse.
Myra Douglas (sometimes spelled, "Douglass") was born in Adrian,
Michigan, 1844. Her father, Dr. John Wilkes Douglas, was of English and
Scots parentage. He was one of the wealthiest men of that state. He was
a physician or lawyer, and a politician. He served in the war of 1812.
Her mother was of French ancestry.
Her first marriage was to Dr. Samuel Smith in West Unity, Ohio; the
marriage proved unhappy and she secured a divorce. Her second marriage
was to William Smith, a painter; he died three years after their
marriage. Years later, she married John Gwynne, a railroad man, who also
died. She had one child, a daughter, who 'inherited her mother's
talents'. When writing, she used her maiden name, and appears to have
been known as 'Mrs. Douglas'.
In 1906, out of money, Douglas wrote to the St. Louis police chief,
Edmund P. Creecy asking him to "find something for her to do". She had
lost her home in St. Louis in a deal, pawned all of her jewellery, removed
to Santa Barbara, California, and then returned to St. Louis, Missouri.
Douglas was a writer since childhood, but her stories and verses were
not published until adulthood. She contributed to many periodicals,
among them Waverly, Ballou, Baltimorean, Colman's Rural World, and
others. She was a contributor for years to the St. Louis Critic, a
weekly paper of her own city. She received letters of congratulation
from Frances Cleveland, former First Lady of the United States, Mary
Simmerson Cunningham Logan, Mrs. Hendricks; also Gen. P. G. T.
Beauregard wrote her words of praise and thanks for some of her Poems of
the South. She used her maiden name in her work, and all her
contributions bore the same signature.
Notes:
• Who was Dr. John Wilkes Douglas? I can find no trace of this
wealthy politician. Are any details of her daughter known?
Could this be him?
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Source
Sources for this article include:
Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the
Nineteenth Century: Thomas William Herringshaw, (1904)
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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