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THIS WEEK INMISSOURI HISTORYCtmpiltd by the - — • ^STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURIat ColumbiaFFWyd C. Shoemaker, Saorefary -Mary Alicia OwenMary Alicia Owen, distinguished in the United States and abroad as an ethnologist, folklorist, and author, was born in St. Joseph. Missouri, on January 29. 1858.eighty-three years ago this week. A folklore lover Irom early child-hold. she often escaped from her family and nurse to visit among her friends of all classes and nationalities. In time. ?.he came to know the unmodified lore as told among Fronch-Canndians and their part-Indian relatives, abolitionists. southerners and the slaves who still remained with them, and likewise among the English, Welsh. Irish, and German.By 1880. Mary Alicia Owen had definitely decided on writing as a profession. It was two years later that she made some important discoveries in Voodoo magic which she published and announced in folklore societies.She began her career as a writer by contributing verse, letters on travel, and book reviews to news-Dead Stock RemovedFREE!We Pay CashFor Dead Animals if not skinned or decomposed.For Prompt Removal CallSikeston 895A/e pay charges on long distance calls.Sikeston Rendering Co.Sikeston, Mo.papers and magazines. She is reported to have said she probably would have always been a writer of short features for papers and magazines if the well-known astronomer. Mary Proctor, had loaned her a copy of Charles Godfrey Leland's Algonquin legends of S’ew England. These legends, so like those she had heard in shacks and cabins of her friends since childhood, fired her imagination and led her to write “Voodoo Talcs, as Told Among the Negroes of the Southwest.” She took her manuscript to England where «he read It before the International Folklore Congress. The paper was well received, and a favorable notice in the London Times brought the author in touch which English publishers who purchased the book right. Before leaving London. Miss Owen was made an honorary member of the English Folklore Society. That organization in turn made her a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.Research in Voodoo magic and in Indian tribal customs gave Mary Alicia Owen a commanding position among scholars. The special studies she made of the myths, legends, and customs of the Sac Indians led the tribe to adopt her as an honorary member and gained for her admission to Indian secret societies.Deeply interested in history. Mi's Owen contributed a valuable study. “Social Customs and Usages in Missouri During the Last Century, October. 1920, to the Missouri Historical Review. She also became the first life member of the State Historical Society of Missouri.Among her well-known works are The Daughter of Alouette and an Ozark Gypsy, Ole Rabbit’s Plantation Stories as Told Among the Negroes of the Southwest, and Oracles and Witches. “Ole Rabbit an’ De Dawg lie Stole.” one of hei many short stories and articles. was published in the Journal of American Folk-Lore in 1890. In 1904. the English Folklore Society published her well-known monograph on the Mus-quakie Indians.Miss Owen was elected vice president of the Missouri Folklore Society when it was organized in I Columbia, Missouri, in 1906 Two ! years later, she was elected presi-dhSITsitdirclt;itchC'itvtSInoLetl\stlt;IiunIiCSif«\\\tl...... I 14 »
Newspaper Details
Sikeston Standard
Sikeston, Missouri, US
Tue, Feb 18, 1941
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
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IA, USA 11 Jan 2017
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