Eva Kinney Griffith

Eva Kinney Griffith Miller (née, Kinney; after first marriage, Griffith; after second marriage, Miller; November 8, 1852 – 1918) was an American journalist, temperance activist, novelist, newspaper editor, and journal publisher.

Eva Kinney Griffith
"A Woman of the Century"
"A Woman of the Century"
BornEva Kinney
November 8, 1852
Whitewater, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died1918
Occupation
  • Journalist
  • activist
  • novelist
  • editor
  • publisher
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWhitewater State Normal School
Literary movementtemperance
Spouse
Charles E. Griffith
​
(m. 1891)​

Mr. Miller

Griffith was lecturer and organizer of the Wisconsin Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) for several years. Her illustrated lectures won her the name of "Wisconsin Chalk Talker." She wrote temperance lessons and poems for the Temperance Banner and The Union Signal. She also published a temperance novel A Woman's Evangel (Chicago, 1892), having already put out a volume named Chalk Talk Handbook (1887), and True Ideal, a journal devoted to purity and faith studies. In 1891, Miller moved to Chicago where she became a special writer for the Daily News Record, and afterwards, an editor on the Chicago Times, and by this means, she made public her views on temperance.[1]

Early life and education

Eva Kinney was born in Whitewater, Wisconsin, November 8, 1852.[2] She was a daughter of Francis Kinney and Sophronia Goodrich Kinney.[3]

She entered Whitewater State Normal School in 1868,[4] graduating in the class of 1871.[3]

Career

After completing her education, Griffith taught one term in Elkhorn, Wisconsin and two terms in Cold Spring, Wisconsin before spending one year in Chicago,[4] where she entered the field of journalism. She wrote for the Detroit Free Press, Pomeroy's Democrat, the Educational Weekly, the Cincinnati Saturday Night, and many other journals. Overwork broke her health in 1878, and in the following year, she went to Kansas to recuperate.[3] She returned to teaching in 1879 and again in 1883, in Hays City, Kansas.[4] She was not able to resume writing to any great extent until 1883.[3]

In May 1891, she married Charles E. Griffith, and they moved to St. Louis, Missouri.[4] The marriage proved a mistake. They separated, and Griffith returned to Whitewater, entering the temperance movement in 1883.[4] For seven years, she was a lecturer and organizer of the Wisconsin WCTU, her illustrated lectures winning her the nickname of "Wisconsin Chalk Talker." She wrote temperance lessons and poems for the Temperance Banner, and was a regular contributor to the Union Signal, writing the semi-monthly "Queen's Garden" for that journal.[3] She also wrote for the Woman's News.[4]

Griffith published a temperance novel, A Woman's Evangel (Chicago, 1892), and a volume entitled Chalk Talk Hand-Book (1887). In 1889, she published the True Ideal, a journal devoted to social purity and faith studies. In 1891, she removed to Chicago, where she became a special writer for the Daily News-Record and afterward, society editor of the Chicago Times.[5]

Personal life

She later married Mr. Miller and they removed to Anna, Illinois and then Peoria, Illinois where in 1918, Griffith died.[2]

Selected works
  • Chalk Talk Hand-Book, 1887
  • A woman's evangel, 1892

References
  1. Logan 1912, p. 677.
  2. Cherrington 1926, p. 1152.
  3. Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 341.
  4. Wisconsin. State college, Whitewater 1893, p. 147.
  5. Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 342.

Attribution
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Cherrington, Ernest Hurst (1926). Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem. Vol. 3. American Issue Publishing Company.
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Logan, Mrs. John A. (1912). The Part Taken by Women in American History (Public domain ed.). Perry-Nalle publishing Company. p. 677.
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 341.
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Wisconsin. State college, Whitewater (1893). Historical Sketches of the First Quarter-century ...: With a Catlogue of the Graduates & a Record of Their Work. 1868-1893 (Public domain ed.). Tracy, Gibbs & Company.
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