A follow-up to last week's column

Mar. 31—Last week, I wrote: "Just three years after his (Abe Martin) cartoons and humor began appearing in newspapers (in the Greensburg News in 1907), a student at Indiana University from Decatur County got the distinction of being called Abe Martin Jr. She was a junior at the time and the author of the Abe Martin Jr. articles that appeared in the Daily Student, the official paper of the students of the university. That was Mary Baen Wright of Greensburg, who was the first woman to study journalism at Indiana University, the first woman to serve as editor of the university yearbook, and the first woman to serve as editor of the campus newspaper. She was also the first person to start a school in what is now Anchorage, Alaska where she taught Eskimo children."

An email was received by our editor from Owen V. Johnson, Associate Professor Emeritus of Journalism at Indiana University (Bloomington) that follows:

Subject: Response to Pat Smith's column on Mary Baen Wright

I'm sorry to have to tell you that Mary Baen Wright was not the first woman to serve as editor of the IU student newspaper. That honor belongs to Florence Myrick, who was editor in 1899. Source: "Woman Editor of the Student in '99:Miss Florence Myrick the First Co-Ed to Occupy Inner Sanctum. Indiana Daily Student, 1 June 1907, pp. 1, 3

In fact, Mary appears never to have been the editor-in-chief. of the IDS. A complete list of editors appears in a history of the IDS published a couple of years ago by the Indiana University Press.

Yours sincerely,

Owen V. Johnson

I very much appreciate Mr. Johnson taking the time to let us know about the mistake. It's true that back 1907 and some years after, in other words, in the days before the Internet, there were no doubt more mistakes made and fewer mistakes discovered. Miss Mary Baen Wright did graduate from Indiana University in 1910 and did have the distinction of being "Abe Martin Jr."

She was born in Decatur County, the daughter of Dr. S.V. and Mrs. Wright. Baen was her mother's maiden name. She once wrote a short story titled, "The Autobiography of a Mother-In-Law." She also wrote a clever parody on McBeth. The Greensburg Standard newspaper once had an illustrated article titled, "High Jenks In A Tree." I believe that article was also printed in the Indianapolis Sunday Star.

Mary Baen died in Gresham, Oregon. Her obituary states: She was 77 years old, and attained distinction as a teacher and writer. She taught at St. Paul school and at the Knightstown Soldiers and Sailors Children's home on alternate years while working her way through Indiana University where she received her AB degree in 1910. She served as high school principal in Oregon for several years, and during World War I she taught in Alaska, starting the first high school in what was then the village of Anchorage.

She returned to Greensburg and taught in the schools here for several years. In 1941, she enrolled at the University of Oregon for work leading to her master's degree and later taught in Oregon schools. She worked in the shipyards at Vancouver, Washington during World War II and retired in 1946.

Wright married a Mr. Thompson and they had a daughter whom they named Mary Alaska Thompson who was born in 1929 and died in 1987 in Chicago. I read that Mr. Thompson died only three years after they married. She later married a man named Sinkhorn. She died at age 77 and is buried in South Park Cemetery.

Owen V. Johnson's note caused me to think a good deal about how on earth reporters got their stories in those early 1900s. I do so much wish I had asked Smiley Fowler about that.

Decatur County resident Pat Smith may be contacted via this publication at news@greensburgdailynews.com.