Effie Woodward Fifield

Effie Woodward Fifield
Effie Woodward Fifield, 1935
Born
Effie Woodward

(1857-02-17)February 17, 1857
Hyde Park Township, Wabasha County, Minnesota
DiedNovember 21, 1937(1937-11-21) (aged 80)
La Crescenta, California
Resting place
 Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Other nameEffie Woodward Merriman
OccupationsWriter, editor, philanthropist

Effie Woodward Fifield (née Woodward; 17 February 1857[1] – 21 November 1937) was an American writer, editor, and philanthropist.[2][3]

Personal life

Effie Woodward was born on 17 February 1857 in Hyde Park, Wabasha County, Minnesota, the daughter of Charles E. and Marie (Sias) Woodward.[1] She had some local schooling, but was largely self-educated.[1]

She married her first husband, Frank T. Merriman, on 28 February 1879, and published much under her married name of Effie Woodward Merriman.[1] The couple had one daughter, Beulah Merriman (1880 – 1883).[4]

In 1906, Merriman married Joseph Clark Fifield, a Minnesotan publisher, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.[5]

She was an organizer for the Progressive Women of America,[6] and its director for four years, as well as organizer of the Work and Play Club for young people.[1]

Her entry in the Woman's Who's Who of America 1914-1915, listed her interests as in "helping the back-to-the-farm movement, the union of Protestant Churches, the spread of the so-called New Thought ideas, [and] the introduction of the Golden Rule into the servant girl problem".[4] Her recreations were given as "Traveling, reading, writing".[4]

Writing

Effie Woodward Merriman began writing in 1880, and working as an editor from 1887.[1] She was deputy editor of Spectator, a Minneapolis weekly journal, and subsequently edited The Housekeeper, also published out of Minneapolis, for fifteen years.[1][7] The Housekeeper was a leading women's journal in the United States, and Merriman was described as bringing "little touches of sentiment and intimacy" which made her successful as editor.[8]

Merriman published a number of serials and short stories, but particularly favored stories for children.[3] One of her first, Pards, was "an illustrated story of two homeless boys" which followed them from "absolute destitution to comfort and respectability".[9] Mollie Miller (1894) was described as "an inspiration to any boy and girl and a valuable aid to parents... full of incidents... bright, fresh, clean and wholesome".[10]

Death and legacy

Effie Woodward Fifield died on 21 November 1937 in La Crescenta, California.[11] She willed her thirteen-room home, Twelve Oaks Lodge, to the International Sunshine Society, for the benefit of the elderly homeless.[12][13]

Bibliography

  • Pards (1890)
  • A Queer Family (1891)
  • Socials (1891)
  • The Little Millers (1891)
  • Modern Entertainments (1898)
  • How Women May Earn Money (1898)
  • Sir Jefferson Nobody (1898)
  • A Queer Dilemma and Other Stories (1898)
  • The Emerson Club (1901)
  • The Amazing Adventure of Joe Scranton (1923)
  • Stony Cliff People (1930)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. (1900). Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States. Columbia University Libraries (13 ed.). Chicago: A.N. Marquis (published 1925).
  2. ↑ "Publisher's Widow Dies in California". Salt Lake Tribune. 23 November 1937. p. 2.
  3. 1 2 Howard, Edine (26 January 1895). "Mrs. Effie W. Merriman". New Holland Clarion. p. 6.
  4. 1 2 3 John William Leonardo (1914). Woman's Who's Who Of America 1914-1915. Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ "Effie Woodward Merriman marriage to James C. Fifield". The Minneapolis Journal. 1906-11-04. p. 57. Retrieved 2026-01-06.
  6. ↑ "A Club for Everyday Women". Vicks Illustrated Monthly Magazine. National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Rochester, N.Y.: J. Vick. February 1899. p. 61.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ↑ "Advertisements". Good Health. 37 (9). 1 September 1902.
  8. ↑ Park's Floral Magazine. National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Libonia, Pa.: Geo. W. Park. February 1923.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ↑ "Boston Letter". The Critic. XIV (353): 168. 4 October 1890.
  10. ↑ "Among the books". Education. 15 (5): 320. January 1895.
  11. ↑ "Mrs. Effie W. Fifield". The Los Angeles Times. 23 November 1937. p. 22.
  12. ↑ "Mrs. Effie Woodward Fifield, novelist and philanthropist, 1935 (copy photo)". digital.library.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2026-01-06.
  13. ↑ "Twelve Oaks Lodge, elderly rest home, La Crescenta, 1935". digital.library.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2026-01-06.
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