(Excerpt from The Midnight Cry a Novel
Ome fifty years ag...)
Excerpt from The Midnight Cry a Novel
Ome fifty years ago the traveller through S the Genesee Valley - and there were many seeking farms on its fertile flats in those days - might have seen from the high land stage 'road between Canawagas and Mount Morris, in the wide lowland stretching far to the westward, a big stone chimney and the broad gable of a house, which, as one caught a glimpse of them through the hoary old pine trees, showed in striking contrast with the homes of the most prosperous farmers, even those who had been among the first to take up land on the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. There was little to be seen of the house beside the great chim ney, but the well cleared acres surrounding it the stumpless meadows and cultivated fields the winding avenue of elms, and the great barns.
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(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
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(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Jane Marsh Parker was born on June 16, 1836 in Milan, Dutchess County, New York, United States. She was the youngest and third daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Adams) Marsh, who were both descended from native families prominent in the American Revolution. She was christened Permelia Jenny, but she later adopted the name Jane. At the time of her birth her father was pastor of the Christian (Campbellite) Church in Milan, and when she was two years old the family moved to Union Mills, Fulton County, New York, where Elder Marsh served as pastor of the Campbellite church, editor of the Christian Publishing Association, and of the Christian Palladium, the weekly paper of the sect, and was also the local postmaster. In 1843 her parents became followers of William Miller and early in 1844 the family moved to Rochester, where her father edited the weekly journal and numerous other publications of the Millerite movement. This experience with religious hysteria and fanaticism injured the spirit of the young girl whose childhood was oppressed by a sense of impending doom.
Education
Jane Marsh Parker attended several private schools in Rochester, among which were the Collegiate Institute and the Clover Street Seminary.
Career
In 1854, Jane Marsh Parker began to write for the lay periodicals of the day. Her stories and poems appeared in various publications, including the Waverley and Knickerbocker magazines, and friendly criticism encouraged her literary ambitions. More than twenty-five articles, tales, poems, and stories were produced during her eighteenth year alone. Several volumes, including stories for boys and Sunday-school books, appeared in the next decade. The most important in this group is Barley Wood (1860), which deals with a girl's conversion from sectarianism and is significant for implied personal attitude and autobiographical incident. For a few years her writing was interrupted by her care of her children, but after this interlude she applied her pen with renewed activity. She wrote several volumes and articles on the history of Rochester and central New York state.
A novel, The Midnight Cry (1886), which utilized the events of the Millerite delusion, material to which she returned frequently for later articles and stories, is disappointing in its failure to capitalize her own personal experience. It was, however, considerably altered by her publisher. Her long life was comparatively uneventful. In the fall of 1889, she accompanied Frederick Douglass and his party to Haiti and wrote several articles on its problems. The work produced after the death of her husband in 1895 was almost completely in the essay form. She became associated with the editor of Burrow's Jesuit Relations and was a frequent contributor to Harper's, the Outlook, and the Atlantic Monthly. Her papers in the "Contributor's Club" of the Outlook and the "Spectator" columns of the Atlantic, are among her best work. In the fall of 1905, Jane Marsh Parker moved to Escondido, California, to live with her daughter. In 1911 they moved to Los Angeles and there she died on March 13, 1913.
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Religion
When Jane Marsh Parker was old enough to be liberated from her father's religious vagaries, she swung to ritualism and orthodoxy and even contemplated entering an Episcopalian sisterhood. She remained for many years a devout Episcopalian, devoting much energy to church work and religious writing.
Politics
Jane Marsh Parker was hostile to woman's suffrage. She lobbied against the inclusion of female suffrage in the 1894 New York State Constitution.
Membership
Jane Marsh Parker organized the Ignorance Club, the city’s first women’s discussion group composed of doctors, social workers, writers and artists (1881).
Personality
Jane Marsh Parker was a woman of great personal energy and in addition to her many religious activities engaged herself in women's clubs, patriotic societies, and civic movements.
Interests
Jane Marsh Parker was particularly interested in the problem of delinquent children.
Connections
On August 26, 1856, Jane Marsh Parker was married to George Tann Parker, a lawyer of Rochester. They had four children.