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THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
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AN EDITOR?S VIEWS ON ANTI-CRUELTY: ELIZA JANE NICHOLSON OF THE PICAYUNE
By Lamar W. Bridges*
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Approximately a century ago, a young Mississippian of gentle upbringing found herself sitting in the editor?s chair at No. 66 Camp Street in New Orleans. For the next twenty years, until her death in 1896, Eliza Jane Nicholson guided the fortunes, of one of the South?s well-known newspapers, The Daily Picayune. Yet, her anxiety at taking over for her late husband, Alva Morris Holbrook,1 may be better understood one hundred years later if one realizes that newspaper reporting was not a profession in which many Southern women were engaged. In fact, journalism in 1876 was hardly open to women in any section of America.
The absence of women in the newsrooms of America was to change significantly in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and Mrs. Nicholson, a native of Gainesville, Mississippi, undoubtedly aided the entrance of Southern women into journalism. But, even in taking on the difficult task of editor-publisher of a leading New Orleans newspaper, Eliza Jane never lost h childhood passion for nature and for animals.' And, in particular,
? Mr. Bridges is associate professor of journalism at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant.
'Eliza Jane Poitevent married Holbrook on May 18. 1872; she was 23, and he was 54. In January. 1876. Holbrook died, leaving the newspaper to Eliza Jane. See New Orleans. Louisiana, Orleans Parish Health Department Marriage Licenses (1871-72), Vol. 3 pp. 271-520. 496-497. In New Orleans Public Library. For Holbrook's death, see ?Death of A. M. Holbrook." Daily Picayune, January 6, 1876, p. 1; New Orleans, Louisiana. Orleans Parish Health Department Death Records (1875-76), Vol. 65, p. 273. In New Orleans Public Library. The newspaper will hereinafter be cited as the Picayune.
'Eliza Jane was reared by an aunt, Mrs. Leonard Kimball of Hobolochitto, Mississippi (now Picayune), a town about twenty to twenty-five miles from the Poitevent home in Gainesville. Mississippi. It was an isolated, rural childhood for Eliza Jane, who had no playmates. Instead, the animals and birds of nearby Pearl River became her playmates. For an overview of Eliza Jane's career, see my article, "Eliza Jane Nicholson of the PicayuneJournalism History, II (Winter, 1975-1976). 110-115.
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