Miss Horace Greeley Perry.

A Bright Newspaper Woman Who Began Her Career Selling Papers.

Minneapolis dispatch in The Portland Oregonian.

“I have been a newspaper ‘man’ all my life,” said Miss Horace Greeley Perry to the writer recently, “and my connection with the press of the country dates from my christening. My father was a warm admirer of Horace Greeley, and he insisted upon my bearing the name of the greatest American editor. I supposed I am the only girl in the world who is named for the late Editor of The New-York Tribune.”

Miss Horace Greeley Perry is young and pretty, and the proprietor and editor of “The St. James Journal,” of St. Peter, Minn. She is the only woman in the state who edits a paper and she is also the youngest member of her profession in Minnesota.

Miss Perry is a bright sample of what young womanhood can do in business, and her career as editor and publisher has been marked by wonderful success. Editorial blood flows in her veins, as for some generations back her ancestors have been newspaper men. She says that she has risen from the ranks, having started as a newsgirl selling papers on the street. At twelve years of age she began setting type, later doing job work, until, in 1891, she took charge of the paper she now owns.

Although in appearance a mere schoolgirl, she is quite worthy of all the honors her Christian name implies.

Under her able administration “The Journal” secured the county printing contract after a contemporary’s monopoly for twenty-one years. Politically this gifted young woman is a Democrat.

Miss Perry at present is in a hospital, having lately undergone an operation for appendicitis. One of her friends, chatting of her successful career, said: “Twice within its history has St. Peter come near having greatness thrust upon it. Years ago the town was accepted as a capital site by the State, but after the bills passed both houses some wicked man stole the required documents, and St. Peter lots the capital.”
Miss Perry is intensely interested in prison reform work, and is a member of the State Prisoners’ Association. She visits the prisons, and is a friend of the Youngers, the famous outlaws, regularly paying them a visit every month.

Cole C. Younger edits “The Prison Mirror,” and in a late number he paid the following tribute to his friend: “The State Editorial Association may well feel proud of its noble little daughter, who has so bravely assumed the responsibilities of a newspaper career, and who, we fain believe, is destined to inscribe in letters of gold upon our country’s history the honored name of Horace Greeley Perry.”

Originally published in The Sun on July 28, 1898.