Margaret J. Magennis
Margaret J. Magennis is one of the best known and most highly respected and beloved among the newspaper women in Boston. In her honor a room was dedicated by the Massachusetts Flower Mission of the C. C. T. U. at the New England Home for Deaf Mutes, Allston, on July 11,of the present year, 1904. This tribute is significant of one among the many worthy benevolent enterprises for which Mrs. Magennis has worked with pen and voice.
Her literary aptitude was inherited, and she drifted into the work almost as her birthright. Her father was Archibald McMeehan, of Norman and Scotch-Irish ancestry. He was widely known over the country for liberalism and defence of the tenant farmer. Her mother was Mary Nelson, of Norfolk (England) stock, of which Lord Nelson was a famed member. Form her grandmother, Molllie Morhead, she inherited her Scottish blood. Mrs. Magennis was born in Greater Belfast, Ireland. She married young and was left a widow at an early age.
Mrs. Magennis was one of the first representatives of her sex to engage in the profession of journalism in Boston. Her first contributions to the press appeared in the Watchman and Reflector in 1868. She was afterward engaged on a suburban weekly, and in 1874, accepted a position on the Boston Traveller, which she still holds.
In the line of special reporting, she has done work such as women seldom enter. For ten or twelve years, she chronicled the proceedings f one of the municipal courts, and, becoming interested in the criminal class, especially the victims of intemperance, for several years, she voluntarily assisted one of the judges in taking men and women on probation. Criminal reporting was first repulsive to her sensitive nature, but her loyalty to duty called forth her unhesitating allegiance. Her reluctant task became to her an opportunity for service to the unfortunates of the Tombs. Among the important reportorial work early undertaken by her was that of the inquest on the death of Katie Curran, who was murdered by Jesse Pomeroy. She described the big guns built in South Boston, attended yacht races and had handled other strong matter.
In addition to her newspaper work, Mrs. Magennis has given time and energy to religious enterprises. She has filled the position of Suffolk County Superintendent of Prison and Almshouse Work for the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and has made a place for temperance in all the penal institutions. For many years, she has conducted gospel services at Rainsford and Deer Islands, which necessitated her leaving her home when living in Dorchester at six o’clock on Sunday morning in all sorts of weather. She has systematically visited the Charlestown State Prison, the House of Correction and the various homes and missions in the city.
Mrs. Magennis has been identified with nearly every charitable institution in Boston during the last thirty-six years. She took the initiative in the first free kindergarten and worked zealously for the school established in the peninsula. She made the first appeal through the Traveller for industrial training at the Boston Farm School, which has been for several years in successful operation. When the Massachusetts Indian Association was formed, Mrs. Magennis was appointed on the press committee and was unwearied in her efforts with her pen. She was a member of the National Prison Association until the Massachusetts branch was formed, to which she transferred her membership. As a Sunday-school teacher in the North End Mission from its inception, she became acquainted with Miss Caroline Burnap, the founder of the Home for the Aged and Friendless Women, and the first fair to aid the work was held through the efforts of Mrs. Magennis. She was also instrumental in founding a Home for Aged Couples and subsequently the Working Girls’ Home, on Pembroke Street, known as the New England Helping Hand Society. The Woman’s Charity Club and the New England Woman’s Press Association both claim her as a valued member. She is also identified with the State Flower Mission work, the New England Home for Deaf Mutes and is on the auxiliary board of the Cullis Consumptive Home.