Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Croly, David Goodman

Croly, David Goodman, journalist, b. in New York city. 3 Nov., 1829; d. in New York, 29 April, 1889. He was graduated at New York university in 1854, was subsequently a professor of phonography, and a reporter for the New York "Evening Post" and "Herald" from 1855 till 1858. He owned and edited the Rockford, Ill., "Daily News" from 1858 till 1859, and became city editor of the New York "World" when it was founded in 1860, then its managing editor until 1872. His active work as a newspaper editor terminated in 1878, when, in consequence of ill health, he resigned the editorship of the New York "Graphic," which he had held since 1872. Mr. Croly predicted financial catastrophes, and foretold in the spring of 1872 the panic of the autumn of 1873, naming the banking-house (Jay Cooke & Co.) that first failed, and also indicated the railroad (the Northern Pacific) that would first go down. Mr. Croly contributed many articles to periodicals, and published lives of Seymour and Blair, with a "History of Reconstruction" (New York, 1868), and a "Primer of Positivism" (1876).—His wife, Jane Cunningham, b. in Market Harborough, England, 19 Dec., 1831, is known by her writings under the penname of "Jenny June." Her father came to the United States when she was ten years old. Until that time she was educated at her native place, afterward by her father and brother at Poughkeepsie and New York. In 1857 she was married, and in 1860 became editor of Demorest's "Quarterly Mirror of Fashion," and when that periodical and the New York "Weekly Illustrated News" were incorporated into "Demorest's Illustrated Monthly" she became the editor of the new journal. Mrs. Croly has been also editorially connected with the New York "World," "Graphic," daily "Times," and "Noah's Sunday Times," and was dramatic critic and assistant editor of the "Messenger" for five years, 1861-'6. She invented the system of duplicate correspondence, and has practised it for thirty years. Mrs. Croly's pen-name of "Jenny June" was derived from a little poem by Benjamin F. Taylor, sent to her, when she was about twelve years old, by her pastor, in Poughkeepsie, with the name underlined, because, he said, "You are the Juniest little girl I know." Mrs. Croly called the first Woman's Congress in New York, in 1856, and also the second, in 1869, and in 1868 founded the Sorosis, and was its president until 1870, and again from 1876 till 1886. She is vice-president of the Association for the advancement of the medical education of women. She has published "Talks on Women's Topics" (1869); "For Better or Worse" (1875); a "Cookery-Book for Young Housekeepers"; and "Knitters and Crochet," "Letters and Monograms" (New York, 1885-'6).