Woman of the Century/Annie Laurie Wilson James

JAMES, Mrs. Annie Laurie Wilson, journalist, born in Louisville, Ky., 5th November, 1862. She is a daughter of W. H. Wilson, for many years a breeder of trotting horses, residing in Abdallah Park, Cynthiana, Ky. Her mother, still living, was Miss Annie E. Cook, a Pennsylvanian by birth and a Virginian by residence. ANNIE LAURIE WILSON JAMES. Annie Laurie Wilson attended the public school in Cynthiana, graduating in 1879. In the fall of that year she entered the freshman class in Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. During five years she pursued her studies in that institution, her health not permitting continuous study, although vigorous when not confined to the school-room. In January, 1884, she was forced by illness to leave the college. Again in Kentucky, she soon recovered and was eagerly looking forward to the resumption of her studies in the Tall of that year. In August, 1884, her father was financially crippled by a fire, in which he lost $100,000. Laune at once insisted that, instead of returning to college, she should begin to support herself, instead of waiting till she had trained and fitted herself for a profession. She put her determination into practice within a week, taking a position as teacher in the Cynthiana high school, dividing the work of the four-year course with the principal, to suit their mutual wishes and convenience. She remained in that position two years, giving at different times instruction in French, German, Latin, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and English, ancient and American history. While engaged in the hard work of the class-room, she assisted her father in arranging his papers, the accumulations of many years, which had been disarranged in the hurry of removal from their burning home. When that task was ended, she found time to carry on his increasing correspondence. In this way she learned thoroughly the details of his business and became a most invaluable and trustworthy confidential clerk to him. In 1886 she resigned her position in the Cynthiana school and devoted herself entirely to the work of her father's office. She continued to carry on his work until 1888, when he sent her to California on a business trip. While she was in San Francisco, she formed the acquaintance of the owners of the "Breeder and Sportsman," and they offered her a lucrative position as assistant editor and business manager of that journal. She accepted their offer, and for eight months filled the arduous position to the satisfaction of all concerned, making good use of her varied and intimate knowledge of the trotter and the thoroughbred. At the end of that time she resigned the position, and on 19th January, 1889, she became the wife of R. B. James. Alter their marriage they lived for a time on their farm near Gilroy, Santa Clara county, Cal. They next removed to their ranch near Baker City, Baker county, Ore. They have one son, who was born on 6th November, 1889. Mrs. James has been from early childhood a member of the Episcopal Church. She is a devoted Sunday-school worker. While yet in Wellesley College, she became a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Wherever she has lived, she has united, if practicable, with the missionary society. She was one of the charter-members of the Cynthiana Library Association, which founded a valuable public library in that town. In Wellesley College she was a member of the Phi Sigma Society. Her knowledge of the pedigrees of the famous horses of the United States is full, accurate and remarkable. Among other work, she has done a good deal of compilation of horse pedigrees, in which statistics play a prominent part. Aside from that, she is a student of the problems of heredity in horses, on which subject she has no superiors. She is a fluent, direct and luminous writer, and her position as an authority on the horse is unique.