Hannah Daviess Pittman (1840-1919) was for sixteen years a member of the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and during that time was also associated with the St. Louis Spectator, a weekly paper. She is also the author of the first American comic opera.
Early life and family
Hannah Daviess was born in 1840, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, the eldest daughter of Maj. William Daviess and Maria Thompson Daviess.
Maj. William Daviess lived on a beautiful estate called "Hayfields," at 122 East Poplar Street, near Harrodsburg. He was, as she described him in one of her books, a rare companion, celebrated throughout the State as a raconteur, a historian, a student of human nature, a great reader of books, as well as men; he had a strong judicial mind, having been educated for the law.
In the State Senate William Daviess represented his district for two years and at one time when offered a nomination for Congress, declined, saying that "politics sooner or later engulfs men's souls," and he might not be able to withstand the temptations offered. Thereafter, he lived the life of a "Latin farmer," with his home always open to strangers and friends. Here, Hannah Daviess spent her early life, in a beautiful, spacious home surrounded by well-kept lawns.
Her mother, Maria Thompson, was a well-known writer of her day, a regular correspondent of The Country Gentleman and Coleman's Rural World. Her last contribution for The Country Gentleman was written on her eighty-second birthday.
Hannah Daviess graduated from the Presbyterian College of Harrodsburg.
Career
Pittman was for sixteen years a member of the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and during that time, was also associated with John R. Reavis as assistant editor of the St. Louis Spectator, a weekly paper founded by Joseph McCulloch, John A. Dillon and Henry W. Moore, editors of local newspapers.
While on the staff of the Post-Dispatch, Pittman wrote several children's plays for Professor Mahler, which were presented at Saratoga during the summer season, and later in 1883, in collaboration with Professor Robyn, wrote her most ambitious dramatic work, a comic opera, which was presented at the Pickwick Summer Garden Theater by a professional company, with Laetitia Fritsch in the title role. The success was so great that the author accepted the offer of Pope's Theater managers to open the regular season with "Manette." The initial ovation was repeated, and from New York City to London, was cabled the success of the first American comic opera.
Severing her connection with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Pittman devoted her time to magazine work. While so engaged, she wrote a number of short stories illustrating the condition between masters and slaves during and immediately after the Civil War.
In 1906, in response to a suggestion made by Hon. John Sergeant Wise, she gathered these magazine articles — "Studies in Black and White" — together, and wove about them the story, The belle of the Bluegrass Country : studies in black and white (1906). The book proved a great success and for years was one of the most frequently called for in the libraries. It was placed in nearly all of the college libraries in the Southern and Western States, as of historic value, from which may be learned from one upon the firing line of memory, the truth of the amazing situation during and following the Civil War. Treating also of the feudal life before the war, which is fast passing into the silence that follows every epoch of national change, the story of The Belle of the Bluegrass Country, possessing the atmosphere and charm of a bygone people and life, attained the importance of history.