Yda Hillis Addis, (born 1857, disappeared 1902 in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, U.S.) was the first American writer to translate
ancient Mexican oral stories and
histories into English, some of which she submitted to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
-based newspaper ''
The Argonaut
''The Argonaut'' was a newspaper based in San Francisco, California from 1878 to 1956. It was founded by Frank Somers, and soon taken over by Frank M. Pixley, who built it into a highly regarded publication. Under Pixley's stewardship it was c ...
''.
[ The most widely popular of her more than 100 stories are ''Roman's Romance'' and ''Roger's Luck''.][
]
Early life
Addis was born in 1857 in Leavenworth, Kansas, and moved with her family to Chihuahua, Mexico, at the start of the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
.[ The daughter of an itinerant photographer, Alfred Shea Addis, she roamed the Western frontier and Mexican wilderness, into indigenous villages, miners' camps, and other exotic locations, mostly in Mexico and California, assisting her father. When she was 15, Addis and her family moved to Los Angeles, where she graduated with the first class of ]Los Angeles High School
Los Angeles High School is the oldest public high school in the Southern California Region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are royal blue and white and the teams are called the Romans.
Los Angeles High School is a pub ...
; a graduating class of seven students.[ She also began teaching seven-year-olds.
]
Career
Fiction-writing
Addis wrote many short stories, drawn from Mexican oral sources, as well as original fiction. Her writings included ghost tales, visitations of the unseen, tragic love triangles, and stories that presaged American feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
. In 1880 Addis submitted her stories of heroines, such as ''Poetic Justice'' and ''Señorita Santos'', to ''The Argonaut
''The Argonaut'' was a newspaper based in San Francisco, California from 1878 to 1956. It was founded by Frank Somers, and soon taken over by Frank M. Pixley, who built it into a highly regarded publication. Under Pixley's stewardship it was c ...
'',[ a bi-monthly ]San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
journal founded by Frank M. Pixley. Soon her work was appearing in other publications such as ''The Californian'', ''The Overland Monthly'', ''Harper's Monthly
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...
'', the San Francisco '' Chronicle'' and ''Examiner
Examiner or The Examiner may refer to:
Occupations
* Bank examiner, a kind of auditor
* Examiner (Roman Catholicism), a type of office in the Roman Catholic Church
* Examinership, a concept in Irish law
* Medical examiner
* Patent examiner
* Tr ...
'', the '' Los Angeles Herald'', the '' St. Louis Dispatch'', the '' Chicago Times'', the ''Philadelphia Press
''The Philadelphia Press'' (or ''The Press'') is a defunct newspaper that was published from August 1, 1857, to October 1, 1920.
The paper was founded by John Weiss Forney. Charles Emory Smith was editor and owned a stake in the paper from 1880 u ...
'', ''McClure's'' magazine, and many Mexican newspapers and periodicals.
Travel writing
When the editors of the various publications of which Addis was connected discovered that she was going out of the country often, they took advantage of the opportunity to employ her to write about her journeys. Most 19th century readers were unfamiliar with her travel dispatches; her travel literature and articles have only surfaced of late.
Personal life
Pixley introduced Addis to his good friend John G. Downey, a former governor of California, in his late sixties. When Downey's sisters discovered that he and Addis had become engaged, they shanghaied
Shanghaied may refer to:
*Shanghaiing, or forced conscription
* ''Shanghaied'' (1915 film), a film starring Charlie Chaplin
* ''Shanghaied'' (1927 film), a 1927 American silent film
* ''Shanghaied'' (1934 film), an animated short film starring Mi ...
Downey to Ireland, leaving Addis to sue for breach of promise
Breach of promise is a common law tort, abolished in many jurisdictions. It was also called breach of contract to marry,N.Y. Civil Rights Act article 8, §§ 80-A to 84. and the remedy awarded was known as heart balm.
From at least the Middle ...
. Before the trial date, Addis left San Francisco for Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
to write for the bilingual newspaper '' Two Republics'', owned by J. Magtella Clark. When the editor, Theodore Gesterfeld, became distracted with Addis' wit and charm, the editor's wife, Ursula, sued for divorce and named Addis a co-defendant. In Gesterfeld's testimony, he admitted to committing adultery, but not with Addis.
With this unfavorable publicity, Addis left Mexico for Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...
, and began collecting material about prominent citizenry of the area for a book of biographies to be published by Lewis Publishing Company. During one of her interviews she met and shortly afterward married Charles A. Storke, a local attorney and owner of the '' Santa Barbara News-Press''. Storke was attracted to Addis for her quick mind, her good social standing and her fame as a writer. Addis, on the other hand, saw Storke as a man who could offer her financial security. They were married on September 10, 1890. Addis' history of Santa Barbara, her only book, was published in 1891. However, Addis claimed she was treated badly by both Storke and his teenage son Tommy, accusing Storke of peculiar intimate behaviors and violence toward her. Storke retaliated with a divorce complaint on the grounds that Addis was insane. On January 24, 1894 she was involved in a trial with Cottage Hospital over the sum of $225.00 for medical treatment which she lost. On December 28, 1894, in the divorce suit of ''Charles Storke vs Yda Storke'', the trial was resolved in favor of the plaintiff.
During the divorce Addis discovered that her attorney, Grant Jackson, was in duplicity with Storke. Addis subsequently broke into Jackson's home one night carrying two .38
.38 caliber is a frequently used name for the caliber of firearm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
Th ...
revolvers and threatened to shoot him. One bullet was fired, which passed through the floor. Jackson overpowered Addis and called for the police, and she was placed in jail.[ Addis spent eight months in prison. In February 1900 she was sentenced to serve a year in the Santa Barbara County Jail in a libel case. After serving ten months she was released in May 1900 with two months credit time. In June 1901 in the case of C.A. Storke vs Ada Storke order dismissing motion for new trial.
When Addis was released, her divorce from Storke was not final and she requested ]alimony
Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide financial sup ...
. At this time Clara Shortridge Foltz
Clara Shortridge Foltz (July 16, 1849 – September 2, 1934) was an American lawyer, the first female lawyer on the West Coast, and the pioneer of the idea of the public defender. The Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles was renamed ...
stepped in briefly to defend Addis. Storke refused to pay the $500 a month that Addis requested and instead had Addis committed to an insane asylum. Addis later escaped from the asylum, and disappeared.
While it was long assumed that Addis disappeared in 1901, with some sources claiming she was committed by Storke to an asylum, from which she escaped, research by Ashley C. Short suggests that Addis reinvented herself as Adelayda Hillis Jackson, taking a name from her mother's family and that of her purported second husband Grant Jackson while tacking on "Yda" to her new first name, and spent nearly thirty years in Texas (after perhaps living in San Francisco and México). Mainly residing in San Antonio, Jackson/Addis spent the last decade of her life committed in the state hospital in that city and died in 1941.
See also
*List of people who disappeared
Lists of people who disappeared include those whose current whereabouts are unknown, or whose deaths are unsubstantiated. Many people who disappear are eventually declared dead ''in absentia''. Some of these people were possibly subjected to enfo ...
Notes
References
Further reading
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Addis, Yda Hillis
1857 births
1900s missing person cases
19th-century American short story writers
19th-century American women writers
American expatriates in Mexico
American women short story writers
Missing person cases in California
19th-century American translators
Year of death unknown