The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-10-31
THEINTEREST|NG
PERSONALITY Of
MRS. JERAULO
NEWSPAPER WOMAN, FARMER,
BOTANlST, AND SHORT STORY
WRITER, AND HER HOME ON
FIVE MILE BAYOU.
BY Celia Myrover Robinson.

| by Celia Myrover Robinson.
| II You have walked through the Wo-
mans building at the Inter State Fair
grounds and failed to talk to Mrs. Nell
lie Jerauld you have missed one of the
pleasures that might have been more
than pleasure to you, later on, for
so often pleasant memories come back
to us in the guise of Gliding angels
who quicken us from our indolences
and spur US to higher and better
things.
| To receive Mrs. Jeraufds greeting
and pass on, one might remember only
her bright smile and CHEEKY words.
One might think, If the acquaint-
ance extended only so far as the
pleasant greeting that this wonderful
woman seems to have for everyone,
that she was no more than many other
devoted women who are giving their
time to the fair. All have noted her
rare plants and have admired them,
but II you have stopped longer than
this and found her in the delightful
cordial mood in which 1 found her.
you must have marveled at what this
one small woman has done in the
world. And If you have let fate beat
you at the game that you and she are
playing, you must have felt courage
touch your sleeve" and secretly have
taken up the hazards again for anoth-
er toss with fate.
Mrs. Jerauld is from Illinois. She
has spent twelve years in the south,
and she loves 1t.
She is a newspaper woman by pro-
fession. Perhaps one might better
call her a free lance.
| During intervals of her newspaper
work she found time to write short
stories and clever serials. and work
of a deeper nature, for she Is an au-
thority on botany, as one may readi-
ly see who talks with her of her won
derful collection Of plants and, best
of all. she is a student of human ma
ture.
Human interest. That is what Mrs
JerauId puts into her work. And the
reason that her work has this appeal
| Is because she loves human kind
and understands.
When Mrs. Jerauld decided to come
south she made her home in Atlanta.
where she spent four years, coming
to Florida eight years ago and taking
I'D a claim on Five Mile Bayou, two
miles back Of Camp Walton.
One hundred and forty acres of land
for ono small woman to homestead
Most of us would stagger at the
| thought But Mrs. Jerauld didn't even
wayer She went to work.
She was alone except for her little
daughter. And for two years she
worked alone. Many told her she
could not succeed. Some predicted
that she would find it unhealthy.
Others said the land was sterile.
Everyone thought she would soon tire
| of her venture.
But she didn't.
She has five acres of land under
cultivation, and she owns splendid
property which is gaining in value
every day. There are no more home
stead lands on the bayou now. All
the land that has not been taken up
| is government reservation.
Mrs. Jerauld believes in intensive
| farming, and she is demonstrating in
the most practical way that the home
stead land she took up eight years
ago is far from sterile.
Fine vegetables, budded and seed
| ling fruits and rare plants and flowers
make her lovely home, Voluta, one Of
the most valuable of properties.
Mrs. Jerauld is a farmer. But she
| has not ceased to be newspaper wo-
man and a delightful contributor to
maya zines.
She syndicates much Of her work
| intensive writing. So she proves her
theories practical in two ways.
The little girl who came south with
her eight years ago is now a tall
' Dung woman-Margaret her mother
named her, and she, viii tell you with
her eyes shining, that she deserves her
| lovely name.
| And then you know that above the
newspaper work, and the intensive
farming, the treatisies on botany and
the stories and verse, the role of home
maker and mother shines brightest Of
| all.
And you are glad. For Mrs. Jerauld
is helping to prove that the woman
of action and force can be the mother
| and the home-maker too.-It is there
that Mrs. Jerauld has found her high
/ eat calling