The Hastings Banner — Thursday, June 24, 2021 — Page 7Hope Daring, Hastings’
own authoress
Last week’s Banner , in a reprint of news
from ‘yesteryear,’ reported that in June 1911,
Miss Anna Johnson (Hope Daring), 50, was
preparing to issue a new book, “Valardero
Ranch,” a story of California life in the early
days.
By then, she had written numerous short
stories for various publications, as well at
least nine books.
Ten years later, Johnson was featured in
The Michigan Farmer in the article “Country
Girl’s Dream Come True,” published Nov. 26,
1921.
In that article, Johnson recalled the many
months she had spent writing, rewriting and
editing her first story. Only her mother knew
of her intentions. Despite her later successes
- many of which paid her well enough to
travel extensively and pay off her home
within a few years of having it built – that first
acceptance was the most unforgettable.
“... no later achievement in life has ever
given her the thrills which came when she got
her copy of the paper and saw with her own
eyes that the great Doctor Potts considered
her story worthy of space,” the 1921
publication noted.
That first success was not immediately
followed by similar achievements. Waiting
for months on end, she received rejections or,
worse, sometimes no response at all.
“I had no criticism, no books on short-
story writing ...” she told The Michigan
Farmer. “It was just a matter of keeping at it,
trying to find my own mistakes, studying the
magazine I had designs on until I thought I
knew their needs, and then trying my luck. I
never had the courage to keep on sending out
the same stories, as so many authors say they
do. A half-dozen times was always my limit,
and is yet. If a story doesn’t sell on that many
trials, I use it for kindling.”
According to that 1921 article, most of her
books first ran as serials, ongoing stories in
magazines or newspapers, later being brought
out by the publishing houses that owned those
same papers or magazines. “Madeline, the
Island Girl,” is a story of Mackinac Island and
was followed by its sequel, “A Virginia
Holiday.” “Father John,” a story of Detroit,
ran serially as “Ruth Webster’s Quest.”
“If I had ever dreamed of what was ahead
of me when I started out, I should never have
had the courage to try to write,” Johnson, then
age 61, and still writing, said. “Isn’t it a
blessing that ignorance veils our eyes to the
pitfalls before us? I couldn’t do it over again,
but I was young and full of courage and hope,
and so I kept on, learning by my mistakes, and
coming by slow and painful degrees to learn
what to send out.”
Her final comment in that article, in a few
words, may provide a glimpse of how Johnson
persevered: “I’ve always found it easier to
laugh than to tell other folks my troubles.”
~~~~~The following article on Johnson, was
published in the Feb. 4, 1993, Banner by the
late Joyce Weinbrecht, a contributing
columnist.Anna Johnson spent her life writing
magazine articles and books, studying,
researching and teaching.
She adopted the pen name “Hope Daring”
and became known to young readers all over
the nation.
Anna was born July 11, 1860, in Athens,
Pa. Her family – George T. Johnson and
Loretta VanVechten Johnson, with their four
children, one boy and three girls [Anna being
the youngest] – moved from Pennsylvania to
a farm south of Hastings on Section 8,
Baltimore Township in 1867. Anna, along
with her brother and sisters, attended
McOmber School.
Anna had attended country school near
Athens, starting at age 4. She could not recall,
it is stated in a brief autobiography written in
1940, a time when she couldn’t read. And
reading became a very important part of her
life.
She recalled times when in the winter, her
family read aloud together. One winter they
read the work of Charles Dickens – “Little
Dorrit,” “Pickwick Papers” and “Great
Expectations.” Her parents and occasionally
her oldest sister, Eunice, took turns reading to
the family.
Anna counted it a special blessing that her
parents, particularly her mother, were
educated and understood the importance of
young women acquiring an education.
Anna began teaching at McOmber School
the year after she completed classes there at
age 16. She taught there several years and
took several “teachers classes” offered at
Hastings High School.
During her school years, she began reading
the weekly edition of the Detroit Free Press ,
to which her parents subscribed. This weekly
newspaper had a children’s department and a
household department written by a woman
from Louisiana. The column encouraged
women readers to write for the paper.
Anna accepted the challenge and wrote
articles for the column using several different
pen names. She enjoyed taking both sides of
an issue under different names in the paper.
The editor of the column urged Miss
Johnson to consider writing as a career, “a
life’s work.” She suggested Anna study the
English language and that she “read, read,
read.”
To be certified to teach in rural schools,
would-be teachers had to pass an examination
that contained, among other subjects, algebra
and bookkeeping, not Miss Johnson’s
strongest areas of knowledge. She attended
Albion College, taking classes in algebra,
bookkeeping, rhetoric and English literature
to prepare herself to become certified to teach
school.
She taught at Hendershott School from
1886 to 1889.
She attended Albion for one year, and thesummer following, she wrote her first story.
The Michigan Christian Advocate was
familiar to her and her family. She had heard
the editor, Dr. [James H.] Potts speak at the
Albion College commencement.
Johnson’s first story was prepared for
publication for the Advocate. When the story
was completed, in the envelope ready to
submit to Dr. Potts, she sought a pen name.
Pen names were the fashion of the day and
allowed for privacy of the writer.
“I reread the story, saying to myself, ‘I
hope he will publish it, but that is a daring
hope!’” she recalled in her autobiography. “It
was as if a voice said to me: ‘There is your
pen name.’ So, ‘Hope Daring’ came to be and
started on her way.”
Her first stories printed by the Advocate
were children’s stories. The Advocate didn’t
pay for items published, but did buy material
for a juvenile publication, Sunday School
Advocate , put out by the Methodist Publishing
House. She began submitting her work to this
paper.
Her first sale earned her a check for $2.50,
and she felt the thrill of becoming a paid
published writer: Her stories were considered
worthy of publication and were salable.
Johnson spent the next several years
supplying a story each month for the Detroit
Free Press’ Children’s Department and
publishing articles with the religious press. In
her autobiography, she mentioned the rates
paid by Christian publishing houses were less
than the general publishers, but she still
preferred to stay with the former.
She saw her role as that of teacher, of both
academics and religion.
When her father, George T. Johnson,
became ill in 1890, Anna gave up the school
teacher’s job to help with his care. The farm
in Baltimore Township was sold, and the
family moved [to a home on Hanover Street
in] Hastings. Mr. Johnson died soon after
(1894), and her mother, Loretta Jane, who
went by her middle name, died in 1897. By
the time of her mother’s death, Miss Johnson
had purchased a second-hand typewriter and
had taught herself to type. She continued to
read, study and write.
Her first full-length book was published
by the American Tract Society. After she had
submitted the manuscript, there was a long
wait, five months, before she heard whether
the book, “To the Third Generation,” would
be published. In August 1901, she received a
package containing 10 copies of the book,
hard-bound in an attractive cover. What a
thrilling moment this was for the author.
In 1902, the Methodist Publishing House
published “Agnes Grant’s Education” in hard
cover. This was first published as a serial in
the Epworth Herald. [The sequel] “An
Abundant Harvest” was her next work,
published both as a serial and in book form.
“I was so happy with my work,” she
wrote.
In 1905, she had a home built at 428 S.
Church St. She drew her own plans for the
house, delighting in having all the closet
space she could use and a working fireplace.
She began to travel, spending summers at
Bay View in Harbor Springs, one winter in
Virginia, another in Washington, then to
California and Florida. She spent eight winters
in Biloxi, Miss., traveling to New Orleans and
Mobile, Ala.
She observed people and places, to make
them become parts of her books. Her research
was thorough, accurate and interesting. Her
literary style, while purposely kept simple to
reach her targeted readership of Christian
youth, was well done. Her faith was an
important part of her life. Her writing reflects
this, along with her choice of religious
publishing houses.
She also wrote short stories and serials for
the David C. Cook Company, of Elgin Ill.,
during these years.
Miss Johnson never married and didn’t
have children of her own. She did have four
nieces and one nephew, all of whom she
enjoyed. As a teacher, both country school
and Sunday school, she was a friend to many
young people, touching their lives significantly- aside from the messages of her books,
which were designed to entertain as well as
teach some moral lessons.
For many years, she taught a Sunday
school class of teenage girls in the Methodist
Church of Hastings. She spent a great deal of
time preparing lessons for this class.
The group had meetings Saturday
afternoons, sometimes at Miss Johnson’s
home or at the home of one of the class
members. In the summertime, the class would
pack picnic lunches and walk to “Goodyear’s
Grubs” or down the banks of West Creek as
an outing.
In the winter, the girls would meet in front
of the beloved fireplace in the Johnson home
and amid the firelight talk over their dreams,
make plans for their future. They called
themselves the “Hope Daring Girls.”
This group kept in touch with Miss
Johnson and each other for many years, and
held a yearly reunion into the 1940s.
Johnson also was a close friend to many of
the wives of the Methodist ministers, living
diagonally across the street from the Methodist
parsonage, which was at 138 W. Walnut St.
Along with her activities in the Methodist
Church, she was a charter member of the
Hastings Women’s Club and belonged to a
writers guild.
In June 1940, Miss Johnson wrote her
brief autobiography as a contribution to the
“History of Michigan Methodism.” She
published this as a delightful 16-page
pamphlet and sent it to her personal friends as
Christmas greetings. Several copies of this
publication have survived. This writing gives
a glimpse of her work, dreams, ambitions,
accomplishments and frustrations. This work
was published in the Banner June 7, 1945,
following her death May 30, 1945.
In 1936, her residence was listed in the
city directory as 428 S. Church St. By 1940,
she had moved to The Kelly House, at 202 W.
Court St. (later known as The Curtis-E-
House) [on property now occupied by the
Barry County Courts and Law Building].
By 1945, her health had failed and she was
in residence at the Greenfield Nursing Home,328 S. Park St., where she died at age 84 of
congestive heart disease.
She was buried at Riverside Cemetery.
[Her headstone simply reads “Anna Johnson
(Hope Daring) 1860-1945.” She is buried
alongside her parents and her eldest sister
Eunice M., or “Emma” Moore, who had
moved in with Anna before her death in 1937.
Interestingly, buried within the same small
block of the expansive cemetery are former
probate Judge Ella Eggleston, as well as
Eggleston’s parents and daughters.]
In the 1950s and early 1960s, a Hastings
city/school librarian felt that certain books
should be removed from circulation. Among
the books to be culled were the writings of
Hope Daring. However, some were rescued
by staff and were saved. Some of these books
found their way to the Johnstown and
Baltimore public library in Dowling, some
still in circulation. ... Many are still in
existence in private libraries.
[In 2021, the state library and universities,
including Grand Valley State and Central
Michigan, as well as the University of
Michigan have some of her works, most not in
circulation.]
Sources: Hastings Banner , interviews with
Agnes Smith, Charlotte Heath and Barbara
Schondelmayer; Dowling Library; McOmber
and Hendershott Schools. [Hathi Trust/
University of Michigan, familysearch.org,
ancestry.com, findagrave.com]Area
Obituaries
Hastings author Anna Johnson report-
edly used a few pen names for her writ-
ing, as was “the fashion of the day,” but
the name that brought her the most suc-
cess was Hope Daring.This is one of a few illustrations in Hope Daring’s 1903 book, “The Furniture
People.” (Hathi Trust/University of Michigan; digitized by Google)Richard “Richie” Allen Marsh, Jr., age 41
of Hastings, passed away on June 18, 2021.
Richie was born on July 17, 1979 in
Battle Creek, the son of Richard and Shirley
“Shug” (Sult) Marsh. He was a 1998
graduate of Hastings High School, and
worked at his family’s business, Richie’s
Koffee Shop.
Richie was fun-loving, quick-witted, and
greeted everyone with a warm smile.
Richie was preceded in death by his
mother, Shirley “Shug” Marsh and his
grandparents, Margaret and Robert Martin of
Battle Creek, Richard Marsh of Battle
Creek, and his uncle, Phillip Marsh.
He is survived by his daughter Gianna
Marsh of Middleville; his father Richard
Marsh; sisters, Toni and Courtney Marsh, all
of Hastings; niece, Madalin
Trumbull;nephew, Mason Trumbull; great-
niece and great-nephew, Grace and Quintyn
Trumbull; his aunts and uncles, Vikki
(Larry) Fiandt of Delton, Owen “Dusty”
(Kathy) Sult of Dowling, Liz (Jim) Campoli
of Florida; grandparents Owen and Peggy
Sult of Dowling.
A Celebration of Life Gathering will be
held Sunday, June 27, 2021, from 4 to 6 p.m.
at Girrbach Funeral Home, 328 S Broadway;
Hastings, Michigan 49058.
Arrangements by Girrbach Funeral Home.
To leave an online condolence visit http://www.
girrbachfuneralhome.net.Richard Allen Marsh, Jr.163075
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