Kate Simpson Hayes | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Kate Simpson Hayes

Kate Simpson Hayes, pen name Mary Markwell, writer, journalist (b Katherine Hayes at Dalhousie, NB 1856; d on Vancouver I 15 Jan 1945).

Hayes, Kate Simpson

Kate Simpson Hayes, pen name Mary Markwell, writer, journalist (b Katherine Hayes at Dalhousie, NB 1856; d on Vancouver I 15 Jan 1945). Hayes moved to Prince Albert, North-West Territories, in 1879, then after a short-lived marriage settled in 1885 with her 2 children in Regina, where she founded a literary and musical society. She wrote for the Regina Leader, was territorial legislative librarian, and as Mary Markwell published numerous plays, sketches, short stories, songs and verses. Her Prairie Pot-pourri (1895) was the first literary work published in the Territories. Her strong suffrage convictions led her longtime companion and father of 2 of her children, Nicholas Flood DAVIN, to introduce a motion in Parliament (8 May 1895) in favour of women's suffrage. In 1899 she joined the Manitoba Free Press, becoming women's editor; she was one of the founders of the Canadian Women's Press Club (1904). In 1906 and after she travelled widely in Britain and Europe encouraging women's immigration to Canada; she was president of the CANADIAN WOMEN'S PRESS CLUB from 1906-07 and later women's editor of the Ottawa Free Press.