Pioneer Profiles – July 2022
When we left the “George and Gracie show” last month, George Merritt had his divorce; Grace Wick Merritt had $30 a month in alimony and custody of three cats.
To bring readers up to speed, George was the only grandson of Jacksonville pioneer icon Jane McCully. He had been raised by his doting “Aunt Issie” McCully when his mother died shortly after his 1884 birth. Grace was the actress George had married in 1916 when he escaped Aunt Issie’s thumb and moved to Boston. The couple had lived more or less happily ever after—or at least for six years—until they moved back to Jacksonville. An actress certainly did not meet with Aunt Issie’s approval and Jacksonville certainly did not meet Grace’s expectations.
With no acting roles on the horizon, Grace had substituted politics for performing. After all, she was the grandniece of social reformer Lucretia Mott, and political campaigns can provide built in audiences for publicity-minded actresses. We do not know how partisan the politics were, but they certainly created a rift between the couple, undoubtedly fueled by Aunt Issie.
George and Grace’s eight-day-long divorce proceedings in 1924 were a gossip’s heaven of, “He said, she said” charges and countercharges that included profanity, bad temper, incompatibility, smoking cigarettes, sitting on another man’s lap, interference by the plaintiff’s relatives, letters to other women, wearing “yama yamas” (pajamas), and more. It was fodder for newspapers throughout the state.
The aftermath was much less dramatic, at least for George. He worked as a bookkeeper and lived with Aunt Issie for the next 20 years in the McCully family home in Jacksonville.
Grace returned to the performing arts.
During visits to Ashland, Grace had befriended Madame Tracy-Young, a concert pianist and teacher who had studied in Poland with Theodor Leschetizky, considered perhaps the best piano instructor of the century. Grace decided it was time for the world to hear Madame Tracy-Young and that she should be her agent. She booked Madame Tracy on a grand west coast tour. Soon after the divorce was granted, Grace and Madame Tracy headed for Los Angeles.
However, once in Hollywood, Grace decided that with her theatrical background and her training in elocution, she could lend the silent silver screen industry a touch of class. She abandoned Madame Tracy to her triumphal tour and settled in to become a motion picture luminary.
Grace did appear in two motion pictures, but while Movie Digest announced that she was on the threshold of a successful screen career and “had demonstrated great beauty and talent,” her performances had failed to impress the industry’s “higher ups.” Admittedly, fragile, blonde ingenues were the sought-after commodity, and Grace was pushing forty. She wound up supporting herself by posing in photographic illustrations for True Story.
In 1927, Grace turned her back on film. She returned to politics and “invaded” Portland. Within the year she had stormed the City Council chambers several times and frequently picketed agencies “with which she was at outs, among them state public welfare.”
She backed Al Smith in his 1928 campaign for President and was named Chairman of the Oregon State Women’s Smith-for President Club. During the depression she championed the cause of pensioners and the unemployed and began her continuing campaign to seek higher payments to senior citizens. She gained national notoriety by marching down Broadway in a barrel plastered with slogans:
I would rather die quickly fighting for a just cause, than to be slowly starved to death by a group of crooked politicians!
Public Welfare Bureau should be fumigated!
We need more humans, and fewer vultures, in political office.
I hold a college diploma—will trade for a job!
Hungry people make poor pacifists!
Horse thieves have been hanged–why not crooked politicians?
I would rather be IN a barrel than OVER a barrel!
Grace ran for Congress twice, in 1934 as a Democrat and in 1936 as an Independent. In 1934 she announced her candidacy in a beer hall, securing the 100 signatures necessary to be on the ballot. To announce her 1936 candidacy, she attempted to enter the Portland Rose Parade as a float, dressed as an enormous red rose. However, she was “scarcely in step” when the officials ousted her, perhaps afraid her costume was tailored precariously or not wishing to sponsor a political platform.
In 1936, Grace also ran for Mayor of Portland, her slogan being “A kiss for everyone in Portland.” Per a March 26, 1936, Portland Morning Oregonian, “she came smiling into the editorial rooms.” After chanting a self-composed poem alluding to opposition candidates kissing women and babies, she recited her campaign slogan: “Don’t mix your taffy with your baloney and applesauce and the kisses will take care of themselves.”
After telling newspaper staff she was going to give them a “kiss,” she handed them candy kisses. Before the final election, however, she withdrew in favor of Ralph C. Clyde and donated her supply of candy kisses to some other more promising undertaking.
As the depression continued, Grace grew increasingly bitter against President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the WPA, welfare, and “social insecurity.” She became an avowed enemy of communism and an exponent of adhering to the Constitution. She published a booklet presenting her stand on “returning to the pioneer principles of this country.”
Grace’s politics became increasingly right wing. She wrote hundreds of letters to elected officials, local and national, and many letters to Portland newspapers. She became active in a number of radical organizations. In 1937 she was Chairman of the Auxiliary of the Sons of Union Veterans, an anti-immigrant group. She joined the National Gentile League in 1944 and was an outspoken anti-Semite, believing in Jewish conspiracy. She became Chairman of the American Women’s Party. She also joined the America First Party. She corresponded with a network of right-wing activists, all of whom shared her views against Roosevelt and later Eisenhower, opposing integration, conscription, the United Nations, and Jews.
By the 1950s, her politics focused more on local issues. She campaigned against fluoridation, the zoo, and local politicians. She also became interested in improving old age assistance.
Grace Wick was a fascinating woman! But despite her passion, activity, and efforts, it seems that she never backed a winning cause. Grace died in Portland in 1958, leaving a dog and four cats….
Pioneer Profiles is a project of Historic Jacksonville, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to preserve Jacksonville’s Historic Landmark District by bringing it to life through programs and activities. Join us in July for Haunted History walking tours, “Industrial Revolution Newfangled Inventions” at the 1873 Beekman House Museum, Saturday “Walk through History” tours, and weekend “Behind the Counter” tours at the 1863 Beekman Bank Museum.
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