Mrs. Mary Fairfax Childs, maker of dialect verse, was born at
Lexington, Kentucky, May 25, 1846. She is the daughter of the Rev.
Edward Fairfax Berkley (1813-1897), who was rector of Christ Church,
Lexington, for nineteen years. Dr. Berkley baptized Henry Clay, in
1847, and buried him five years later. Miss Berkley was a pupil at the
Misses Jackson's Seminary for young ladies until her thirteenth year,
or, in 1858, when her father accepted a call to St. Louis, in which
city he labored for the following forty years. In St. Louis, she
continued her studies at a private school for girls, when she left
prior to her graduation in order to devote herself more especially to
music, Latin, and French. Miss Berkley was married, in 1870, to
William Ward Childs, a returned Confederate soldier; and in 1884 they
removed to Clinton, Missouri, where they resided for seven years, when
business called them to New York, their home until Mr. Child's death
in 1911. Mrs. Childs's life in New York was a very busy one. She was
prominent in several social and literary groups; and for many years
she was corresponding secretary of the New York Chapter of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy. Her first poem that attracted wide
attention was entitled _De Namin' ob de Twins_, which originally
appeared in _The Century Magazine_ for December, 1903. It was the
second in a group of _Eleven Negro Songs_, written by Joel Chandler
Harris, Grace MacGowan Cooke, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and one or two
other poets. That Mrs. Childs's masterpiece was the flower of the
flock admits of little question: it is one of the best negro dialect
poems yet written by a Southern woman. Exactly a year later the same
periodical published her _A Christmas Warning_, with the well-known
refrain, _Roos' high, chicken--roos' high_. These, with many others,
were brought together in an attractive volume, entitled _De Namin' ob
de Twins, and Other Sketches from the Cotton Land_ (New York, 1908).
This collection is highly esteemed by that rather small company of
lovers of dialect verse. Mrs. Childs's poem, _The Boys Who Wore the
Gray_, has been printed, and is well-known throughout the South. She
has recently completed another collection of sketches, called
_Absolute Monarchy_, which will appear in 1913. At the present time
Mrs. Childs is historian of the Society of Kentucky Women of New York,
although she is residing at Kirkwood, Missouri, near St. Louis.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Letters from Mrs. Childs to the present writer; _The
Century Magazine_ (January, 1906).