Margaret Stewart was born in Ohio in 1819, the daughter of Ann McLaughlin (1795-1847) and Reverend William Stewart (1794-1885). Margaret married William Nathan White in Illinois in 1835. William Nathan White came over the Oregon Trail in 1850 and Margaret White followed in 1851. After living in Oregon and then Chehalis area, they moved to Chambers Prairie where White was killed during the Puget Sound Indian War in 1856. Margaret married Stephen Ruddell (1816-1891) in 1857.
In 1871, she joined her daughter Ann Elizabeth Bigelow in calling for a Suffrage Convention and attended the Washington Territory Woman’s Suffrage Association convention in Olympia in November 1871. The Whites had a large family: Ann Elizabeth, William Nathan, George, Mary Ellen (Byrd), Anson, Clara (Dunbar) and John Lee. Mrs. White had a son Rigdon after her marriage to Stephen Ruddell. Margaret and Stephen, and Margaret’s three daughters all lived in close proximity on Olympia’s East Side, and their homes are all still in existence.
Rev. William Stewart, Margaret Stewart White Ruddell's father
Rev. William Stewart, Margaret Stewart White Ruddell's father
Margaret Stewart White Ruddell, Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow's mother, photograph by A.B. Woodard
Margaret Stewart White Ruddell with her three daughters Clara White Dunbar, Mary Ellen White Byrd, Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow
Margaret Stewart White Ruddell Mother of Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow
William White, father of Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow
George White, brother of Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow
Clara White Dunbar (1852-1930), sister of Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow
Addie Byrd (later Athow), Jessie Byrd (later Stevenson), and Clara Byrd (later Anderson), nieces of Ann Elizabeth Bigelow
Anson White, brother of Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow
William White, Margaret Stewart White Ruddell's first husband
Mary Ellen White (Byrd), sister of Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow
See additional photographs of the family in our Who Are We? collection, as well as locations associated with the family: Dunbar House, Byrd House, and Ruddell House
Digitization and posting of these images from the Bigelow House Collection funded through the Pendleton & Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation.
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