In the summer of 1913, Aunt Agnes, Uncle Smith along with first cousins Norma, Ruth and Ronald visited my 6-month-old grandmother, Marjorie. In the last post, I delved into Norma’s illustrious career as a doctor in Kolhapur, India. Today, I’ll introduce you to Ruth, she who looks unhappy with her enormous bow.
Ruth was born on March 15, 1905 in Osborn, Ohio. Her father, Smith G., was a Presbyterian minister who – at that point – changed churches with some frequency. In 1905, it looks like he was pastor at a church in Pisgah, OH. In September 1910, he left a position at a church in Camden, Ohio for one in Logan, Ohio. By 1915, he was working at St. Mary’s which confused me to no end until I realized – aha! – St. Mary’s was the name of the city, not the church.
In 1922, Ruth followed in her sister Norma’s footsteps by entering Western College in Oxford. (In fact, Norma graduated from there in 1922). She graduated four years later, in June 1926, and traveled to Cameroon, in Central Africa where she headed a school for missionaries’ children for three years.
Thirty years earlier (in 1896) her father, Smith, spent a few years under the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in Cameroon. Clearly, his experiences in Africa made a great impression on his daughters. Women only got the right to vote in August, 1920, remember. I’d say the fact that Norma and Ruth went to college and then worked in India and Africa (respectively) shows their parents to be quite forward-thinking for that era.
When Ruth returned from Africa, in 1929, her father had just accepted a call to the Beulah Presbyterian Church in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. He settled down there, serving as pastor until 1941. Ruth, too, ended up settling down shortly after, by marrying a Princeton alum and Presbyterian minister, like her father. The groom, Reverend Charles Woodbridge was, at that time, a pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Flushing, New York. Her father married them at the Beulah Manse.
From 1930 onward, I can only assume that Ruth’s life was filled with the many responsibilities of a pastor’s wife and mother. Four children were born between 1931 and 1941, all in different states (one in West Africa!) Charles J. Woodbridge ended up being a very well-known minister and professor, and part of the evangelical movement in the Presbyterian church. You can read about that on this Wikipedia page. (!)
Ruth passed away at the age of 57, only two years after the above picture was taken. This came from the visa that Brazil granted her for a trip to Rio de Janeiro with her husband. I think my parents will be amazed by the family resemblance when they see this!
What sticks with me in researching Ruth for this post is the importance of family role models. Her older sister graduated from the Western College for Women. Her father traveled as a missionary to Cameroon and her mother raised a family while following her traveling pastor husband. At some point, Ruth must have thought to herself, “I can do those things, too”.
It made me think about how family inheritance involves so much more than genes and property. Each generation looks at the one before and – if they’re lucky – has a vision of how to create a good life. Every time I work on one of these posts, I realize how lucky I am to have been born with easy access to good advice, insight and first-hand knowledge of the larger world.
And the dance moves. Gotta pass those down as well. Happy Independence Day to you all!
Wonderful to know about the family ancestors – slouches they were not! It makes me proud (even I am not a descendent) to know how independent and bright these women were. I appreciate your homage to your upbringing. May the Stewart line of women continue to raise smart, forward-thinking women who also value family.