Margaret S. Wilson née Woodruff, 1829-1912

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 4 June 1829, Zanesville, Muskingum county, Ohio.

Death: 14 July 1912, Seattle, King County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Margaret C. Selby née Wilson, Lloyd M. Selby, Dempsey Wilson, Mary Bell Selby, Sarah C. Stillwell née Wilson, Margaret W. Stout née Stillwell , Alice Hite née Wilson, Joseph S. Selby

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Unknown

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standard

Margaret S. Wilson was born Margaret Woodruff on June 4th, 1829 in Zanesville, Muskingum county, Ohio. Her father was Cornelius Woodruff. Her mother’s first name is unknown, but her maiden name was listed as “Slemons” on Margaret’s death certificate. Also on Margaret’s death certificate, it lists her parents as being born in New Jersey, but all census records state they were born in Pennsylvania. Cornelius Woodruff fought in the War of 1812 under Captain J. McClean’s Company in the Pennsylvania militia. By 1820, he and his family were living in Muskingum county, Ohio. His wife, Margaret’s mother, died between 1830 and 1840. He remarried to Susan Gettings in 1843. In the 1860 census, Cornelius is referred to as “reverend.”

At the age of 22 on November 11th, 1851 in Fairview, Guernsey county, Ohio, Margaret married Dempsey Wilson. Dempsey worked in leather goods. They had five daughters who all lived into adulthood:  Alice (1853), Mary (1855), Sarah (1858), Maggie (1862), and Rose (1868).

In 1864, Dempsey Wilson mustered into the United States Union Army, Ohio Company F, 159th infantry in Zanesville. He served for four months when his company mustered out.

In 1889, Margaret and her husband followed their family out to Seattle, Washington. In 1892/1893, her husband  died while they were living at the Hite Center in Seabeck.  Margaret was listed as a widow on Dempsey’s war pension on January 5th, 1893.

In 1900, she was living as a widow in the household of her second daughter Mary Wilson Barnes and her husband John Barnes in Seattle. In 1910, she was living in Seattle with her first daughter Alice and her husband Ashbel Hite.

On July 14, 1912, Margaret died in her Seattle home from “old age.” She was 83 years old. 

Margaret was buried in Seabeck Cemetery next to her husband.