Ruth A. McDonald

Ruth A. McDonald, second child and only daughter of Mary Josephine Harrington and Charles Sweden McDonald, was born 13 December 1900 in Merced, Merced, CA. It is not known what her middle initial stood for, but chances are it was Alison, in honor of her father’s paternal grandmother.

At the time of the birth, Charles McDonald was a railway worker. A birth announcement in the Merced Express confirms Ruth came into the world in her mother’s hometown, but the family was experiencing a transitory existence, moving about from place to place as Charles’s responsibilities as a supervisor and civil engineer took him to a series of different job sites. Ruth is believed to have spent most of her brief life in Kern County. A photograph taken in approximately 1901 shows Charles in front of tents pitched in the sagebrush flatlands of the county near the community of Gosford. It could be this was strictly a work site, but the tents may literally have been the family home at that time.

Ruth perished at six months of age. The Kern County Pre-1905 Death Index shows her as dying 24 June 1901. This is three days later than the date shown on a genealogical list written by her mother in the 1940s. Though the index might have a typo, it is more likely Josephine’s fading memory caused her to write down a date that was slightly off. (She also got the years of birth and death wrong, as 1901 to 1902 rather than 1900 to 1901.)

Note: The photograph at left does not include Ruth. Shown are her older brother Robert with her younger brother Elton in about 1904. Elton, wearing a dress as boy babies often did in those days, looks very much like a girl. The picture was added to this webpage because the strong facial resemblance between the brothers makes it easy to imagine how Ruth might have looked during her short life.

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