Margaret Ellen Henry Ruffin
RUFFIN, MARGARET ELLEN HENRY, author, was born August 26, 1857, at Daphne, Baldwin County, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Nugent) Henry, the former a native of Kilglas, County Roscommon, Ireland who came to Mobile in 1837, and was a merchant, president Mobile Knights Templars; granddaughter of John and Margaret (McGulre) Henry, also of Kilglas, and of Michael and Ellen (O'Reilly) Nugent of County Meath, Ireland; great-granddaughter of Col. Jerome and Ellen (Tennerly) Nugent, the former a Huguenot officer of the French Army who refugeed to Ireland, a member of the family of Sir Richard Nugent, present Earl of Westmaeth who in recent political changes in Ireland has recovered the family titles and estates lost in past years. Mrs. Ruffin's O'Reilly ancestors are of the same family of Bernardo O'Reilly who immigrated from Westmeath to Spain, thence to America and was the last Spanish governor of Louisiana. Mrs. Ruffin was educated at the Immaculate Conception school, and in languages at Visitation convent, both at Mobile; graduated in 1877 from St. Josephs college, Emmitsburg, Md., where she was given the honorary degree of doctor of literature in 1907. On a wager with Father Ryan that her poem "Reunited" would pass the critics as his own she placed it in his collection with the result that at a reading in Baltimore Oliver Wendell Holmes asked the poet priest to read this very poem saying it was his favorite of his compositions. Explanations were made by Father Ryan and Mrs. Ruffin came into her meed of due praise. She is a Roman Catholic, and president of the Catholic Knights and Ladies of America, Branch No. 130. Author of "John Glldart," a story in verse, "the North Star," a novel of early Norway; "Eden on the James," a story of Jamestown settlement, used as a serial in several magazines; and "The Shield of Silence." Married: April 20, 1887, in Mobile, to Francis Gildart, jr., son of Francis Glldart and Caryanne (Randolph) Ruffin, natives of Edge Hill, Albemarle County, Va.; grandson of Col. Thomas Jefferson Randolph; great-grandson of Gov. Thomas Mann Randolph of Tuck- ahoe, Va., and great-great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson, whose daughter, Martha, was the wife of Governor Randolph. He is a descendant of Capt. Francis Gildart who was territorial agent of Mississippi after the Revolution. Children: 1. Frances Gildart; 2. Mary Ruffin, a Sister of Charity, St. Aloysius school of Littlestown, Pa.; 3. Ellen Randolph, deceased; 4. Thomas Henry; 5. Thomas Jefferson; 6. Caroline Randolph. Residence: Mobile.
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