Courtesy of Misti Spillman, Manager, Preservation and Community Outreach Woodland Cemetery & Arboretum. Living here in Warren County, we are fortunate to be between the two larger cities of Dayton and Cincinnati. This allows us to not only share in both of these city’s accomplishments, but in their residents. And, believe it or not, one way of learning about these people can often be found in historical cemeteries. Dayton, Ohio’s Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, which is one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the United States, is filled with history. And, this February the WarrenCountyPost.com has been given the privilege to publish a piece from Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum about Marguerite Doane Wright, a Champion Lady Roughrider.
Marguerite (occasionally Margaret, Maggie, or Margie) Doane was born in Nebraska on November 26, 1894, to Nellie & Walter Doane. Marguerite’s younger sister, Lula (sometimes Lola or Lulu or Lydia) was born three years later.
What records remain indicate that their home was not a happy one. In 1903-1904, while living in Council Bluffs, IA, Nellie sought a divorce from Walter Doane. Facing an inflexible legal system & the scourge of public opinion, she told the judge about Walter’s failure to support his family, his violent temper & threats of violence, plus his excessive use of intoxicants and obscene language. Later that year, Nellie married a musician named Charles W. Fridley. Sometime between 1904 & 1908, the family moved to Dayton…