Margaret Wheeler Ross Papers

Margaret Wheeler Ross, author and poet, was born to William Stuart and Margaret (Price) Wheeler in Vicksburg, Mississippi on February 21, 1867. The family moved to New York City in 1869, where Margaret received her education from private tutors. As a result of financial difficulties, the family relocated to New Mexico in 1888 and to El Paso, Texas soon thereafter.

Margaret Wheeler worked for a railroad office in Prescott, Arizona before taking a job as the Yavapai County court stenographer, where she met County Attorney Henry Davis Ross (1861-1945). The couple was married at El Paso on April 24, 1890 and relocated to Flagstaff, Arizona in 1891. They had two sons, Henry Davis (1891-1961) and John Wheeler (1893-1979). In 1901, Margaret attended the University of Chicago to study music and English. She later attended Boston University and the University of California at Berkeley.

Upon Henry Ross' appointment as State Supreme Court Justice in 1912 the family moved to Phoenix, where Margaret became a member of the Phoenix Women's Club. She was elected president of the Arizona Federation of Women's Clubs in 1914 and organized and became the founding president of the Arizona Federation of Music Clubs in 1920. During the 1920s, Margaret Ross began writing and publishing. Her A Musical Message for Mothers appeared in 1926 and Vanity Bag was completed in 1936. Margaret Ross died of heart disease in Phoenix, Arizona on November 8, 1953.