Olive Ruggles Fairbanks, "she had passed so completely out of the notice..."

Olive R. Fairbanks (1819-1900)

Olive Ruggles Fairbanks was born on August 20, 1819. She was the daughter of Samuel Fairbanks of Newton, Massachusetts and Mrs. Hannah Everett Jackson. It was her mother’s second marriage.

For many years after the death of her parents Olive, who never married, lived with relatives or friends. Her life was perhaps indicative of the circumstances of single women without an education or trade in the nineteenth century. In the 1870 census, Olive was living with the family of Joel Talbot and in the 1880 census, her occupation was listed as “servant.”

Olive Ruggles Fairbanks died on March 23, 1900 of old age. Her obituary in the Norwood Advertiser and Review tells her story:

            “Miss Olive Ruggles Fairbanks, an old lady connected with some of Norwood’s best families, died at the house of Mrs. Sarah Robinson, which had been her home for several years past, on Canton Street, on Friday of last week. Deceased was a native of South Dedham, and had resided here and in Westwood for the whole of her busy life…Though well and kindly remembered by some of the oldest people in Norwood, East Walpole, and surrounding towns, she had passed so completely out of the notice of the present generation that many who once knew her had supposed her to be long since deceased. In her closing years she had been afflicted with blindness. She bore the sufferings and infirmities of her last years with courage and patience, and was recognized by those with whom she came in contact as a good and kindly old lady. An accident occurred not very long ago [and] probably hastened her death, which is principally attributed to old age.”

She was interred in lot 120 with her mother, father, and brother.