Archives West Finding Aid

Kentucky-born Abbie Ewart (1889-1977) moved to Seattle with her family in 1907. The Ewarts built a house at 3160 Government Way, and Abbie's father Thomas, a Scottish immigrant, worked as a real estate agent with an office in the Leary Building. Abbie attended Broadway, Lincoln and Queen Anne High Schools, graduating from the latter in 1910. She then began her training as a nurse, graduating from Seattle General Hospital School of Nursing in 1913. After two years of caring for tuberculosis patients at Firland Sanatorium, Abbie Ewart opened a single-day surgery clinic in Seattle with another nurse. Ewart sold the surgery in late 1917 to begin training as a military nurse after the United States entered World War I. Seattle area nurses trained at Fort Lewis, then were transported to New Jersey and New York before shipping overseas for service. Ewart was assigned to Base Hospital No. 47 in France, and left New York in June 1918 on the White Star Line's SS Megantic, landing at Le Havre on June 28. Ewart served at Base Hospitals 47 and 43 in France in 1918, and at Evacuation Hospitals in Germany in 1919 before returning to New York in June 1919 on the SS Imperator, exactly one year from the day that she'd left.

In the diary that is part of the collection, Abbie Ewart often refers to a young man, Sam, dropping by to visit. This was Lt. Samuel C. Watkins, whose unit appears to have been stationed close to Ewart's, and whom Ewart knew from Seattle. After the war ended, Abbie Ewart married Sam Watkins, long-time engineer and water superintendent for the City of Aberdeen. The couple married on August 24, 1919 and moved to Aberdeen after Sam's discharge from the Army in September 1919. The couple had three children, all of whom entered the armed services. Abbie and Sam Watkins lived at various locations in Oregon and Washington while Sam served as civilian engineer with the army in the 1940s, before settling in Medford, Oregon. The couple retired and returned to Seattle in 1961. Sam Watkins died in 1969 and Abbie Ewart Watkins n 1977.