Carpenter-Richardson Family Papers, 1880-1972

The Carpenter-Richardson family established itself in Cle Elum, Washington in 1906 when Frank Carpenter, a native of Girard, Illinois, arrived and organized the Cle Elum State Bank. Norah Carr, also of Girard, joined him at Cle Elum in 1908 and they married soon after. Their daughter, Margaret, was born at Cle Elum about two years after her parents' marriage. In 1943, she married Dr. John Purver Richardson, a physician from Ellensburg, Washington. John Richardson died in 1953, Frank Carpenter in 1959, Norah Carpenter in 1962, and Margaret Carpenter Richardson in 1973. During its sixty-seven years in Cle Elum, the family's place was among the community's relatively well-to-do elite. It was supported by Frank Carpenter's income from the Cle Elum State Bank, a small state bank with branches at Cle Elum and Roslyn, and from his various investments in local real estate. This income enabled his family to conduct a style of life which included an expensive house, travel around the United States, and boarding schools for daughter Margaret.

Margaret Carpenter, the principal figure in the Carpenter-Richardson papers, first attended Annie Wright Seminary in Tacoma and then Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. Ill at ease in school, despite excellent academic performance, Margaret left Sarah Lawrence in her sophomore year and attempted to find a career in, successively New York, Washington D. C., and San Francisco. Meeting with little success, she returned to Cle Elum and took a modest positon at the bank her father managed. She continued to travel, participate in amateur theatrical productions, and carry on correspondence with a cosmopolitan circle of acquaintances from her college days. In 1943, she quietly married Dr. John Richardson, founder and partner in an Ellensburg clinic, and for several years continued her life much as before, adopting Dr. Richardson's name only in about 1948. After her husband's death in 1953, Margaret returned to her association with her parents in Cle Elum. After their deaths, she adopted a daughter, Susi. She also became involved in various local volunteer activities, such as the Cle Elum Historical Society. She lost her sight in 1968, but remained active until her death in 1973.