Stuart-Smith House (1852) and Ruth McEnery Stuart (1852-1917)

This house is owned by the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation and is currently undergoing renovation. It was built in 1852 in the Greek Revival style by a relative of Alfred Oden Stuart, who moved into the house with his wife, the writer Ruth McEnery Stuart, after their wedding in 1879. Stuart would live in the house until the death of A.O. Stuart in 1883.

Ruth McEnery Stuart was a writer of fiction in the local color style (also known as "(literary) regionalism," which was popular in the United States between the American Civil War and World War I. Local color writing places a heavy emphasis on depicting the setting of a story and the speech/dialect and customs of the community in which the story is set. Its stories often have nostalgic qualities.

Mary Routh McEnery was born in 1852 in Marksville, Louisiana, and her family later moved to New Orleans. In 1879, she came to visit family in Columbus, Arkansas, near Washington. McEnery's cousin, James McEnery, had married Mildred Stuart, and settled in the area. While Mary Routh McEnery was in the area, Mildred Stuart McEnery introduced her to Mildred's cousin, Alfred Oden Stuart. Mary Routh McEnery and A.O. Stuart were married shortly after and moved to Washington. She started the Dear Old Town Club, a social and reading club that included fellow authors Sallie Kate Holt and Martha Carruth Robinson. Her time in Washington was relatively short: after short years, Alfred died from a stroke in 1883, and she returned to New Orleans with their only child, a son named Stirling, born 1882.

Her first published work was the short story “Uncle Mingo’s Speculations” in January 1888 issue of The New Princeton Review, followed by “Lamentations of Jeremiah Johnson” in Harper’s Magazine. The former story was set in New Orleans, and the latter in Washington, Arkansas (explicitly identified as such, not as "Simpkinsville"). After two more stories had been accepted for publication ("Camellia Riccardo," published in the Sept. 1888 issue of The New Princeton Review and "A Golden Wedding," published in the December 1889 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine), Stuart moved to New York City in 1888 with Stirling, but continued to live in New Orleans over the winter months. The pair would be joined by Ruth's sister, Sarah, in 1897. Stuart frequently toured the United States and Europe giving public readings of her work, sometimes with crowds estimated at 2,500 people at one time. She also continued to write for publication. In early 1905, Stirling was injured in a falll outside the family's home in New York City. Over a month later, he would die from those injuries in April 1897 and would be buried in Metairie, Louisiana, near New Orleans. In June 1915, Stuart would be awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by Tulane University. Ruth McEnery Stuart passed away in 1917, and was buried alongside her son.

Local color writing, and the related literary concept of regionalism, flourished in the United States between the Civil War and World War I, though works employing the techniques of local color writing continue to be written. Characteristics of local color style are a sharp focus on the setting of the story, the speech/dialect and the customs of the characters depicted in the stories, and a pervasive sense of nostalgia. The stories are set in or based on locales which the author knows well. Other examples of writers employing the local color tradition are Louisiana writers Grace King, George Washington Cable, and Kate Chopin; Sherwood Anderson of Ohio; Willa Cather of Nebraska; and Sarah Orne Jewett of Maine.

A signature of Stuart's writing was the use of southern dialects, with stories mostly set in the fictional town of Simpskinsville, based on Washington. Several volumes of her work were published in her lifetime. A modern collection of several stories set in Washington, Arkansas, (with another story set in New York City, but featuring a character from Arkansas) is Simpkinsville and Vicinity: Arkansas Stories of Ruth McEnery Stuart released by the University of Arkansas Press in 1983, republished in 1999.

Ewell, Barbara C. Ruth McEnery Stuart, 64 Parishes. January 4th, 2021. Accessed June 13th, 2024. https://64parishes.org/entry/ruth-mcenery-stuart-2.

Simpson, Ethel C. Mary Routh McEnery Stuart (1852–1917), Encyclopedia of Arkansas. September 22nd, 2023. Accessed June 13th, 2024. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/mary-routh-mcenery-stuart-1777/.

Simpson, Ethel C. Simpkinsville and Vicinity: Arkansas Stories of Ruth McEnery Stuart. Edition 2. Fayetteville, Arkansas. U of Arkansas P, 1999.