Margretta Dietrich

Margretta Dietrich was an American suffragette and activist.

Born Margretta Stewart Shaw on November 23 or 26, 1881 in Philadelphia to Dr. William Shaw and Delia Allman Stewart. Her parents sent her and her sister Dorothy Newkirk Stewart to private school in Philadelphia. Margretta achieved her A.B. Degree from Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia. She Married Charles Henry Dietrich former Governor of Nebraska in 1909. They resided in Hastings Nebraska directly after their marriage. Margretta Stewart Dietrich was elected President of the Nebraska Woman's Suffrage Association in 1919 and became Chairman of the Nebraska State League of Women Voters in 1920. She reported in the November 1920 Alumnae Quarterly that she "was one of the Suffrage Emergency Corps to visit Connecticut in May," alluding to the unsuccessful campaign to get the state to ratify the 19th Amendment. [1]. Dietrich served as President of Nebraska Women's Suffrage Association from 1918 - 1920. She was also President and regional Director of Nebraska and National League of Women Voters 1920 - 1929. She was involved with elderly rights and became the founder and president of the Sunnyside Home for the Aged in Hastings Nebraska 1914 - 1929. Chairperson of the Nebraska State Library Commission 1924 and was Delegate to Republican National Convention from Nebraska, 1928.

Margretta Dietrich first visited Santa Fe in 1921. She wrote about her first encounters with "Indians" in 1921 in New Mexico. She made the choice to move there.

Dietrich moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1927 with her sister, Dorothy Stewart, an artist, and bought the Juan Jose Prada House on Canyon Road. She soon purchased the Johnson Property next door, to which she gave the name El Zaguán. Later she purchased the Borrego house, further east on the same road. All three properties were purchased to save them from redevelopment and restored under the direction of her friend Katherine Chapman, who championed traditional New Mexico builders and their methods. Dietrich and her sister Dorothy Newkirk Stewart continued to do restoration and repairs on El Zaguán where they set up apartments for artists. An artist residency is still run today by the Historic Santa Fe Foundation.

Dietrich continued her advocacy work in New Mexico for the Pueblos and Navajo people by lobbying against development of dams and exploration in villages. Eventually she was President of the New Mexico Association of Indians Affairs from 1932 until 1953 and assisted in the inception of what is known today as Santa Fe's Indian Market.

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