The year of 1928 brought more difficult news for Samuel Bean’s
young family. With Maud Woodworth Bean having recently lost one of her twin sons in 1927, following the earlier loss of her own sister Helen, it seems the
decade of the ’20s was slated to be a sad one for her.
By 1928, Maud’s father—the blind man she reminisced about
having walked with in their orange groves in southern California—was nearing sixty two years of
age. A Wisconsin native immigrating first to Sioux City,
Iowa, and from there to California, William C. Woodworth was considered a pioneer of the Azusa
Valley. He had moved to
the Los Angeles
area—admittedly a more rural setting in those days—with his parents, Lafayette
and Eliza Woodworth. The family had arrived from Sioux City
in 1886, settling in Covina.
By the time Maud’s father was twenty four, he had returned
to Sioux City
to claim his bride, the former Effie Aurilla Williams—marrying, as it turned
out, on her birthday in 1890. The newlyweds returned to the Woodworth family
farm in California,
where they raised six children—though, by this point in 1928, only three of
those six were still living. The couple had remained in Covina ever since.
Maud’s father was not always blind, but the disability’s
onset had struck him when he was well into his adulthood. Despite that
difficulty, William Woodworth was able to attend to the business of running his
large ranch.
Yet as the year of 1928 got underway, it became apparent
that Sam and Maud were about to suffer another loss: William C. Woodworth
passed away at his home on May 22, five months shy of his sixty second birthday.
His obituary listed his daughter Maud’s residence as Alameda, California—no
surprises as to her location this time—but there is no indication whether she
was able to travel south to be present at his funeral.
As if added as a melancholy postscript, that same year ended
with the somber note of Sam’s own father’s passing. Leon Bean, the divorced
husband of the persistent Ella Shields Bean, added his own passing to the
family’s season of sadness with his death on November 12, 1928—a year the likes
of which Sam and Maud surely hoped would soon be past.
Photograph, above, from the collection of Bill Bean. Unidentified man and child on tractor. This unmarked photo most likely post-dates Maud Woodworth Bean's father, William Woodworth, and possibly is from an entirely different branch of the extended family.
Photograph, above, from the collection of Bill Bean. Unidentified man and child on tractor. This unmarked photo most likely post-dates Maud Woodworth Bean's father, William Woodworth, and possibly is from an entirely different branch of the extended family.
They say death comes in three's. I think there is some sort of basis for that. This family however, seems to be blessed with being in California back in the "good old days", prosperity and yet, cursed with the blindness and Marfans... Life never seems to settle on the happy medium for some.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, Iggy, what is remarkable to me is the frequent mentions, despite these problems, of the cheerful dispositions of the people involved. I'm not sure why life was so difficult for these related families, but at least they seemed equipped to deal with the downturns in a positive manner.
DeleteIt really makes you wonder how they coped with all that death, much of it so premature.
ReplyDeleteEllie, the more I read about the history of each of these family lines, the more I realize how many people did die early. They lived a very different reality than what we are accustomed to today.
DeleteOh, no! Both their fathers dying in the same year. People can only take so much. Sam and Maud have suffered through so much sadness, on top of the challenges put before them as children. I hope their fortunes take a turn for the better, and soon!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mariann, for those kind thoughts on their behalf. Other than the one positive note of Maud's regaining of her own vision, life did seem to be on a downhill slide for Sam and Maud in the 1920s.
DeleteThey had a rough patch...it probably made them appreciate family more. I have been working on entering obits into the family blog..1994 was a terrible year for my husbands family...but joyful too as our girls were both married that year ( a few years later one would divorce..but her x was still a pallbearer for her grandfather) death is just a different kind of history:)
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear about such experiences as yours--difficult family situations happening almost the same time as weddings--I always wonder how much the one overshadows the other. Glad to hear your girls' weddings were joyful, considering the time and overall context. I know none of us lives in a vacuum, but a wedding should be a joyful event!
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