Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Another Desperate Race


Maud Bean
When Maud Woodworth Bean lost her father, William Woodworth, she was relatively young: just thirty years of age. And yet, though she was a mother of two young boys, from that point on, she seemed impossible to trace, once that domestic role of mother and housewife enshrouded her.

Perhaps that was owing to the mores of the times. After all, Maud’s father passed away in 1928. Though the family lived in a place the rest of the nation has always considered to be progressive, even there the role of motherhood at that time would have been a likely qualification for invisibility from society’s eyes.

Yet there was something more about the inability to locate any further information about Maud. I knew she was not even included in the 1940 census—where her husband Sam listed himself as widowed—but I’ve often seen separated or divorced couples claiming that same status when I knew it to be otherwise.

In addition, there was no record of Maud’s death—at least, not in the usual online resources I’ve scoured in hopes of even uncovering any possible spelling variations.

Once I went through the Woodworth family line—and here was where I discovered the online source for all the back issues of the Covina, California, newspapers at NewspaperArchive.com—I realized I might have just found a back door approach to my research problem with Maud. In Covina, it seemed, their newspaper was just the right old-timey small-towned size to feature expanded coverage in place of the rigid formality of obituaries. The Covina paper had the habit of running reports of hometown kids gone away, so perhaps a mention of what happened to Maud might be tucked in among all those stories.

Entering a broad range of dates, in addition to both spelling variations of her name—Maud and Maude—I checked all the results for both Woodworth and Bean in the Covina papers through NewspaperArchive.com.

On the front page of the Friday edition of the Covina Citizen, dated July 14, 1933, I found a flowery headline quite reminiscent of a story the paper had run on the Woodworths over ten years prior. Once again, it involved a race against time in the aftermath of one of those calls every parent dreads receiving:
Reaper Wins Race as Mother Hurries to Bedside of Former Covina Girl
It was her sister Helen’s drama played out all over again, as Maud’s mother—her only remaining parent at this point—hurried to make the long trip from southern California to the Bay area residence of her daughter.
            Receiving an urgent call to come to the bedside of her daughter, Mrs. Maude M. Bean, who was seriously ill in Alameda, on July 4th, Mrs. W. C. Woodworth of 212 Ohio street, Baldwin Park, arrived in the northern city too late to find her daughter alive.
            The young matron, who was born here, and lived in Covina over 20 years of her life had been confined with heart trouble for the past three months, and was believed recovering, when her mother received word that she was not expected to live. She passed away at 10:40 p.m. July fourth, and funeral services were held Friday, July 7, at Mountain cemetery in Oakland. Mrs. Woodworth remained in the north until after the services, returning home this week.
            Mrs. Bean, who was known here as Miss Maude Woodworth is survived by her husband, Samuel W. Bean, Sr.; and two small sons, Samuel W. Jr., aged 12, and Earle Ray aged seven, all of Oakland. Those left to mourn her here are her mother, Mrs. W. C. Woodworth, a sister, Mrs. Neva E. Chambellain [sic], of Selma, and a brother Mr. L. E. Woodworth, of Baldwin Park.
            Although she has not resided here for 13 years, Mrs. Bean was born two miles west of Covina at the former Woodworth home on the corner of Vincent and Covina boulevard, where she lived all the early years of her life attending school here. She has been a frequent visitor with her parents and many friends in Covina, West Covina and Baldwin Park during her residence in Alameda.
            She was a member of the Covina M. E. church, and an active religious worker, also being a member of the Covina chapter of Ladies of the Woodcraft.

16 comments:

  1. I wonder who the "Ladies of the Woodcraft" were.

    Maud seems to have been a genuinely all-round "nice person".

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    1. As far as the "Ladies of the Woodcraft" organization goes, Iggy, I'm not really sure. I can't find anything specific online, though there are several mentions of the group. I'm presuming it might have been the women's auxiliary component to an organization such as Woodmen of the World.

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  2. Just for my own sake, I looked to see where Baldwin Park was, and found it is adjacent to West Covina, being on the NW side of it and closer to the mountains.

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    1. Google maps certainly comes in handy. I was thinking of checking out the street view for where the obit said Maud was born: on the corner of Vincent and Covina boulevards. I wonder if "Vincent" the street name was after "Vincent" the family of one of Maud's aunts.

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  3. Wow, what a story to find. Just shows we never know we will uncover in our search for family.

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    1. That's what I love about family history research, Betty. Even better, it's good to be able to pass these stories down so others will know them, too.

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  4. We knew this was coming, but still it is so sad. And to think it was heart-related like the others is even worse. Sam must have been devastated.

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    1. Linda, I'm sure Sam was devastated, though I have no record of what he thought or how he felt. While it was more common to encounter stories of people dying at younger ages back then, I know it was still hard to take such a loss.

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  5. Oh, my goodness. So you did find news of her death, only 5 years after the death of her father. How very sad. I wonder if this "heart trouble" has any connection with the Marfan syndrome you've been researching -- but it's the Beans who have that, right, not the woman who married Sam?? How devastating for Sam and his sons that they lost Maud, after all that had happened.

    Very distressing. Fine, persistent research, but a very distressing outcome.

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    1. As you've probably seen by now, Mariann, you prompted me to write a whole post in response to this question: Bean or Woodworth? Yes, it was a distressing outcome for the family--and, as I've subsequently discovered, one that repeated itself through the next couple generations.

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  6. Well that is a lose end tied up.. so glad you found something! :)

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    1. I'm glad I found it, too, Far Side. For a moment, I was beginning to have some serious doubts. I knew it had to be there somewhere!

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  7. Jacqi, what wonderful detective work you've done!

    Oh, Maud's poor mother--first Helen, then Maud. It must have been devastating to her that she didn't arrive in time to say goodbye to her two daughters before they passed away.

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    1. Yes, Jana, thinking about it that way, to have that happen not once but twice must have been doubly difficult--though given the modes of transportation available then, I'm not sure what options her mother actually had in those situations. It is an awfully long drive from SoCal to the Bay area now, as it is with the Interstate system. Then???

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  8. Hi Jacqi,

    I want to let you know that this blog post and your blog post "About That Heart Trouble..." are listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/05/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-may-3-2013.html

    Have a great weekend!

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    1. Thank you so much, Jana, for including me in your list this week! I so appreciate it!

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