Thursday, April 11, 2013

“Over the Great Divide”


Typical for wording in newspaper articles dating from the 1920s, but unusual to ears unaccustomed to hearing such descriptions in our times, William C. Woodworth’s obituary seems lengthy and ornate.

However, one such flowery statement in the article caught my eye for another reason. Apparently, not only had Maud Woodworth Bean lost her father on May 22, 1928. She had also, within that past year, lost both an uncle and an aunt.
            W. C. Woodworth, a pioneer of the Azusa valley, died at his residence on Vincent street on Tuesday. He is the third member of his family to pass over the great divide in the past year, L. D. Woodworth, a brother, having answered the call last November, and a sister, Mrs. A. L. Patterson, dying in Sioux City, Iowa, four weeks ago.
Travel challenges being what they were in the 1920s, it is doubtful that Maud and Sam Bean would have traveled to Iowa for the funeral of Maud’s aunt—whichever of William’s sisters that might have been, the frustrating custom of publicly referring to a married woman only by her husband’s name (or worse, by his initials) preventing discovery of further details so far. With Maud’s grandmother, Eliza, being the mother of eight—seven of whom were still living by the time of the 1900 census—that aunt could have been one of at least three sisters.

On the other hand, if Maud had returned alone from Texas only a couple years earlier, perhaps it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine her returning back east for an aunt’s funeral.

Maud’s uncle, however, may have been another case. Named most likely for his grandfather, Lafayette D. Woodworth, the man had evidently made the move to southern California along with his brother William and their parents. Yet, even then, a trip from Maud’s residence in Alameda—that is, if she were actually there at the time—would have entailed a long day’s journey.

The obituary, flowery as it was, also included the kind of basic facts that genealogists have always prized in their research quest. Assuming that the newspaper hadn’t gotten any of the details wrong, William left three siblings behind:
a brother, H. D. Woodworth of Pomona, and two sisters, Mrs. Emma Larabee of Bristol, Wis., and Mrs. F. C. Hoskins of Pontiac, Michigan.
Of course, those stylish initials get in the way of straightforward research progress. I have a solid guess, though, that “H. D.” probably refers to William’s brother Harvey. Social protocol of the times hints that Emma Larabee was, by that time, already widowed, herself. Mrs. F. C. Hoskins, unfortunately, will have to be put on my “guess” list along with Mrs. A. L. Patterson until I find further hints—and no, I don’t just mean the “shaky leaf” type.

With such a large family of origin, I wonder how many were there to mourn William Woodworth’s passing. With a litany of deaths to regale us as we look back on the timeline of passings in Maud’s adult life up to this point, loss seemed to be a way of life. Babies, young people, the elderly—almost anyone, at any time, could have qualified for a trip “over the great divide.”

rural farm work with horses in southern California

An unidentified man rides atop a cart, handling a team of farm horses in a scene not unlike that which might have been played out during William C. Woodworth's early years in southern California. Unmarked, undated photograph from the collection of Bill Bean.
 

9 comments:

  1. I don't know whether to detest initials or to find them challenging!

    :)

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    1. If anyone could, Iggy, you would find a way to conquer that challenge!

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  2. Harvey Payne Woodworth was his brother. They messed up with H. D. :)

    Sister Emma L. (b. abt 1858) was married before the 1880 US census to a Gilbert. He died before the 1930 US census leaving her a widow.

    F. C. Hoskins appears to be a Fernando C Hoskins a photographer - he is listed with a Lillian (b. Oct 1861) The census lists the name Hoskins frequently as Haskins. I think this is William's sister Lillie (1880 US census).

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    1. Well, Iggy, you know how I feel about newspapers...I had a feeling that middle initial was read wrong--one time or another. Thanks for finding all that!

      Knowing that F. C. Hoskins was a photographer makes me want to go search all the orphan photograph sites to see if he has anything in their archives.

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    2. I went looking. :)

      http://genforum.genealogy.com/brown/messages/21135.html makes mention of some photos (but doesn't show them).

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  3. Loss as a way of life. That's a heavy phrase, but accurate. Looking through my ancestors in the 1700s and 1800s, so very many people did not live what we would call a full life span. In today's world we're not used to that (with the tragic exception of gun violence -- I hope Congress does something effective.)

    I hope Maud and Sam can bear up under these losses.

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    1. I'm revisiting these comments today, after a modern tragedy yesterday put a halt to some people's "full life span" and it certainly is tragic. I guess every era has an aspect that causes mourning. And yet, somehow, I get the feeling we are more surprised about our losses than that past century might have been of theirs. It does seem there was more loss in those previous centuries. Perhaps that is just an illusion of distance.

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  4. Over the great divide..I have not heard that phrase in a long time:)

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    1. It's interesting reading historic newspapers and picking up those bygone speech patterns. It gives a "linguistics" style perception of how people saw life in those times.

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