Here is the story of my east coast family-
Charles Alfred Woodhead came to the U.S. in about 1892. He brought with him his wife Helen (Cornwall) and six children-
The family story is that they entered the U.S. in Baltimore, Maryland and after staying there a while moved to New York. The family story about why they came to the U.S. and why they chose New York is that Helen (Cornwall) Woodhead was an accomplished opera singer and her dream was to perform in New York and at the Metropolitan Opera House. The story also says that she did perform there and that in her performances around New York she went by the stage name "Madame Cornwall." Around 1899 the family moved to Washington D.C. after a "financial reversal." Mention is made in several articles in the social pages of the Washington Post between 1900 and 1915 of Charles, Helen and Maude Woodhead singing traditional Scottish songs at the Calendonia Club in D.C. Helen's family line goes back to Aberdeen, Scotland where for over 150 years her family ran a printing business. Helen was actually born in the U.S. when her family left Scotland in the 1850s to (as the story goes) cash in on the gold rush in U.S. Not striking it rich they moved to Iowa and helped found the town of Welton, Iowa. The story goes that they moved to Missouri in the 1860s because they had slaves. After the Civil War they moved to England and lived in York. Charles Woodhead died in 1916. The story was that he committed suicide after the stock market crash of 1929. The timing is off but the two elements of the story are correct- he did lose the family wealth that he brought from England and the family's shipping business. But that happened in the late 1890s. And he did commit suicide- the newspaper report says he was found in bed with a hose in his mouth attached to the gas line. After that Helen Woodhead lived for a time with her son Christopher in Maryland and then moved to Welton, Iowa to live with her parents- who had returned to the town they helped to found and lived out their final years there. Here is what I know about the kids: -Margaret married Fenton Peterson in about 1902 while staying with her grandparents in Iowa. The problem was that Fenton was her first cousin- but in name only. Helen's sister Lydia married Mr. Peterson and had several children with him- but he had Fenton from a previous marriage. So Fenton was about 14 when Lydia became his stepmother. Margaret and Fenton moved to Washington State soon after and lived there till they died in the 1950s. They had no children. -Catherine stayed in the Washington D.C. area her whole life. She married Richard L. Scherrer and had a least one child- a daughter named Helen. Richard died in 1939- found in the park with a bullet in his head and revolver nearby. Catherine worked for many years at the U.S. Mint and my father remembers a story told to him by a relative who went to visit Catherine and got a tour of where they make the money. Catherine died in 1963 and her obituary mentions being survived by her daughter Helen Thompson, three grandkids, and eight great-grandkids. -Maude got into some trouble when she went to work in a hotel at the age of 16 and the hotel owner took a liking to her. The hotel owners wife was out of town when this happened and somebody told her about it when she got back. So she hired a detective who took a room at the hotel and befriended the husband. Since the husband knew he was under suspicion he "spirited young Maude away" to a place in the countryside in Maryland and it wasn't until he let it slip to his new "friend" that the police went and recovered Maude and arrested the hotel owner. The newspaper article mentions that the only reason the Woodheads allowed young Maude to move to D.C. and go to work is the "disasterous financial reversals" they had recently suffered. Maude went on to sing at the Scottish social clubs in D.C. with her parents in the early 1900s. At some point she married a Mr. Sculthorpe and moved to New Jersey. She lived in Point Place, New Jersey- a fancy resort town. She may have ended up in Rankin, Missouri in the late 1960s where she died. -Harold became a jeweler. He moved to New York city and was possibly married more than once. One of his wives was named Margeret. He lived till at least 1963 as he attended his sister Catherine's funeral. -Charles is my ancestor. He worked his way across the U.S. and ended up in Washington state- possibly because his sister had moved there. He had three children- Charles, Kingsley and Margaret. He died in 1956. My great uncle Charles still lives in Washington state. - Christoper lived in Maryland and Virginia. He worked for a number of years with the Boy Scouts. With his first wife- Josie Gosorn- he had two children- Doris G who was born in 1914, and Ralph A who was born in 1924. Josie died in the late 1920s and Christopher remarried to a woman named Elva. I have recently found that Doris married a Mr. Dickerson and I have been in touch with her son in Virginia. He says that his uncle Ralph Woodhead was stationed in California during World War II and stayed there and raised a family after the war. My great grandfather Charles Woodhead last visited the family in Washington D.C. in the 1950s. He died in 1956 and there has been no contact between the families back east (D.C., New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland) and our west coast line since. If any of the people I have described above are your ancestors please give me a call! (512) 873-9866 or e-mail parris@woodhead.org |