a brief family history, as related by adelia knapp woodward hayward:

caroline belle fluent webster, mother's (lynne adele webster woodward) mother, died in chicago of typhoid fever in 1889, when mother and her sister marion were about 5 and 3 years old, respectively. they had gone to chicago as grandpa george webster had been given a lifetime job with the mccormick � deering harvester co. this was during the period before chicago built the drainage canal and was still dumping sewage directly into lake michigan, thereby polluting all the water supplies. (editor's note: the army corps of engineers later reversed the flow of the chicago river in what was hailed as an engineering masterpiece. this dubious achievement enabled the city of chicago to ship its shit to st. louis!)

george webster and his brother john had purchased an oats harvester from mccormick - deering, as had many other midwestern farmers, but found that it didn't bind straw sheaves properly. all the neighboring farmers sent their harvesters back. eventually, the company sent a messenger to the webster farm at floyd, iowa, to see why they had not returned their machine. much to the surprise of company officials, it was found that george and john had successfully rigged a knotting device on the harvester, precluding any need to return the machine. the mccormick � deering company promptly bought the rights to the webster knotter and offered george a job for life. thus the family moved to chicago, while john remained in floyd county to operate the farm.

after caroline's death, grandpa george stayed on with mccormick � deering and traveled north and south america, demonstrating harvesting equipment and doing engineering work for the company. during this time he lost his left arm in an equipment mishap. george remarried and had a second wife and family, living in illinois, but we never had any contact with them. he retired, eventually, at redondo beach, california, where he died in the 1930's.

during his years in california george occasionally would make trips back to the midwest to visit us, crossing the desert at night. he would arrive with much fanfare in his model t (for touring) ford, replete with running boards and a mechanical signaling arm!

mother and marion returned to the webster farm and grandma adelia (adelia knapp fluent) raised them, along with caroline's brother (mother's uncle) ten eyck fluent and her sisters (mother's aunts) pamelia and mae fluent. adelia was the wife of otis hunt fluent. none of the other three fluent children ever married. ten eyck, a giant of a man, became very successful as a traveling salesman and lived on the farm until he died.

pamelia (millie) and mae moved to a large home on the main street hill in charles city sometime before mother was to go to high school. mother lived there with her aunts during her high school years. the house was a beautiful victorian structure that was a camelot to me as a child. they had two steinway pianos!

john webster moved to illinois, where he married and raised a family. a sister, belinda, for many years ran the old limestone hotel in floyd. on the mantel there was a picture of uncle dan'l (daniel webster, famed as a politician and orator and senator from massachusetts). there is now a daniel webster historical shrine at franklin, new hampshire, the webster's home in new england before they emigrated to the iowa territory.

george, john and belinda were the children of harry webster, who was half-brother to daniel. harry's father, ebenezer webster, was a captain in george washington's army at valley forge, during the american revolution.

on the fluent side of the family, david knapp was a minuteman at lexington and concord and has been memorialized in a statue at rehobeth, massachusetts.

harry webster brought his family westward from new hampshire in a covered wagon, to the cedar river valley of floyd county in the 1840's, while iowa was still a territory. george married caroline belle fluent, who was the daughter of adelia knapp fluent, and they lived on the webster farm until the fateful move to chicago.

mother lynne (lynne adele webster) was considered something of a bloomer girl because she had the audacity to enroll in college. while there she met lee roy woodward. following graduation from grinnell college they taught high school, lynne at albia and roy at ft. madison and clinton. roy entered the univ. of chicago and began coursework there during the summers of 1910 and 1911 which would eventually lead to his medical degree.

they were married in charles city, iowa, on june 19, 1911. working through the grinnell in china organization, dad had obtained a position at chihli provincial college in pao ting fu as an instructor of chemistry, physics and mathematics. mother and dad went directly to san francisco after their wedding and traveled by steamer to hawaii, japan and china, where they took up residence at pao ting fu. a year later they moved to tientsin, where dad taught at pei yang university. they summered, while there, at a resort village, pei tai ho, situated where the yellow river empties into the yellow sea.

in 1914, with war breaking out, the american government asked all american citizens to vacate china. mother and dad traveled from pau ting fu to harbin, manchuria, thence to vladivostok, russia, and via the new trans-siberian rail road to moscow. there they saw the great russian ballerinas and the onion domes of ivan the terrible's cathedrals. from moscow they traveled to berlin, the black forest, and oberamergau in bavaria. finally, they sailed for the u.s.a. from liverpool, england, landing in new york city.

upon their return, dad re-entered the university of chicago and received his m. d. degree from rush medical college in 1917. they then went to deer lodge, montana, in 1918, where dad set up his first medical practice and worked part time as a milwaukee railroad surgeon. dad didn't like general practice, however, and they moved back to north iowa in 1921. they settled in mason city, cerro gordo county (near floyd county) and dad joined the park clinic there, at the park hospital, where he was able to limit his practice to internal medicine. in 1937 he became a founding member of the american board of internal medicine. he practiced at the park until his retirement and death in 1958. dad was the only mason city doctor ever to become president of the iowa medical society, a post to which he was elected in 1944.

ed (edward roy woodward) and i were both born in chicago - 1916 and 1918, respectively. art (arthur webster woodward) was born in mason city in 1923. all three of us went to mason city high school (i especially remember one day that classes were interrupted - john dillinger had just robbed the first national bank!) and were graduated from grinnell college. ed and art both earned their m. d. degrees at the univ. of chicago school of medicine. ed completed his just prior to the second world war and served on a l. s. d. in the pacific, then in japan during the occupation and the subsequent korean "police action". art served in the navy air corps, and then returned to grinnell to complete his interrupted college work prior to entering medical school. we had a home in rock glen, in mason city, where mother and dad lived until mother became too lame to negotiate the stairs and they moved to a suite in the hotel hanford. mother passed away there in december of 1953.

in 1925 dad and mother purchased a lot on the south shore of clear lake, at dodges point beach, and built a cottage there. the beautiful sunsets, which we all remember watching from the back porch during dinner, reminded them of their vacation spot on the yellow sea, so the cottage was named pei tai ho. we had wonderful summers at pei tai ho, and ed and art and i learned to sail there. chance, whose name derived from a joseph conrad story, was our c-class scow from the johnson boat works at white bear lake, and was a contender for years in the clear lake yacht club races. the boys' race-time squabbles became legendary, even rating a spot in the c.l.y.c. 50-year history, published in 1985. dad was elected commodore of the yacht club in 1942.

some years later dad arranged to buy the rutledge property, next door, and granite lodge became a woodward summer enclave. what with new families and the burgeoning broods of grandchildren, poor pei tai ho was bursting at the seams. the back porch did double duty those years, with bunk beds at one end and the big square table, with its assortment of chests and chairs to sit on, at the other.

a woodward addendum, by dr. e. r. woodward:

roy's father, edward woodward, was born in cornwall, england, and emigrated to canada with his parents when he was three. the family settled in rural quebec and attempted unsuccessfully to raise wheat there. they then moved to ohio and tried, again unsuccessfully, to raise wheat once more. after that they moved west by covered wagon and settled, this time permanently, in iowa.

it was here that edward and a neighbor came up with the idea of trying to raise corn, then feeding the corn to hogs and marketing the porkers. the concept was enormously successful and their operation was the forerunner of modern feedlot operations. it is notable that edward was the first farmer in iowa to have his own stock train for the run to the chicago stockyards - a whole trainload of woodward hogs!

a brother had moved on to kansas and did well there with wheat, but edward stayed in iowa with his corn and hog operation. he married alice bigelow and they raised four sons - john horton (jack or hort), herbert (bert), lee roy (roy - he detested the name lee), and leon, the youngest. all lived in the mason city area.

although edward became quite affluent, by turn-of-the-century standards, he never saw the need for higher education and refused to send any of the boys to college. roy worked his way through grinnell college and, later, the university of chicago.

further notes:

during the summer that art and adelia visited martha's vineyard, in 1937, ed was working for the hanes' picture shops in yellowstone park, so missed that trip. a trip he did not miss was a sightseeing excursion in the mountains around yellowstone, where he took a bad fall down a cliff at electric peak, resulting in a broken left wrist and brain concussion. he was rescued after a night in the cold and darkness of the cliff bottom and hospitalized at mammouth city, inside yellowstone. roy woodward returned from the family's vacation trip to the east and chartered a small plane to rush to mammouth city. he called in dr. steindler, a famous orthopedic surgeon in iowa city, who worked on ed's broken bones. he made ed a fancy leather cast that he wore that fall to play football for grinnell college, almost everyone's alma mater.

later, of course, ed would go on to become famous himself as a gastroenterologist, using that same left wrist during countless surgeries!

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