VIOLA MAE and JAMES CARL WOODWARD HOME PAGE

Viola Mae Werkheiser was born on a farm south of Atkinson, Illinois and they lived there for one year then they moved to the farm east of Atkinson, known as the Pritchard farm. This farm was near the Hennepin Canal which was being built at that time.
The people who were building the canal had children who would come over and play with her and sometimes take her to the school yard to play. So one day her parents missed her and looked all over and could not find her, her mother happened to think that she probably missed the children and maybe she had gone to the school yard looking for them. She had a small dog that was with her wherever she would go and her mother happened to look toward the school and seen her crawling through the fence. So she went after her and whipped her all the way home. She never went away again.
Shortly after this they moved to Akinson and then back to the farm several years later. They lived there for many years and then around 1916 they moved to farms north of Genesseo, and then around 1921 they moved into Geneseo.
At this time the family decided to take a trip with their minister and family and another friend. They purchased a Ford car from a friend and on June 14, 1921, the family left Geneseo in three Ford cars that looked alike with carriers on the fender to pack in. They took a stove, tent, cooking utensils, clothes, and camped along the way.
They left the minister's home at 5:30 am. The car numbers were Kyner's 53826, Hershey's 152252, and their's was 52647. They went by way of National Pike and came back to Washington on the Lincoln Highway. They left and went through Cambridge, Galva, Lafayette, Toulon, Brimfield, Peoria, over the Peoria River, Bloomington, Leroy, Farmers City, Mansfield, Mahomet, Champaign, Urbana, St. Joseph, Muncie, Danville, over the Wabash River, Waynestown, where they had their tire trouble, which was on Reverend Hershey's car.
They stayed at Will Vandevoorde's about 30 miles on the other side of Urbana the first night. Then Jamestown, and on to Indianpolis, where they stayed all night at a farm house in their grove. Another family came in and camped there too!
Then to Charlottesville, Knightstown, Lewisville, Cambridge City, Richmond, New Hope, Eaton, West Alexander, Farmersville, Dayton, Fairfield, by the aviation grounds, and Springfield. They camped all night in farm houses along a trolley line.
South Vienna, Columbus, Reynoldsburg, Etna, Zanesville, Norwich, where they camped on a hill top not far from town where they could hardly get the car to set. Then on to New Concord, Cambridge, Bridgeport, Wheeling, West Virginia, West Alexander, Claysville, Pennsylvania, Washington Laboratory, Grabane, Scenery Hill, Beallsville, Centersville, Brier Hill, Uniontown, Hopwood, Clear Springs, Hagerstown, Waynesbora, Chambersburg, and down to Gettysburg.
They just went through, but didn't go on the field, as there were so many pick pockets and you never knew whether you would have an honest guide. They warned them about this as they were drawing near. They took pictures, on to Oxford, Abbotstown, Thomasville, and York, where they stayed all night in a school yard.
They all had their own sleeping tents and each one had a job. Arthur repaired cars, Mother prepared the meals, and Viola fixed the beds. Someone went for water and if there was time, they would wash out some of the clothes and hang them on a fence. They all ate together. In the morning they packed their things. Then went through Lancaster, Landis Valley, Kirbysville, Monterey, down to Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.
They went to visit Aunt Lizzie Wolever first, then to Aunt Kate Dech, Viola's father's sisters. They didn't let them know that they were coming and they sure were surprised.
Then they visited George Wolever on Saturday morning and went out to Dad's step mother and stayed over night. On to see Pace Hoff at Belevedier, New Jersey. Then back to Easton and stopped at the cemetery where Dad's father was buried.
Viola went to Bethlehem and Nazareth on Saturday evening with Margaret Deck. Then back to Allentown to Aunt Maude's, from there back to Easton. Viola left for Bangor on July fourth to Charlie Rutt's place. They stopped at Martin Creek, where Dad's mother was buried. She was Malinda Smith, John Joseph Werkheiser's first wife.
From there they went through the Delaware Water Gap, Scotrum, Swiftwater, Mt. Pocono, Tobyhanna, Gouldsboro, Moscow, Elmhurst, Scranton, Providence, Clarks Summit, Dalton, Factoryville, and Lake Winola. They were at Tunkhannock to visit with Helen Werkheiser's folks, Dr. and Mrs. Cress, at Lake Winola. This was where Uncle Dewitt lived and we visited with them for four days, then left and crossed the Susquehanna River. They went over the river several times. Sometimes they had to pay a toll and went by ferry boat. They went down to Wilkes Barre, Sunbury, Dauphin, Harrisburg, and went back to Gettysburg to Chambersburg where they camped in a school house yard about ten miles out of Fort London.
Then to McConnettesburn, Breezervood, Staystown, Laurel Ridge, and camped in a farm orchard near a bridge. Then to Legonier where a terrible storm caught us and we drove in a livery barn, where we had tire trouble. Viola said that she will never forget that storm. They were up so near the clouds, it was terrible. On to Bentleyville and Charleroi, where Viola's mother's sister lived and her son Ernest. They were there a week. From there they went to Washington, and met the other folks and all came home together. They went to mother's Uncle Jim Mannon, to Steve Vankirk, and they were the people where mother was living also.
They went to a cemetery where mother's mother was buried and visited Frank Post at this hardware store and Lizzie Tucker. Post, were the people where mother lived when they were married. Here they waited for the rest of the folks. They waited from Friday noon till Saturday between one and two o'clock. They camped out in the country and they telephoned us at the station where we were to meet. Kyner's had tipped over and this delayed them. The place where we camped was about one mile from town in a farm yard.
The rest met and camped next time about thirty miles from Washington in a campground. The campground had a dance that night. They quit dancing at twelve o'clock, but we couldn't go to watch them. The preacher didn't allow that. From Washington we went to Columbus the same way we came out. It was 107 miles to Columbus from where we camped on Sunday. There was a detour of 15 miles as Kyner had their car fixed at South Vienna. They stayed all night in a school yard. The next morning they had to pull Kyner's car to a garage again about 7 or 8 miles from Dayton. It took Hershey and the Werkheiser car both to pull them. It took 5 hours to fix the car and so they camped about 30 miles from Indianapolis in a school yard with a new school house.
The last night we camped in a farm yard where no one lived in the house and we got up at two o'clock in the morning to leave, this was 30 miles from Champaign. We tried to reach the same place where we camped going out, but couldn't. So they drove to just this side of Peoria in a rain most all of the way. They made it to home on Thursday night and used $35.20 for gasoline and paid between 21 and 22 cents a gallon.
After James died, Viola was forced to find employment to keep her and her daughter June, together. She first worked in a small grocery store, then as a waitress in a restaurant, a bus agent, bakery clerk, and was also a patial custodian of her church. She was lucky to find a maiden lady who needed a home and came to live with her and to be there for her daughter if she was unable to be home when she came home from school or on Saturdays. She lived with Viola for 10 or 15 years. Later several other ladies needed homes and they had as many as five living with them. Viola also did washings and ironings for people to bring in extra money. Then in later years she did a lot of baby sitting.
Viola had a lot of sickness over the years. She had Small Pox one month before her child was born. A slight stroke in 1956, a heart attack in 1972, a broken tendon in her left arm which required surgery to fix, a broken hip in 1983, a broken hip in 1988, and a cracked wrist in 1988. She however came back very fast after each of these and you would not know she ever had them. She was 91 years old on Ocotber 16, 1989, and still had a good mind and was able to get around well considering what she had been through.

Viola married James Carl Woodward (9/5/1883-1/14/1942) on January 16, 1929, in the Grace Church Parsonage, Genesee, Illinois. James died at 523 W. Wells, Genesee, Illinois. He is buried in the Liberty Cemetery, near Atkinson, Illinois.
James lived around Atkinson, Annwan, and Geneseo most of his life. He farmed, worked in the Midland Coal Mine, and trained horses most of his life.
James had ulcers during his later years and they took him to the hospital on January 9, 1942, thinking he was having an appendicitis attack. They operated immediately and took out the appendix, but did not notice there was an ulcer which was quite a ways under the appendix and therefore gangrean set in and he passed away. James and Viola had one daughter:

143411.June Marie Woodward. June married Milford Weslie Stach on December 25, 1955.

June lived on a farm until she was eleven years old. The family then moved to Geneseo. She started school in a one room school house and went to several schools in the Geneseo vicinity. Shortly after they moved to town, her father passed away. June helped her mother make ends meet. She had a paper route, worked after school doing house work, and other odd jobs.
She graduated from high school in 1948, and one year later went to work for the City of Geneseo as Deputy City Cler, being the first to work in this capapcity. She worked as the Clerk for 16 years leaving the city in April of 1966. She then went to work for Edwards Ready Mix Concrete, working there two years and then transferring to Edwards Construction Company as payroll clerk for four years. She was let go in February, 1972 because the work was very slow.
During the next eight years she just did odd jobs, such as helping with assessor's book and doing bookkeeping for some people. In Januray, 1980, she went to work for a horse farm doing their bookkeeping, which consisted of farming, training, breeding, and two tack shops, and is still working there. She also helps elderly people with their finances.

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