Sacramento
County
Biographies
E. F.
WOODWARD
E. F. Woodward, a pioneer, was born December
30, 1827, on the
island of Ceylon in the East Indies, where his father, William Henry
Woodward, a native of New Hampshire, had been sent as a missionary by the
board of American Missions. His mother’s
maiden name was Clarissa Emerson. He was
the oldest of four children, and at the death of his father was sent to Chester, New Hampshire, and was cared for and educated by his
uncle, Nathaniel French Emerson, and principal of the High School at Chester.
At the age of seventeen he left school to learn the trade of
brick-layer; he served for one year only, and as he was troubled with asthma,
he went into a store in South Boston, Massachusetts.
Then he started on the long voyage around Cape Horn to California in 1849, on Sunday, April 1, on the brig
Crononicus. He
had but a vague notion of what lay before him, for it proved a tempestuous
trip, and it was on the 2nd of November before they entered the Golden Gate and set foot on the sand dunes of San Francisco; but the worst feature was that he was
entirely out of money and a stranger. He
found employment with a brick mason at $6 per day, but not being satisfied with
this and having made three acquaintances, he started for the mines, via Sacramento.
They first went to Larkin’s Store, sixteen miles south of Nevada City, in the Deer Creek mining district, but
soon started for Gold
Lake.
They packed across the mountains, but were driven back by a snow-storm
in June; the history of these eventful days in the mountains would alone fill a
volume, but the scope of this work forbids their repetition; suffice it to say
that at length, weary of that kind of life, he returned to Sacramento and
resumed work at his old trade. In 1855
he began taking contracts on his own account, being largely interested in
bricking up buildings raised to the new grade.
In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in Captain De Merrit’s
company of Sacramento Rangers, Company F, Second Cavalry, and did garrison duty
at San
Francisco,
being in active service for over one year.
Mr. Woodward has been twice married; first in 1858 to Mary F. De Puy, adopted daughter of S. F. De Puy,
of San
Francisco;
she died in 1858, and in 1863 he was again married, to Jane Maria Leet; their children are: Florence Annette, Edward Clarence
and Blanche Myrtle.
Transcribed by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An
Illustrated History of Sacramento County,
California. Page
507. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
©
2005 Karen Pratt.