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Sherwood Woodhurst was born on September 3rd 1896 in Nebraska to parents William Henry Clay Woodhurst and his second wife Martha ("Mattie") Drusilla Donehower. A notice of his birth, referring to him simply as an infant male, was published on September 5th 1896 in the North Platte Telegraph. He may have been named in memory of Theodore Sherwood who had been living in the household of William H.C.'s mother at the time of the 1885 Census for Iowa.
The US 1900 Census finds him at age "3" living with his parents at 2nd Street, North Platte Township, Lincoln Co. in Nebraska.
The US 1910 Census finds him at age "13" living with his parents at 303, West 1st Street in North Platte.
He enlisted with the US Army on June 1st 1918 and was discharged later that year on December 21st.
A biography of his father states that Sherwood was discharged from the army at Camp Kearney, California in early 1919 and then took up work with the "Tollefson" [sic – Tollefsen] Motor Company of Kearney, Nebraska.
The US 1920 Census finds him at age "23" at Kearney City in Buffalo Co., Nebraska. He was employed as a book-keeper for a garage. He was single and living in the household of his uncle Clarence Tollefsen, the garage's general manager. Clarence's wife Mabel was described as born in Missouri of parents who were born in Pennsylvania, implying that she was the sister of Sherwood's mother Mattie.
In 1921 he was a witness to the marriage in North Platte of his brother Thurston to Hazel Anna Smith.
On April 1st 1922 he married Dorothy Patria (nee) Anderson in Grand Island, Nebraska. She was born on August 10th 1900 in Kearney City. She may also have been related, albeit not closely, to Bessie Eliza (née) Anderson, the first wife of Sherwood's father.
Sherwood and Dorothy produced a son William Robert in 1923 but soon afterwards divorced. She remarried in Topeka, Kansas in June 1925 to Bernard M. Sare [as reported in The Marysville Advocate for Marysville, Kansas, issue of June 18th 1925], after which William Robert assumed the Sare surname.
Meanwhile, Sherwood took up a new partner Carmen G. M. (nee) Henricksen. She had been born in Copenhagen on September 26th 1909 and immigrated to America in 1912 with her parents Harry Magnus Henricksen (a Dane) and his wife Gudrun (born in Iceland). The US 1920 Census finds Carmen living with her siblings and parents in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie Co., Iowa where her father was occupied in running a butchers shop. Her age is entered in the schedule as "16", almost certainly a misreading of "10" on the original household census form.
In 1929 Sherwood was living in Omaha City, Douglas Co., Nebraska, being listed (but without mention of Carmen) in a City Directory as residing there at 418, South 24th Avenue and occupied as a salesman for the Willard Storage Battery Co.
The US 1930 Census finds Sherwood and Carmen lodging with a George Mead in Omaha and purporting to be married. Sherwood is described as aged "33" and born in Nebraska, and as having married for the first time at age "23". Carmen is described as aged "20", born in Denmark, occupied as an office clerk in a telephone company and as having married for the first time at age "20". He was occupied as a general salesman.
So far no record has been found of a marriage between Sherwood and Carmen.
The US 1940 Census finds Sherwood and Carmen living at 130, S. W. Corbett Street in Portland, Oregon where has was occupied as a salesman for a wholesale lamp company.
His Draft Registration Card, issued in about 1942, gives their address as 6425, S. W. Corbett Street and names his wife as "Mrs. Carmen Woodhurst". There were no children with them.
They evidently separated. On November 18th 1961 Carmen - described as "divorced" - remarried in Portland (as "Carmen H. [Henricksen] Woodhurst") to a divorced salesman Marion Jerome Masters, born on October 25th 1903. Her usual address was given as 11007 N. E. 11th Avenue in Vancouver, Washington State.
On May 31st 1968 Sherwood remarried at Goldendale, Klickitat Co., Washington State to a widow Leona Grace (nee McCoy) Taylor. She had been widowed since 1960 following the death of her first husband Joseph Leonard Osmond Taylor. Her birthdate was given as September 23rd 1905 and Sherwood's (rather imaginatively) as September 3rd 1904. Both gave their usual place of residence as Portland, Oregon.
Dorothy Patria died at the Circle Terrace Hospital in Alexandria, Commonwealth of Virginia on September 6th 1972. Her death certificate gives the cause as pulmonary embolism due to carcinoma of the colon with metastasis in lung, liver and brain. She was buried in the National Memorial Park, Church Falls in Fairfax Co., Virginia.
Carmen died in Clark Co., Washington State on June 28th 1980.
In 1983 Sherwood was still living in Portland, at 3433, NE 145th Avenue.
The American Social Security Death Index states that Sherwood died on March 11th 1992. His SSN, issued in Indiana, was 312-01-6180.
He was buried in the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland. The burial record describes him as having been a wagoner in the US Army, and states that he was buried on March 17th in plot V-0-2437.
The American Social Security Death Index records that Leona died on May 31st 1997. Her SSN was 542-22-7616 and she had last resided in Portland. She was buried at the Skyline Memorial Gardens. Her gravestone names her as "Leona G. Taylor" with no acknowledgement of Sherwood.
William Robert was born in Kearney, Nebraska on May 1st 1923. He was raised under the Sare surname after his mother remarried to Bernard M. Sare. At the time of the US 1940 Census the family was living in Western Avenue, Buffalo, Johnson Co. in Wyoming. William Robert died in 1980.