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Walter (1) Woodhurst was born at Murston near Sittingbourne in 1877 [Birth Index: Milton 2a 828, 1877 (Dec)] to parents Daniel Woodhurst and Priscilla Hales. Descendants report that he was born on October 1st 1877.
In 1884 he emigrated with his mother and siblings to America, sailing from Liverpool on the RMS City of Montreal and arriving at Michigan on July 26th 1884.
The US 1900 Census finds him at age "23" boarding in the household of a farm labourer Charles E. Curtis in Concord township, Jackson Co. in Michigan. He was likewise a farm labourer, was still single and classed as an alien. The record wrongly states that he immigrated in "1890" and gives his birthdate inaccurately as January 1877. The Curtis family included a daughter Grace whom Walter (1) would marry the following year.
The US 1920 Census finds them living with three children in Pulaski township, Jackson Co., where Walter (1) was still working as a farm labourer. This entry states that he immigrated in "1889" and had naturalized in 1906.
Grace died in 1929. Family anecdote tells that she was killed during a storm when a lightning bolt passed down the line of a telephone she happened to be holding at the time. But this cannot be an accurate account. Her death certificate states that she died from "emboli to brain ; complicating phlebitis", that is, a septic infection of the brain together with vein inflammation, for which she had been medically treated since August 4th until her death on the 19th. So, it may be that she had indeed been originally struck by lightning and that the injuries arising from that incident produced effects which resulted in her dying two weeks later. Walter (1) was the informant.
The US 1930 Census finds Walter (1) widowed and living with three children in Concord Village, again working as a farm labourer. This entry states that he immigrated in "1884", so he had finally managed to cite the correct year. It assigns to him a middle initial "W" which also appears in some other sources, but it had no formal basis.
On November 28th 1934 he remarried in Jackson to Lucille (nee) Chase, the daughter of Leslie Chase and his wife Mary (nee) Corlew. The witnesses were his brother Daniel Esaias and the latter's wife Laoma.
He and Lucille produced three children, the second of whom died in infancy in (allegedly) 1939.
The US 1940 Census finds Walter (1) and Lucille living with two children in Homer Streeet, Concord Village. He was occupied as a labourer in "emergency work". His age was given as "62" and hers as "24".
Descendants report that Walter (1) died at Concord, Michigan on December 13th 1953 and that Lucille later remarried, to a man Bachelor ("Bok") C. Corlew, that is, a man whose surname was the same as her mother's maiden name.
Lucille died on February 12th 1999. The American Social Security Index gives her date of birth as January 27th 1916 and states that she had last resided at 48911, Lansing in Ingham Co., Michigan.
Evaline was born on February 13th 1907. She died in infancy. Her death certificate, signed on August 2nd 1907, gives her age as 5 months and 18 days and states that she died on August 1st, the cause certified as broncho-pneumonia and convulsions.
Sarah Jane (2) allegedly was born in 1939 and died in that year, but formal confirmation of this has not yet been found.