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William Roy (1) Woodhurst was born in South Dakota in 1884 to parents William (5) Woodhurst and his wife Helen Eveline (nee) Darling. Some sources on Ancestry give the date as May 14th.
The US 1900 Census finds him at age "16" living with his parents and siblings at 305, Maquoketa township, Jackson County in Iowa. The record states that he was born in May 1884 and that he was still attending school.
He married Ella (nee) M. Hudson on January 27th 1904 at Davenport in Scott Co., Iowa - apparently on the day before his sister Anna M. married there. She had been born to parents William Hudson and Mary (nee) A. Eaton. The register of Marriage Returns describes William Roy (1) as aged "21" and born in Plankinton, South Dakota, names his parents correctly and gives his occupation as butcher. Ella is described as aged "22" and born in De Witt, Iowa. Both were residing in Davenport. However, this record misrecords his age which was actually 19 or 20. A newspaper reported that, as a minor, he was initially refused a marriage license and had to telephone his parents in Macquoketa to get them to come to the venue to confirm their consent, a process claimed to have taken ten hours of negotiations.
The US 1910 Census finds him aged "26" living in Main Street, Maquoketa with Ella and their son Ralph Livingston. He was occupied as a meat cutter at a market.
A daughter Gayle Lucille (or Lucile) was born to them in Maquoketa in 1911.
It appears that the marriage must then have foundered, as by 1920 Ella was living with another man, William Cassius Mann who had been born on June 19th 1891. Some sources claim that she had married him (in 1914) but without indicating original documents proving that any such marriage took place. The US 1920 Census finds Ella living with William Cassius in James Street, South Fork township, Jackson Co. where he was occupied as a restaurant cook. With them was Ella's daughter Gayle Lucille aged "8" and another daughter Mary Viola ["Viola Mae"] aged "2" presumed to have been fathered by William Cassius.
Meanwhile, the US 1920 Census finds William Roy (1) living in Erie township, Whiteside Co., Illinois with a new partner Margaret (nee) Mangler, his son Ralph Livingston and Margaret's sons Roy and Wilbert Umbaugh from her previous marriage to Franklin ("Frank") Umbaugh, whom she had divorced. William Roy (1) was still working as a butcher, now running his own shop.
William Cassius died aged "31 years 6 months 25 days" on January 14th 1923. The death certificate states that he had been residing in Maquoketa and occupied as a cook. The cause of death was "peritonitis following an operation for appendicitis". The informant was his father Cassius T. Mann. He was buried at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Maquoketa.
A city directory for Clinton, Iowa in 1923 lists Maggie as "Woodhurst Margaret Mrs, 208, Maple Avenue". It appears that she and William Roy (1) were no longer living together.
A little later that year William Roy (1) hired a young single woman, Marion Fuller, from Rock Island, Illinois to serve as his housekeeper in Davenport, Iowa. A former boyfriend of hers then filed charges against him, accusing him of having procured Miss Fuller "for immoral purposes". The case was heard and dismissed as groundless.
Ella remarried very soon afterwards to a bachelor Clifford McPherson. The marriage certificate gives her age as "32", noting that this was her third marriage, and his age as "24". He was occupied as a farmer and both were living in Maquoketa where the marriage took place on March 13th 1923, just two months after her previous husband's death.
The Iowa State Census 1925 finds Ella living with Clifford in Maquoketa together with her children Gayle Lucille and Mary Viola; she is designated as the head of household. Her home, free of mortgage, was valued at $1,800.
The Iowa State Census 1925 finds William Roy (1) aged "43" living with his son Ralph Livingston in Princeton, Scott Co.
This marriage was short-lived. Ella died at Maquoketa on May 3rd 1927. The death certificate gives the cause, determined by autopsy, as an "aneurysm of the basilar artery with haemorrhage". Her husband Clifford was the informant. A brief obituary was published in a newspaper (source unknown) misnaming her as "Mrs. Ella McFergan" and stating that she had died "following a long illness" which seems a little unlikely. It notes that she had three children. A short article was published in a local newspaper about the probate of Ella's estate, estimated at $1,000 of real estate.
Meanwhile, William Roy (1)'s life after 1925 is almost entirely unknown. He has not been found in the 1930 Census. However, that census finds Margaret, still bearing his surname, living at 2nd Avenue North in Clinton, Clinton Co., Iowa together with her son Wilbert Umbaugh, a milling labourer. She is described as aged "44" and born in Iowa but both her parents born in Germany. Her estate is valued at $1,500 and her marital status given as divorced.
The US 1940 Census finds William Roy (1) aged "58", listed only as "Woodhurst", as an inmate of the East Moline State Hospital in Hampton township, Rock Island Co., Illinois. His entry states that he had been living at Rockford in Winnebago Co., Illinois.
He died, after a "lingering illness", on August 5th 1940 at East Moline and was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Delmar, Iowa. An obituary for him, slightly inaccurate as to his birth year, was published in the Quad-City Times (Davenport) on August 6th.
His former wife Margaret died in Clinton on July 20th 1952 and was buried in the Springdale Cemetery, still bearing her Woodhurst surname.
Gayle Lucille was born in Maquoketa on October 11th 1911. Her "delayed" birth certificate issued in 1964 confirms in full her parents' names and also the date of her marriage in 1931. The US 1930 Census finds her living in Clinton township and occupied as a hotel labourer. She married William Glenn ("Ted") MacAllister on March 14th 1931. She died in Illinois in 1996. Several public trees on Ancestry assert that Dale was born as a twin to Gayle and that he died in childhood. Formal proof of his existence has not been found. However, it is notable that Ralph Livingston chose "Dale" as the name of one of his sons.