Newton
Woodring was an engineer on the MK&T
Railroad, living in Denison, Texas, from
about 1887 until his retirement around
1929. In short, he occupied a very
prestigious position in a railroad town
for
more than forty years.
Newton
was born about 1859 (or 1851) in
Pennsylvania. His parents, also born in
Pennsylvania, were Jeremiah
C. Woodring
Sr. and Susanna
J. (born January 1831). In
addition to Newton, the couple had
at least two other children: Dewitt
Clinton Woodring (1856–?) and Jeremiah
C.
"Jerry" Woodring Jr. (1858–?). Jeremiah
Sr. died before 1870, when
the census found Susanna remarried to Charles
Kinley, a French immigrant, and
living in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
In
1880, Newton was living in Alexis,
Nebraska,
where he worked on a railroad bridge.
Seven years later, in 1887, he was an
engineer on the Katy and living in
Denison.
Though
the chronology is murky, Newton's brother
Dewitt
Clinton also migrated to
Nebraska, and he stayed there. Clinton
and wife,
Eudora
"Dora" Perry Woodring, were
living in Lincoln by 1899, when the
City Directory listed him as bridge
superintendent for the Burlington &
Missouri River Railroad. The Denison Sunday
Gazetteer of May 1, 1892, wrote: "Mrs.
Newton Woodring, wife of
Engineer Woodring, expects to leave in a
short time for Lincoln, Neb., to spend
two or more months." (That was Newton's
first wife, name unknown, who died
in 1895. Perhaps she was from Lincoln.)
Moreover, living with Dewitt Clinton in
Lincoln in 1899 was his mother, "Susan,
widow of Jerry."
The
third brother, Jerry
Junior, was a barber in
Denison by 1887, with a shop including
"bath rooms" at 406 West Main
Street. He married and lived at 622 West
Owings Street. He disappeared from the
Denison City Directories between 1903 and
1907.
Newton and
his first wife lived at 618 West
Owings,
near Jerry, in 1891. After his wife
died, Newton lived on the third floor
of
the Ford Building (231 West Main) in
1896. In 1899, he remarried, a woman
named
Mary (born in Kentucky around 1875),
and had two children: Marjorie
"Margie"
Woodring (1897–1985) and Clinton
Woodring (1903–?). By 1903, the
family,
including Newton's mother Susan,
had moved to 704 West Hull Street,
where they
remained until 1913.
They moved
briefly to 831 West Chestnut Street,
then
settled down at 527 West Crawford
Street.
The 1940
Census listed Newton as retired. He
passed
away on August 5, 1946. He was
buried at Fairview Cemetery in
Denison. Mary
joined him there on September 26,
1949.
Son Clinton
lived in Seattle, married a woman
named
Beulah H., and
in 1940 was working as a general
agent for a railroad. Daughter
Marjorie
became a gifted musician and
reported herself as divorced in
1930. At
the end of her life, she lived in
Pennsylvania.
Source: Davis,
Ellis Arthur and
Edwin H. Grobe, editors. The Encyclopedia of
Texas, Book, [1921 - 1922];
digital images,
(http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth21069/
:
accessed September 03, 2013), University of
North Texas Libraries, The Portal
to Texas History,
http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT
Libraries, Denton,
Texas.
