Eva Dawn Woodward

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Birth: Sep. 11, 1892 Sherwood Defiance County Ohio, USA

Death: Nov. 1, 1985 Bradenton Manatee County Florida, USA

Eva was born in Sherwood, Ohio, where her father, Dr. Elmore Potter, had a medical practice. In his memoirs he wrote: "Quietly things moved along till September 11th 1892 when another permanent visitor came to our home. This time a little lady. We thought as she grew, that we detected traces of comeliness, and a name to call her by occupied our attention for some little time. We at last settled on Eva Dawn, as the name she should be known by. This year was a prosperous one, so far as business and finance was concerned. [Five years later] We packed our goods and chattels and landed in Holgate on the 11th day of Oct. 1897, and began a new venture. We met many hearty welcomes in the churches. In the month of March [1899] our house hold goods, a span of fine horses, a lumber wagon, a surrey and five harnesses were loaded in [railroad] cars, and we left Holgate for our new home on the farm near Newport Mich., my family having gone a few days earlier. For five years we were farmers in every sense of the term. In the spring of 1904 we left the farm and moved to Carleton, a new and comfortable house was built, which we occupied in July. On the 7th of June [1911] our baby girl Eva was married to Leon F. Woodward in our home in Carleton, a brilliant affair."

• ******* From the memoirs of her son Dr. Guy Woodward: Eva attended grade school for a few years in Ohio before her family moved back to Carleton, where she finished grammar school in a one room school house. She then attended and graduated from the Carleton High School. As high school classmates Leon and Eva became attached to one another. Both were good students, and both were interested in sports and participated in cross-country running and basketball on the teams of their respective sexes. They graduated together on June 23, 1909. [Eva] went to the state Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University) in Ypsilanti, where she took teacher training courses and passed the teachers' exams. Eva taught for one year in the little country school at the former Potter farm. Leon and Eva were married in Carleton on June 7, 1911. The ceremony took place in the big home of the Potter family in the village. Leon was 20 and Eva was 18 at the time. The Potter parents did not favor the marriage, partly because of the young age of their daughter and partly because of the relatively humble and uncultured background of the Woodward family. Nevertheless, youth had its way and the union was accepted. That fall Leon and Eva moved to Ottawa Lake, a crossroads hamlet a few miles from Carleton, where he had accepted a position in a larger school. Eva thought that she might teach in the same school, but the position did not become available. That December of 1911 brought the death of Eva's father. So at the completion of the school year the couple returned to Carleton, where they stayed in the house with her mother. At some time during this period Leon acquired, and used briefly, a motorcycle and sidecar, which added zest to the lives of the youthful couple and excitement to the community. However, roads being what they were, this form of transportation proved to be both dangerous and impractical, and the vehicle was soon disposed of, to be replaced by the couple's first automobile --a Maxwell touring car. [In June, 1915] when [Eva's mother] Elva Potter married Moses Cox, Leon and Eva with their new baby [Guy] were no longer needed to keep Elva company, and they lived in rented houses in Carleton until 1917, when they built an "Aladdin House" of their own on Main Street on a lot next door to [Leon's] Grandma Deppen's home. It was on November 19, 1914 in the big house of Elva Potter that I was born, the first [and only] child of Leon and Eva. It was a premature birth, and there was concern for both the infant and the mother, the latter suffering from the complication colloquially termed "milk leg." Because of the permanent effects of these complications and the probable danger to her, Eva was advised against having another child. However, except for this limitation, Eva's health was quickly regained. The effects on the infant were longer-lived in terms of physical development and general strength during childhood, but were gradually overcome in their more serious aspects. In 1917 the future seemed promising to the young couple — a new home, a child, a good job, and with the respect of the townsfolk Leon was expected to move into positions of increasing responsibility in the village. But their destiny was to be elsewhere. Eva and her family had been religiously oriented, but Leon's interest was lukewarm at most. When the fire-and-brimstone evangelist, Dave Hill the Lumberjack, came to Carleton for a campaign in one of the churches, Eva and her mother were active supporters and participants. Among other things they joined in a cottage prayer group, and a principal subject of their prayers was the Christian conversion of Leon. He attended some of the evangelist's preaching services, but resisted the appeals, until one day while alone on his mail delivery route he felt an overpowering sense of conviction, and then and there yielded to Christ's call. The public commitment was made in the service that evening. Thenceforth, Leon's life was inextricably bound to the church denomination known as the Evangelical Association. Within a short time his commitment became even deeper as he responded to an unmistakable call to enter the ministry. His first pastorate was at Harper Mission on the corner of Harper and Fisher Avenues in Detroit. The Aladdin house was sold and the Woodwards moved to Detroit on April 18, 1918. My mother was stricken in the great influenza epidemic at the end of World War I. I have a faint recollection of her lying in bed in the dingy, dark bedroom of the rented flat. Many persons died in the epidemic, but we were fortunate in seeing my mother's recovery. My parents enjoyed outings and travel. There were the occasional trips back to Carleton, fishing trips, swimming at various lake and river beaches, an excursion boat ride to Bob-Lo, which was an island amusement park in Lake Erie, an all day excursion train trip to Niagara Falls, and a vacation trip a few years later to Niagara Falls in the Model T Ford. I, too, found considerable pleasure in these excursions and outings. Some of these activities were undoubtedly an attempt by my parents to compensate for the rural life that they had left and that they missed. Another mode of compensation was the keeping of cats. Soon after moving into the new parsonage they acquired the first cat. Before long there were three. This was the beginning of a long succession of cats, and except for a possible brief interval following the death of one of the pets, they were never without at least one cat in their home until the time of Dad's retirement.

In the spring of 1924 the farewell sermon was preached and we moved to Marcellus and entered into a completely different kind of life. At that time the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Naperville offered a course that could be completed in two academic years plus one session of summer school, and Leon enrolled in this course. The family lived in small, rented apartments in Naperville during the two school years, driving the 125 miles back to Marcellus on Friday afternoon or evening and returning to Naperville on Monday. While we were in Naperville, Mom took some courses at North Central College (at that time it was Northwestern College, later changed to North Central to avoid confusion with the better known university in nearby Evanston). One course was typing. The others were courses to help her in Christian education work. [In 1928 the bishop assigned Leon to a larger church, and] two weeks later, still confused, the Woodward family were settling in their new home in the parsonage of the Evangelical Church in St. Joe on the shore of lovely Lake Michigan, and were beginning a new chapter in their family life. [Eva's mother Elva and her second husband] Moses Cox lived in the Lansing Avenue house [in Detroit] until 1928 when she suffered a stroke and was unable to perform her household tasks. Although she recovered her physical and mental functions, a family conference with her daughters found that it was time for her to give up her home and to spend her remaining days in the home of her youngest daughter, my mother. At that time my family was living in St. Joseph, Michigan. While the Coxes moving in with us imposed a heavy burden on my parents, the arrangement of the house minimized the inconvenience. The Coxes occupied a first floor bedroom with an adjoining lavatory. Not long after this Elva suffered another stroke, partially paralyzing her and affecting her mind in a hallucinatory manner. After a partial recovery, another stroke left her completely invalided for a period, at the end of which she lapsed into a coma. Her daughters were summoned, and all were at hand when she passed away on May 7, 1929.

• ******** Note from Darrell Brown: The Michigan conference of the Evangelical Association reassigned its pastors every seven years or fewer, and the family's itinerary is recounted in Leon's biography. Eva moved with Leon to ever larger churches, where she was involved in the ministry of Christian education, including vacation Bible schools. She also sang special numbers at services. In 1946 the Evangelical Church united with a Brethren denomination to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church (which then merged with the Methodist Church in 1968). In 1952 Leon began to decline and was assigned to a smaller church in Monroe. In 1953 he had to reduce his involvement further, and Eva conducted the services. In 1954 they retired and moved to Bradenton, Florida, hoping it would aid his health, but he passed away the next year. Eva continued to live in Bradenton and was active in the church until her death thirty years later. In 1932 Eva's son Guy returned to Naperville to study physics at North Central College, then studied at Ohio State University, graduating in 1942 with a PhD in physics. He then took a job with RCA's laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey, beginning September, 1942. Three years later he married Ruth Errien and began a family. After the death of her husband Leon, Eva visited Guy's family in Princeton every summer until she got elderly. Then her son and his family would drive down to Florida in the summer to visit her. Eva wrote over three thousand poems. She published two booklets of poetry for her friends, Through My Windows and Beside My Door (1974). She wrote and sang hymns as well. When her denomination planned its one hundredth annual conference in Michigan in May, 1961, they invited members to compose a hymn to celebrate the occasion, and Eva's was chosen. She subsequently flew from Florida to attend the conference, where her hymn was repeatedly sung during the various times of worship.
  • ********* The Church Eternal, a Centennial Hymn, by Eva D. Woodward, 1961

Courageous men have found the cross In service through the years To be their guide in gain or loss, Supreme in joy or tears. Down through the corridors of time The cross would guide the way Of foll'wers in their upward climb Who dared the Christ obey.

The Church blest by the Lord of love While he was on this earth Has had the blessing from above And proved its lasting worth. With vision clear the Church has seen The needs in lands afar, And to the seeking it has been A bright and shining star.

Upon the Rock the Church was built, The Rock was Christ, the Lord. 'Twas for the world his blood was spilt According to God's Word. Though things through years have passed away, And others proven vain, The cross upheld will guide each day And the Church and Christ remain.

• ***************** Note from Darrell Brown:

In May, 1954, after Leon retired, his son Guy helped them pack up and move to his home in Princeton. Then in June, both Woodward families traveled together by train, leaving Trenton station on June 17, and arriving in Tampa two days later, on the 19th. They went on to Bradenton, where they rented a cottage on Holmes Beach. The next day they attended the First Evangelical United Brethren Church. Then on Monday the 21st, they bought a "Great Lakes" mobile home and acquired space C-52 for it at Bradenton Trailer Park (now Cortez Park). Leon and Eva moved in, while their son Guy and his family remained a week in Holmes Beach for a vacation. Leon passed away the next year, but Eva remained in Bradenton and was active in the church, until her death thirty years later.

Family links:

Parents:

• Elmer Jeremy Potter (1851 - 1911)
• Elva Lisha Haley Potter (1854 - 1929)

Spouse:

• Leon Francis Woodward (1890 - 1955)*

Children:

• J Guy Woodward (1914 - 2000)*

Burial: Carleton Cemetery Carleton Monroe County Michigan, USA

Maintained by: Darrell Brown Originally Created by: Monica Woodward Record added: Feb 11, 2005 Find A Grave Memorial# 10458780