Woodward High School - Treasures Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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Tho RUSS HATTIE DAVID Oldest Living Graduate of XVuodwurd

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CDedication TO our noble predecessors, the Alumni, we dedicate this Annual, hoping that in our endeavors to emulate their illustrious example, we shall honor the name of Woodmard.

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William Woodward ILLIAM WOODWARD, the founder of Wood- ward High School, was born on the eighth of March, 1770, in Plainfield, Windom County, Connec- ticut. His father, Silas Woodward, was a farmer and a native of Plainfield. He had served in the American army throughout the Revolutionary War. Woodwardb mother was Lydia Cliff. William was the fifth of twelve children born to the Woodwards. All these children received such education as a plain New England school could afford. William, because of his poor health, received special advan- tages. He was given a course of instruction in sur- veying of which he made good use for a time, after coming to Cincinnati. William Woodward was reared under the rigid influences of New England WILLIAM WOODWARD Puritanism. He was taught to repress expressions of emotion, whether of fear or courage, joy 0r sor- row, affection or dislike, and thus, perhaps, he acquired the habit of making himself 7 known by his actions rather than by his words. The spirit of self-reliance, characteristic of the youth of New England, impelled William to seek his fortune in the wilderness country of the Northwest Territory. He made the tedious journey to Cincinnati, at that time scarcely more than a mili- tary post, in the latter part of 1791. The youthts knowledge of surveying was brought into practical use, but it seems that he desired to be established as a farmer, and the acquisition of land for that purpose soon entered into his plans. Woodward married Jane McGowan a few years after settling here, but she lived little more than a year. In 1801 he became guardian for Abigail Cutter, the daughter of Joseph Cutter, who had been killed by Indians while cultivating land in an out-lot at Twelfth and Cen- tral Avenue, where the Cincinnati Hospital formerly stood. Abigail, then about fifteen years of age, possessed a goodly inheritance in money and in lands. Part of her holdings in the city was a two hun- dred-foot lot in the center of the block on Fifth Street where the Government Building now stands. To her, also. belonged a lot at the southeast corner of Fifth and Main Streets, now occupied by the Pickering Building. Two years after he was made her guardian, Mr. Woodward made Miss Cutter WOODWARD MEMORIAL TABLET Eight