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The autobiography was originally written in longhand by Albert Henry (1) Woodhurst in the 1930s. His manuscript was first rendered into typescript by the wife Ruth of his grandson Donald George Storm. A copy of this was supplied to the site author by Donald's sister Jean Marie Scott (nee Storm), and the transcription of it below is presented here by her kind permission.
Born Oct. 10, 1867 at Grange Farm, Pembury Road, near Tonbridge Wells, Kent Co. England.
Went to school at Murston, also at Sittingbourne. At the age of nine I started to work in a brick yard. I worked half days and school half days. I carried the same studies as the other scholars. Every year I passed government examinations and would have won Queen Victoria's prize of having her pay three years' schooling or I could have quit school. It was a prize that few scholars got, but my father kept me away from one exam which made me stay in the same grade for another year, therefore I lost the prize. I quit school at the age of 13 and I went to work in a general store. From there I went to work in a nursery. The man I worked for also bought the fruit of several orchards which he shipped to London. I liked the work very much. Part of the time I drove a horse on a big cart.
On Nov. 6th I left England to come to America. I was 16 years old. We went to London, from there to Harwich. From there we sailed to Rotterdam, Holland. We stayed there a week, taking in the sights. From there we went eighty miles by train to Amsterdam. There we [went] aboard steamship Zaandam for New York where we were supposed to arrive in fourteen days, but it was twenty-one days before we arrived there. It was a very rough voyage with headwind all the way. Some of the top deck was washed overboard. The bakery was broken and for some days we had to live on sea biscuits (which are as hard as bricks) because they did not dare open up to get flour etc. Something broke down in the boiler room or the engine, anyway all power was shut off and we were drifted back, and the lifeboats were got ready to launch twice. We were given up as lost three days before we reached New York, which was the 6th day of Dec. 1883. We stayed in New York City two weeks. From there we went to Toronto, Canada. After a few days I left my father and brother there and went by train ninety miles north-west to South Zora, which was nothing but a road-crossing where trains stopped if there was someone to get off or on. It was dark when I got there, snow on the ground and quite cold. I found that I had eight miles to go.
I had my little belongings in a long bag (which my mother made) that had a draw-string in the top to close it. It was made of white cotton cloth. I carried it on my back with the string over my shoulder. So I started down the road - and scared, oh yes, boy. I had studied in school that there were wild animals in Canada, and so I expected that at any second one or more of them might show up (and before leaving England I had never slept a night away from home in my life), but anyway I was lucky, for a farmer with a team and wagon caught up with me and gave me a ride. Finally he said "Well, here is where I turn." He said "You see that light way across there, well that is the farm you are looking for, it is a mile and a half across there and three miles around the road." I thanked him. I was nearly frozen, especially my feet. I decided to go across the fields and keep the light in sight. I thought wild beasts would get me if they were around, either way I went. I had to cross a ditch, there was ice and snow on it but I broke through and went in to my crotch and my leather boots got full of water. But I got there, got some dry pants on and shoes, and they gave me some supper.
I was supposed to be at least eighteen years old and there I was, about two months past sixteen. Of course I had been told to lie and say I was 18 past, but the farmer said "Well, you sure don't look it." I worked very hard there, early and late, Sundays too.
After several weeks another Englishman came there to work. He didn't like it, so one day the farmer went to town and we both took our belongings and went to Woodstock. I never saw the farmer again and so neither of us got any money. I got a job in Woodstock in a wagon factory. I worked in the blacksmith department. I got four dollars per week. I had to pay three dollars-and-a-half a week for board and room, which left me fifty cents to pay for washings, etc. The woman where I boarded and roomed was a widow and she would give me fifty cents for cutting the grass on her husband's grave and the lot, which I would do nights with sheep-shears.
My father wrote to me to come to Jackson as he had a job waiting for me. I wrote to him that if it was farm work I didn't want it. He wrote again "Come at once." I told my foreman at the factory. He went to the office and came and offered me a raise of one dollar per week, which would have been five per week. I said no, that I had my R.R. ticket, which he said they would sell so that I wouldn't lose a cent on it. I write this so that you will know that my work was satisfactory. I believe now and always will that my leaving the job where I was learning a good trade was one of the big mistakes of my life.
I arrived in Jackson, Michigan June 23rd, 1884 at 7.10 pm. No one was at the depot to meet me. I inquired my way to the Clinton Road and then found out that I had five miles to go. Then I knew well enough that it was farm work that I was to do. I sure was discouraged and downhearted. If I had been sure that I could have got my job back again at the factory at the six dollars, I would have taken the first train back to Woodstock. The five miles was very bad. The road was very muddy. When I got at the end of my journey I found everyone had gone to bed.
I worked there through haying and harvest, then I went to another farm to work for an old man. I bought off him a young sow which I gave to my folks. While there I ploughed a field which was next to the road, it was sod which cut up and shone. It drew a lot of attention. Some people drove and stopped just to see the ploughing. One old farmer came and asked me if that was the way they ploughed in England. I cut wood that winter.
The next spring in March I went to work for Thomas Jilkes at $16.00, and I worked there till the first of December. That summer I bought a cow, paid $45.00 for her, and gave her to my folks. I also bought them four or five dressed sheep and I bought a nice colt, gave $125.00 for him.
I was eighteen that October, cut wood again that winter. The next spring I worked in Bennett's claypit, which was very hard work. I got a dollar and a quarter for ten hours. That Fall we moved into town. I went to work in C.C.Lathrap's timber yard, after which I worked for Mr. Thomas Westron, then for Dr. Mitchell. The doctor was blind, we got along fine.
I quit there and went to Portland, Oregon. I was there some time before I got work. I went to work in the largest livery stable in Portland. I worked on the wash rack. I would start washing about three o'clock in the afternoon. I would then wash between thirty and forty buggies and carriages a day, getting through about 10 pm. In a short time a friend of my brother-in-law got me a job in a wholesale grocery at fifty dollars per month. I liked it there very much but the times were hard and they laid four of us off. They told me that as soon as times picked up they wanted me back, but I couldn't bear the thought of being out of work again, so I came back to Jackson. I came back through North-West Canada to Winnipeg, from there to Port Arthur on the north shore of Lake Superior, there went aboard a nice steamer, crossed the lake through the Soo, into Lake Huron to Owen Sound. From there by train to Toronto, Canada, then to Detroit [and] to Jackson. That was during August 1893.
The next spring I went to work by the month for the summer for John Root on his farm. Adna L. Brown was the foreman with whom I roomed and boarded. In the month of May his sister came there to work. When I was introduced to her while in for breakfast one morning, little did I think that I was seeing the woman who would be my wife. We became great friends. Our friendship ripened into love and on the second day of September we were happily married. It was the most lucky and happiest day of my life. From that day on my life was entirely different and more cheerful. God was good to me to give me such a woman for my wife. There was no better Christian woman than her. She lived it every day. She loved her God and served Him every day. She was honest and always willing to help others and would give, when a great many times she needed what she gave much more than they did that received. Well, soon after we were married the work for the year was at an end, so to speak. Mr. Root at different times showed that he liked my work. He asked Mr. Brown if there couldn't be enough work to keep me, but Adna Brown was jealous of me and afraid that when spring came again I would get his job, and he wasn't the only one who thought so. We then went to housekeeping in a nice cottage on Cooper St. Then real happiness for us began. I went to work for the Bennett Sewer Pipe Co., worked on the narrow gauge railroad bringing in fire-clay for the pit to make into tile and sewer pipes.
The next year in the month of November our little girl baby was born. I named her Hattie after her mother. Then our cup of joy was filled. At that time I was engineer on the locomotive, also engineer of a double-drum hoisting engine. I also laid brick at the factory, building and repairing kilns. Next job I went to work at the Jackson Cart Co., wages one dollar per day, ten hours, Saturdays we worked nine hours, ninety cents - $5.90 per week. In a short time I heard that Mr. Thomas Westron wanted a man and, having worked for him once before, I went to see him. He hired me, wages nine dollars per week and house, which made it a good change from $5.90 and house rent to pay. I was there two years and a half. I worked long days there and very hard, and seven days per week. Went back to the Bennett Sewer Pipe Co. as a bricklayer. From there I went to work for C.C.Bloomfield, wages eight dollars per week and house. In a short time my wages were raised.
The next year our daughter Bertha was born and I came very near to losing my good wife by death. Two doctors said that she was dead, but God was good to us and let her get well. We were there sixteen years and I was receiving nineteen dollars per week when we quit there.
We bought the Jackson Key Works and rapidly increased the business, but owing to my health (I had a bad case of asthma) the doctors said I should leave Michigan. So we sold at a good cash price and went to Oklahoma City, Okla. to live. There I went to work in the street car barns. Then went next to work at a truck factory. Then moved to Tulsa, Okla. There I went to work for Cadillac Gaston Co. in charge of the place [at] nights. I then got sick with bowel trouble. Came very near to passing over. My dear wife took care of me night and day. I got some better after my wife changed doctors. The doctor said I must leave Oklahoma or the water would kill me. So we came back to Jackson, Michigan. My asthma continued to be very bad, then I went to Denver, Colorado. I was there only a short time and I went down with pneumonia. They wired to my wife who came on the first train and took care of me for several nights. She never went to bed. Then after being up about two weeks, I was taken down very sick again. The doctor told my wife there was no hope of me pulling through, but I did. Again we returned to Jackson, Michigan, but I was very sick on the train and afterwards. I finally got down some medicine that stopped the asthma and I got stronger, and in the spring of 1929 I got work, and would have been able to again support my wife so that she would not have to work in the shop any more. But she went to the hospital for an operation which she had on a Saturday, and after a week of great suffering she passed over to be with her Saviour and her God, May 11th 1929. It was the saddest day of my life. She passed away quietly and peacefully. I have never been happy since that year, and the next I was able to - and had - work, in January 1931, it was necessary for me to go to the hospital for an operation. Since then I have had other operations, suffered considerably and am now in the hospital awaiting the time when I too shall pass on to that mansion that my Saviour has gone to prepare for me.
Albert H. Woodhurst
He died on July 1st 1938