Donald M. Woodworth, 1905-1947

Donald Merwin Woodworth was born 5 March 1905 in Laconia, New Hampshire, the only child of Wellington Lovett Woodworth and Edith Margaret Tucker (adopted name Hull). We believe he was descended from Walter Woodworth (in Massachusetts about 1630), but the full line has not been located. Of the proven five generations, we have Donald Merwin, Wellington Lovett, Wallace Eastman, Nathaniel, and Lemuel Woodworth.

Donald lived his childhood at 921 Union Avenue in Lakeport, a section of Laconia. By 1910, his father owned two houses that shared a property line, with the smaller house, “the bungalow,” at 12 Walnut Street, uphill from the family homestead. When Donald was about five, his grandparents, Wallace and Sarah (Preble) Woodworth, took up residence in the bungalow and so were next door during his early years. Both houses were situated on the east side of the village, facing west across the south end of Paugus Bay. To the west were visible the houses around Elm and Belvedere Streets, and in the valley between, the Winnipesaukee River ran south out of the Bay, crossed by the bridge and tracks of the Boston and Maine Railroad where he liked to walk with Anne and Don on Sunday afternoons. In front of the house, Route 3 brought horse-drawn wagons and neighbors on foot, and the early cars and trucks. On the north side of the house a field of long grass with a cluster of cherry trees sloped up to a garden plot beside the bungalow. This was the small world that so pleased Donald, his parents and grandparents in those years at the opening of the 20th century.


In 1910, at age 5 and a half, Donald began first grade at Mechanic Street School, just a 10-minute walk up Walnut Street hill. When Donald was 9, Europe fell into war. When he was 11, the United States entered the war and sent troops. World War I was fierce and protracted, with great losses. We know little of what the war meant to him or how the family was affected. But children do not escape the great upheavals and are likely to show their interest in play. This was an age of toy soldiers, often made to resemble the uniformed men of both sides. The armies at war in Europe offered names for each side in the childhood “combat” in woods and fields.

In November 1918, the Armistice closed a long and awful war. Donald was 13, and had finished eighth grade. As a senior, he submitted for his English class an account of his Grandfather Wallace’s experiences in the Civil War. He posed for the class of 1922 graduation picture from Laconia High (located then where Academy and Court meet in the South End) with best friend Harold Abbott from the Walnut Street neighborhood.

He entered Dartmouth in September 23, 1923. His picture is in the “Freshman Green Book” for the Class of 1927, with the note that his nickname was “Don.” He was photographed on campus with friends. In one photo, all are smoking except for him. He recalled later that he had promised his dad he would not smoke until he was 21.

For a sophomore science class, he spent Christmas 1924 vacation interviewing family members about their parents, siblings, and themselves, gathering facts on genealogy, education, interests, and health. Of himself, he says that he is blue-eyed, has straight dark-brown hair, is 66 1/2 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds at age 19.

His fourth semester was his last. He left Dartmouth in June 1925 to take up life as an insurance man in Boston. After 20 years of small-town life, he found the city an exciting place. He later took me, then 12, to the Durgin Park Restaurant at Faneuil Hall for lunch among the workers from the market district. The noise of the crowd and the sawdust on the floor (“for atmosphere”) pleased him. I thought later that his pride in his grandparents’ working-class and factory lives was evident in this moment, and that then or later it had rubbed off on me.

Shortly after May of 1930, Donald returned to join his father at the Lakeport National Bank, holding the position of Assistant Cashier, a title that carried responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the bank under his father’s direction. He had already met Leoine Daisy Hale and they had begun dating.       

Leoine’s parents, Leon Paxton Hale and Cora (Hyde) Hale, were working in Laconia, he in the brass foundry at the Laconia Car Company and she in Lougee’s Department Store in the dry goods department as clerk and seamstress.  To Leon and Cora, this engagement must have seemed to hold some promise as the young man had steady work and a secure place in banking.

The marriage took place August 15, 1931 at the bride’s home, 56 Academy Street. They took over the bungalow. Wellington deeded it to them in January 1932, and they lived there four years. Two of their three children were born during this time: Don Wellington Woodworth and Anne Eva Woodworth.

Wellington died July 14, 1935, age 62. Within a few months of Wellington's death, Edith had decided to give up housekeeping for a modest life in hotels in Southern Pines, North Carolina and, in summer, at the Winnicoette in The Weirs, just five miles away, where the family could visit. Donald and Leoine moved down the hill to the more spacious place on Union Avenue.

The bank’s Directors promoted Donald to his father’s position. As Cashier, he managed the work of the bank, training and overseeing the tellers, opening the big Mosler safe at 9:00 AM and closing it for the night, checking the books at the end of the business day to get a balance, and preparing the bank’s records for periodic visits of auditors and bank regulators. The Depression continued through the 1930s, but the bank provided a buffer against hardship.

Following the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the country was in shock. The first losses were devastating: the military was unprepared, the power of the Japanese in the Pacific was frightening. With the Germans moving across Europe, it seemed that all might be lost. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill rallied the United States and England, and young men and women flocked to recruiting stations.

Donald volunteered as an airplane spotter, and was trained to recognize German, Japanese, and American planes by their silhouettes. The spotters sat in bunkers at the airport and called in the movement of aircraft overhead. In addition, Don was an Air Raid Warden. With armband, helmet, and flashlight, he walked the streets during the air raid drills, making sure that the town was dark, no lights showing, black curtains drawn. It seemed evident that bombers could find their way from town to town to their targets if towns were illuminated.

The war ended with the surrender of Germany in 1945 and Japan in 1946 in a victory that each person had worked and sacrificed for. As the nation moved from war production to peacetime economics--converting the factories from building tanks to building cars, for instance--and as men and women returned from Europe and the Pacific to peacetime occupations, a mood of relief and optimism energized the communities. Donald and Leoine saw the world secure again.

Steven Hale Woodworth was born May 1, 1946. He was the youngest child by 12 years, and his brother and sister were delighted to share the care of the new baby.

Now, Donald at 40 and and Leoine at 35, found their sons—an infant and one 14--and their daughter, 12, filling their lives. But Donald had not been feeling well. His knowledge of his heart condition would have been inadequate by a more modern standard. High cholesterol was not diagnosed, and the impact of diet was not yet well understood. Only when the death certificate reported Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) did one see the problems he faced. He suffered a heart attack and after a week in hospital, he died on February 11, 1947, a few days before his forty-second birthday. His obituary mentioned his position at the bank and at the Laconia Hospital where he was a member of the Board of Trustees. The Woodworth plot with three generations of the family overlooks Paugus Bay in Bayside Cemetery north of Lakeport.

In some years, close to March 5, an email goes out to family noting the approach of the anniversary of his birth, inviting all to join a celebration of the event, and counting the years, now just past one hundred and seven.

DWW
Sun City, CA
July 27, 2012