Waite Warner Woodruff and Ellen Colegrove Woodruff with daughter Lulu May

Waite Warner Woodruff was born in "York State" on December 15, 1838. He married Ellen Colegrove, daughter of Asa & Eliza Mann Colegrove, on Christmas Day December 25, 1859 in Medina, Ohio. Their oldest son, Nelson David, Woodruff (Uncle Nel), was born in Ohio in 1861. Waite died on June 28, 1922. Ellen Colegrove died possibly around February of 1895. He later married his sister-in-law, Jeanie Colegrove. Jeanie's son, Clarence Burnett, also lived with Waite's family per the 1880 census. I am inserting another piece of history found in the 1870 Census. Jeanie Colegrove is found living with her brother, Abram Colegrove in Franklin Township, Franklin County, Kansas with her one month old son there listed as Lewis rather than Clarence. I saw a couple of possible men, but not sure about his Burnet father. According to letters from Carl Woodruff's first cousin, Maude Root, of Plainwell, Michigan written in 1976, she thought that her grandmother's family perhaps came from Vermont, but was not certain of this.

Waite Warner Woodruff and Ellen Colegrove lived, at various times, in Akron, Ellyria, and Medina, Ohio, and in Benton Harbor (Berrien Co.), Englishville (near Rockford, north of Grand Rapids in Kent Co.), and Wayland (Allegan Co.), Michigan. The ancestry of Ellen & Jane Colegrove can be found on their families history page written by Terry Colegrove as well as what we had on the Colegrove page listed at the bottom of this page. We have recently been given a picture of Ellen Colegrove Woodruff with her daughter, Lulu, so have added this picture above in this page. Ruth also provided us with a picture of Waite's brother, Truman, which we added to Nelson & Junia Warner Woodruff's page. Another picture that Ruth sent was of a young woman named Edith Warner who is a niece of Junia Warner. Edith is a daughter of Junie's brother, Lyman Warner. I attached the picture to the Early Warner Line page. I have connected with a group of Warner's and learned that Junia Warner's father was Wait Warner, son of John Warner who is a brother to Seth Warner. Below are the pictures of Waite & Ellen's children. As you can see I had some difficulty trying to make them all relatively the same size.

EarlWeed, Nelson D Woodruff, Edgar Weed, Nellie Gabbert Swisher	Melvin & Emma Blood Brown Woodruff	Hattie Woodruff & Spencer Welsh
US Grant Woodruff	Lulu May Woodruff (Wisner?) Herbert	Claire(?) and Bert Woodruff

The children of Waite Warner Woodruff and Ellen Colegrove were:

1. Nelson David Woodruff (Uncle Nel) who was born Nov. 26th or 27th of 1861 in Ellyria, Ohio. He was married possibly four times. 1st to Nettie Moulton Slone whom he divorced in 1885. His 2nd wife was Mollie who is thought to have died while giving birth. 3rd wife is Ella Lockwood who was born in England. When recently finding Mann history, I found a page telling about some very early Mann Family Reunions and it was signed Ellen Lockwood. Could she have been the same? She is the mother of Nellie Woodruff Gabbert Fettig. Ella and Nelson were divorced about 1912-13. The 4th wife (?) was Ethel (?). Nelson died on June 9th, 1945 in Chicago (Cook Co), Illinois. His occupation had been that of a self-employed barber.
2. Melvin Abraham Woodruff was born on February 14, 1862 or '63 in Akron, Ohio. He married Emma H. (Hannah?) Blood Brown (a widow) on February 14, 1891 in Grand Rapids, Kent Co., Michigan. Melvin died on November 17, 1919 in Benton Harbor, Berrien Co., Michigan. His occupations had been that of a farmer and drayman (hauler).
3. Harriet Elmina (Hattie) Woodruff was born on October 14, 1864 in Grafton Station, Lorain Co., Ohio. She married Spencer Welsh on August 22, 1885 in Wayland, Allegan Co., Michigan. Her occupation was that of a housewife and Uncle Spense was a farmer who was born in Wayland.
4. U.S. Grant Woodruff was born on September 30, 1868 (?) in Benton Harbor, Michigan. (No state record of birth) Grant married LaVinna Fisher of Lansing, Michigan. We have just learned that LaVinna was also the wife of Clarence Burnett, Jane Colegrove's son by her first husband. U.S Grant's death and occupation information is unknown by us.
5. Lulu May Woodruff was born on July 3, 1871 in Benton Harbor, Michigan (No State record of birth). Her 1st husband may have had the last name of "Wizner". (A woman named Lulu Wizner of Englishville, Mi., was a witness at the wedding of Melvin Woodruff and Emma H. Blood Brown in 1891.) Her (?) 2nd husband Albert Herbert was previously married and divorced from a Lilly (?). In some family letters, there is the impression that Lulu may have lived in the Chicago area. This may also indicate that she died there too. She was probably a housewife. Lulu and Albert Herbert apparently had one son, Harry Earl Herbert, who died as a boy. See more information farther down this page.
6. Bert Woodruff was born on June 28, 1873 probably in Benton Harbor, Mi. (No state record). He was married to Claire (?) also possibly in Michigan or in Ohio in 1890's and he may have died in Ohio. According to Violet Chilton, Bert and his wife lived in Ohio and had, perhaps, two sons...Billy and Arty, and one daughter, Alice (McConomy?). Maude Root's letters seemed to indicate that Claire was, rather, the 3rd wife of Albert Herbert (See above: Lulu May) and that they had a son and a daughter. Maude's letter, however, was unclear about this. She could have meant Bert Woodruff rather than Bert Herbert. Bert is believed to have been a farmer.

Sometime after Ellen Colegrove Woodruff's death (Feb. 1895?), Waite Warner Woodruff married her widowed (?) sister, Jane Colegrove Burnett (Aunt Jane). Jane is listed as his wife on his death certificate. The State of Michigan was unable to find a death certificate for Ellen or a marriage certificate for Jane around this time. I believe I have found this at this time, but it is either in my history stacks or filed. We also found the census records providing Jane's son's name, Clarence.

Occupation: In a series of letters written in 1976, Maude Root said that when Waite and Ellen moved from Ohio to Michigan, they roamed all over Michigan in a covered wagon, clearing land, taking odd jobs, chopping wood... whatever work they could find. In the summers, they went to Berrien County, mainly the Benton Harbor area, to pick all kinds of fruit crops, especially strawberries, finally settling down to farming in the Englishville area, north of Grand Rapids. In later years, they moved to Wayland, Allegan Co., Michigan, where Maude's mother, Hattie, was married.

To see the early Woodruff line click early Woodruff's to see how we evolved.

To return to the old home page of this family line click Woodruff

or click to read our Colegrove history,

to read more about Waite's son click Melvin

To contact me just click rox61@hotmail.com

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