As mentioned earlier in the post about the Ohio graves of Grandpa Standiford’s ancestors, the death of Anna Ruth Standiford, Grandpa’s sister, from scarlet fever in 1908 had a tragic impact on Grandpa’s childhood . . . and he wasn’t even born yet. His mother Winifred “Winnie” Belle (Woodard) Standiford shut down emotionally, and when Grandpa was born eight months later, she had little love to give her new infant. But when Marian Myrtle Standiford, the last of the Standifords’ four children, was born in 1916, Winnie emerged from her depression to give all her attention to her new daughter. Winnie’s older sister, Jannett Alice Woodard, later described Grandpa as “the saddest little boy she’d ever seen.”
Much to her credit, “Aunt Allie” gave Grandpa the love he was missing, and he returned the affection. She was born in Hocking County, Ohio, on May 12, 1875, the third of six children born to William Arnold & Sarah Anna (Wilson) Woodard. (Winnie was the fifth.) She married her first husband, Luther Jesse Wyskiver, in 1896, but their marriage was on its last legs by the time Grandpa was born. According to family lore, the marriage ended when Allie hit Luther over the head with a frying pan.
He probably had it coming.
Both would remarry, Luther to a woman named Alice Bateman (date unknown), and Allie to John Emmett Manning in 1914. Manning was a house painter, and Allie took in work as a seamstress. They lived in Columbus, but visited the Van Wert farm where Grandpa grew up quite often, if her photo album is any indication.
Aunt Allie’s photo album was given to Grandpa after her death, and he kept it until he passed away. It starts with several pages of family get-togethers in (I believe) Van Wert, Ohio, where Allie appears to be the life of the party. Here she is getting Winnie to loosen up:
I believe that Grandpa is the boy in the straw hat in the two photos below—he would have been around 10 when they were taken, where his brother Donald would have been 18 or 19 . . . too old to be the boy. Allie is on the left in both photos; Winnie is petting the horse in the second photo.
And what visit to the farm would be complete without watermelon? (Allie is in the back row, third from the left.)
Aunt Allie’s second husband didn’t live long after they wed—he died in Columbus in late 1919 or early 1920. Aunt Allie then decided to leave Ohio for a warmer climate, as she appears in the 1920 Census for Phoenix, Arizona. She also registered to vote on May 20, 1920, three months after women in Arizona secured the right, but three months before the 19th Amendment was ratified. Go Aunt Allie!
Allie’s photo album picks up again in her new home around 1923, about the time that Grandpa’s family followed her to Arizona. Allie married a third time, to millwright Joseph Henry Wiley, on August 25, 1925. I believe him to be the man in the white hat in the left-side photo below. The right-side photo appears to be the only existing image of Grandpa (far left) in his forest ranger uniform. The other man is his brother Donald.
The Wileys and Standifords took many road trips out into the desert to picnic, pose with cacti, swim in the creeks, and sleep off the moonshine (a guess). Here is just a sampling.
Mom remembers Aunt Allie, who she described as loud and full of life. Aunt Allie particularly like to go to church revivals, return home filled with the spirit, then sing and bang away “all pedal” on the piano.
Joseph Henry Wiley died on September 16, 1839, at the age of 62. Allie (Woodard) Wiley lived to 82, passing away in Phoenix on September 18, 1957. She is buried in Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery along with Grandpa’s family.
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