John and Kate Woodruff are my Great Grandparents.  Kate was always referred to as Granny by the members of the family.  She died a few months before I was born.  Granny owned the house next door to Bernie and Olive on the Heron Road in Ottawa.  There were beautiful flower gardens and lawn between the houses.  When we moved to the Heron Road in 1969 there were 2 duplexes in place of the lawns. 

note:  these pictures are thumbnails, click on each picture to enlarge

John Thomas Woodruff
Birth: 17 May 1857, Lydd, Kent, England.
Christening: 14 June 1857, Lydd Parish Church, Kent
Immigrated to Canada in 1879-80.
Marriage: 22 April 1890 St Mary’s Parish, Melcombe Regis, Dorset, England.
Spouse: Kate Eliza Beale.
Son of William Woodruff and Mary Huggett of Dover, Kent, England
Death: 8 Sept 1917, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Burial: Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa Canada.

Kate Eliza Beale
Born: 11 February 1867 Melcombe Regis, Dorset, England
Christened:
Married: Married John Thomas Woodruff on 22 April 1890, St. Mary’s Parish, Melcombe Regis, Dorset, England.
Children: Bernard John Woodruff, Victor Albert Woodruff
Death: 17 November 1952, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Burial: Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa, Canada.

John Thomas Woodruff & Kate Eliza Beale as far as we know met in Banff, Alberta.  John may have been working as an itinerant photographer or working under contract. She was traveling (from Britain) as a companion when John took this photograph. Kate is fishing in the Bow River near Banff.

St. Mary’s Church, Melcombe Regis, Weymouth, Dorset, England. The parish registry contains many births, marriages, and probably deaths of the Beale family. As well, as the marriage of John and Kate Woodruff.

The card to the right is their marriage announcement card. The marriage took place in Dorset, England. John brought his bride to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. John Woodruff was employed by the Canadian government, Dept of Interior from 1890 as a temporary and in 1908 as a Permanent Civil Servant. He was a photographer. Many of his pictures are held at the Public Archives under the Woodruff Collection.

These are the earliest pictures we have of John Woodruff.  The one on the far left came from the National Archives e002852336.  This picture was taken in October 1879 by Topley.  We received this picture in January 2005.  This puts John Woodruff in Montreal at least a year earlier than the Canadian 1901 Census indicated.

June and Sam Woodend sent this picture to Pop December 2, 2004. This picture is printed on cloth then colour pigment was added to the black and white photo.

Bernard John Woodruff (my Grandfather) was born 14 August 1891, Ottawa, Ontario.
Married:  15 May 1918 to Olivia Maryann Deeprose, Fairmont Methodist, Montreal, QC.
Died:  18 May 1991, Ottawa, Ontario.  Grandpa was just shy of living 100 years!! 
Bernie was dressed in a sailor suit. He would be 2 – 3 years of age when this picture was taken. 
"On June 7, 1981 Bernie called in to see us. He had come out to John’s for dinner from the Glebe Centre where he has been residing for 3 weeks now. He has met so many fine people, some reminiscent of days long ago. One lady asked him if he remembered the bank on Wellington Street. His reply was. "My father worked in the bank. On Wellington near O’Connor", on the top floor. At the time his parent’s home was in Rideau Park. From the office window, facing south, Mr. Woodruff Sr. could see his home. On days he, when he had a message for his wife, (no telephone then at home). He would signal by a mirror at a certain time of the day and Granny Woodruff would bundle Bernie (3 years old) into a go-cart and walk to the exhibition grounds, board a street car for Center Town. It is astonishing to think that a signal could be sent so many mile away, and action be taken on it. This was over 85 years ago."

This note is taken from Auntie Edna and Auntie Fran’s memoirs. I believe this is Auntie Edna’s notes.

John Thomas Woodruff, age 44.
Kate Eliza Woodruff, age 34.
Bernard John Woodruff, age 10 years.
Victor Albert Woodruff, age 1.
Winter of 1901-02.

Victor A. Woodruff is pictured holding an old Snyder .577 rifle. Date of picture is about 1907.  This rifle is now in the War Museum Archives, Ottawa, ON.

John Thomas and Kate Eliza Woodruff’s Crystal (15^th) Wedding anniversary picture. The original copy is in June Woodend’s picture collection. (June is the eldest daughter of Vic and Edna Woodruff)

John Thomas Woodruff died September 8, 1917, Ottawa, Ontario; after a long and painful illness.  Dad and I took a trip to the city (Ottawa) archives during the month of November 2004. We found John Woodruff’s death record in the Beechwood cemetery records. Cause of death was disseminated sclerosis or better known as multiple sclerosis.

Granny (Kate Woodruff) standing in front of the dining room window at 1235 Heron Road.

Granny (Kate Woodruff) sitting by the bay window in the dining room at 1235 Heron Road. Granny lived with Bernie and Olive during the winter months as her house was not insulated.

Granny and David Woodruff this picture would have been taken about 1949-50. Granny died in the fall of 1952.David was born in 1943. David is the son of Vic and Edna Woodruff.

 

This small glove chest of drawers was made by Kate’s Uncle (John Case) who was a cabinet maker. This cabinet is an example of marquetry.  This is part of June Woodend’s collection.

The Woodruff and Raby families
L to R: Adam Raby, John, Granny, Uncle Willie, Ruth, Kaye, Olivia.
Front row: Seated Maisie and Isabel, boy Raby, and Hilda Raby. Hilda Raby was a McCann and daughter of Uncle Willie McCann and granny's sister Melita Beale McCann.

McCann and Woodruff families
L to R: Kate McCann (Uncle Willie’s sister), Mrs. McCann, John, Olive Woodruff, Kaye
In front: Ruth, Frank, Bernie, and Uncle Willie
Estimated date for this picture is 1935.
This picture was taken on Kilbourn Ave., Ottawa, Ontario.

This is the first house identified as the home of John and Kate Woodruff. The following census for 1901 was recorded for this home. This was located on Billings Avenue near the CPR tracks and was moved when the Grand Trunk Railway was built. Check out this web site on the Railways of Ottawa, 1.6 Canadian Pacific: Billings.  The blueprints for removal of the station shows the location of 5 houses.  One of these belonged to John and Kate.  (Power outage caused this link to collapse.  The site was called Railways of Ottawa)

This is John and Kate’s second home located on Third Avenue, Ottawa. This home is identified on the Attestation papers for Bernard J Woodruff as being his next of kin address (1914).

1225 Heron Rd.
This was originally Granny’s house. Auntie Edna and Uncle Vic made some major renovations on the house after they began to live here. The house was raised, a basement put in, the front porch was taken off, as well as some other changes. Auntie Fran came to live with Vic and Edna after Uncle Wilmont died. During my life time this was known as the Auntie’s House. Eventually, the house was expropriated to make way for the widening of the Heron Rd. The Obituary for John Thomas Woodruff states that he died at his home in Ridgemont, which must be this house.

Photograph Holdings at the National Archives, Ottawa, Canada.
John Woodruff worked for the Department of the Interior as a photographer from 25 August 1890 until 1916.  He traveled across the country of Canada taking pictures of the countryside.  The photographs were used by the department of Immigration to promote immigration to Canada.  The National Archives contains a listing of 763 of John's photographs.  Some of these pictures can be viewed in the digital part of the photograph holdings on ArchiviaNet.  I use the ArchiviaNet:  On-line Research Tool for the basic index of areas to search through.  Choose the Photographs, then in search the data base, type in Woodruff. The listing of his photographs should come up. The Glenbow museum located in Calgary and the Whyte Museum in the Rockies located in Banff, Alberta also have some of his photographs which can be viewed on the internet. 
On November 23, 2004, I (Cindy) to a trip to the National Archives in Ottawa, Ontario to see what information I would find on John Woodruff.  I was directed to the following reference where I was able to look at some of the correspondence between John Woodruff and the dept of the interior.

Reference: RG76, Immigration, Series lA1, volume 457, Reel C-10398
File: 696173
Access Code: 20
Parts: 1=1907-1909 2=1910-1913 3=1913-1915 4=1915-1922, 1924
File Title: John Woodruff, topographical Branch, department of the Interior, Ottawa

The following is a newspaper article gleaned from the above microfilm.

The Star, St. John N. B., Tuesday, July 30, 1907

ST. JOHN IS BEING PHOTOGRAPHED TODAY

Interior department Office taking some Valuable Pictures on visit to Island

Moncton, July 29 – St. John is to be photographed tomorrow John Woodruff, chief of the photographic bureau connected with the department of the interior, is on a tour of the maritime Provinces for the purpose of taking a series of industrial, agricultural, fishery and some scenic views which are to be added to the Ottawa collection, and will be largely used by the department of immigration in illustrating the various booklets on the dominion of Canada and its resources, while the best of them will be enlarged and placed at the disposal of the chief commissioner of exhibits for display at the various world’s fairs and important exhibitions. Mr. Woodruff was in Moncton today, calling upon surveyor general Sweeney and the advertising department of the I.C.R. (Inter Colonial Railway) obtaining the necessary information and instruction for the tour of the provinces. He took several pictures of the Bore, and leaves tonight for St. John, where he will take a number of photographs tomorrow. He is recognized as an expert in the photographic world.

 
This page was updated March 25, 2006