By William E. Bigglestone; Valerie Komor
Title: Harry Edwin Woodcock Papers, 1838-1911, undated
ID: RG 30/081
Primary Creator: Woodcock, Harry Edwin (1816-1911)
Other Creators: Woodcock, Lucy Angela (1822-1876)
Extent: 1.2 Linear Feet
Arrangement:
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series I. Correspondence, 1853-1910, undated .1 l.f.
Correspondence of Harry E. Woodcock, organized into two subseries of incoming and outgoing correspondence. Within subseries, correspondence is chronologically arranged. In Subseries 2, Lucy Angela Woodcock's letters precede those of other correspondents.
Series II. Writings, 1856-60, ca. 1896-1907 .4 l.f.
Arranged into two subseries by genre. Subseries 1, Autobiographical Writings, includes six volumes of ms. drafts in bound and tablet form and two ms. typescripts. Arranged in the order received: chronologically by contents of the manuscripts. These writings are available on microfilm. Subseries 2, Sermons and Other Writings, includes loose papers, tablets, and a paper-bound journal. Items are chronologically arranged.
Series III. Miscellany, 1838-1911, undated .2 l.f.
Organized into two subseries by type of material. Subseries 1, Biographical Materials, includes clippings, two photographs, and miscellaneous ms. and printed items, arranged alphabetically by type of material. Subseries 2, Collected Publications, contains books, pamphlets, and single issues of periodicals, arranged alphabetically by type of material.
Series IV. Files Relating to the Woodcock Family, Compiled by the Donor, 1980, 1983-84, 1987, undated .2 l.f.
Clippings, ms. typescripts, photocopies, and transcriptions of manuscript writings; arranged alphabetically by type of material. Originals are located in Series I, Correspondence and Series II, Writings.
Subjects: Congregational churches--Clergy, Missionaries--Jamaica--Personal narratives, Oberlin College--Students--Biography, Woodcock, Harry Edwin, 1816-1911--Archives, Woodcock, Lucy Angela--Archives
Forms of Material: certificates, diaries, ephemera - printed ephemera, manuscripts, pamphlets, photographs - photographic prints, publications, sermons
Languages: English
Woodcock's papers mainly consist of three autobiographical accounts in his hand, written from 1896 to 1907, which record Woodcock's life story through 1870. "My Inheritance" tells of his youth on the family homestead in Independence, New York (to 1837) and of his years at Oberlin College (1839-48). Woodcock describes the primitive farm life of his childhood, the growth of his religious and moral convictions, the recreation and social life of his family, and his time at coeducational, anti-slavery Oberlin College. A second account, written on four tablets, repeats the story told in "My Inheritance" and extends the narrative through 1868 to include Woodcock's first twenty years as a minister in New York state (1848-68) and his first year (1868) in Tonganoxie, Kansas. He writes of the death in 1852 of his first wife, Elizabeth Hurlbut, and of his remarriage in 1853 to Lucy Thayer. (Henry Woodcock's courtship letters to Lucy Thayer are housed in Series I, Correspondence.) A third autobiographical account (1907), designated by the donor as a "Condensed Autobiography," includes an essay entitled "Exegesis." Typed transcriptions of these autobiographical writings, prepared by H. E. Woodcock's granddaughter, the donor of these papers, are located in Series IV. Other writings of Woodcock in these papers include essays, sermons, and poems.
Lucy Angela Woodcock's letters to her brother describe her missionary work among the freedpeople of Jamaica. The correspondence includes thirteen original letters (1858-71) and copies of letters (1853-56) made by Harry Woodcock into the last ninety pages of his autobiographical account, "My Inheritance." Taken together, Lucy's letters are highly descriptive of missionary life and the Jamaican people. Photocopies of select letters are housed in Series IV.
The remainder of Harry Woodcock's incoming correspondence (1871, 1894, 1905-09) consists of eleven letters written mainly by well-wishers who had heard him preach. Included is one letter (1894) from James Harris Fairchild (1817-1902), and one letter (1908) from Henry Churchill King (1858-1934), both Presidents of Oberlin College. The Fairchild letter describes the circumstances of the arrival in Oberlin of Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875); the King letter concerns a disputed point of theology.
The balance of this small collection includes Woodcock's certificates of ordination (1847-48) and commissions from the American Home Missionary Society (1852-53, 1868-78); books, pamphlets, and periodicals collected by Woodcock, including two copies of a 1900 illustrated brochure for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; and two photographs of H. E. Woodcock and his family (1875).
The Rev. Harry Edwin Woodcock, the third child of David (b. 1791) and Patty (Osgood) Woodcock, was born in Swanzey, New Hampshire, on November 6, 1816. The Woodcocks left the family homestead in 1820 to settle in the frontier community of Independence, Allegheny County, New York. Harry Woodcock began his education in a log schoolhouse and completed it at Oberlin College. From 1840 to 1841, he attended the Oberlin Academy, studying under Professor James Harris Fairchild (1817-1902), and in 1845 he received the A.B. from Oberlin College ("Oberlin Collegiate Institute" prior to 1850). In 1848, Woodcock graduated from the Oberlin Theological Seminary and was subsequently ordained to the Congregational ministry.
For sixty-three years, the Rev. Harry Woodcock carried out his ministry with a missionary zeal. From 1848 to 1868, he held pastorates in several western New York towns, including Burns, Bristol, West Greece, Riga, Mecklenburg, and Gorham and Reeds Corners. He also served the church in Nelson, Pennsylvania, from 1850 to 1855. In 1868, he went to Kansas and organized a church on the Delaware reservation at Tonganoxie, serving as its pastor for thirteen years. In 1881, he moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he joined Plymouth Church and worked to find homes for orphaned children. He settled in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1886 and in 1888 founded the Southwest Tabernacle Congregational Church, later the Metropolitan Tabernacle and Institute. Woodcock served as the Tabernacle's pastor from 1889 until his retirement. During his twenty-five years at the Tabernacle church, he was instrumental in establishing the Sunday School and in directing local mission work. Woodcock died in Kansas City in 1911 at the age of 93.
Woodcock was the author of scriptural and temperance tracts. Among his works are Fruit of the Vine (1881) and The Hebrew Language (1900). At the time of his death, he had completed over three hundred pages of an unpublished autobiography covering the years 1816 to 1870.
On June 11, 1850, Rev. Woodcock married Elizabeth Hurlbut, who died two years later. Their union produced one child, Arthur, who was born in 1852. Woodcock remarried in 1853 to Lucy H. Thayer (1818-1903), and they had three children: Charles (1854-58), Elizabeth (b. 1855), and Ellen (b. 1857). Woodcock's sister, Lucy Angela Woodcock (1822-76; Lit. Oberlin 1852) served as a teaching missionary in Jamaica for the American Missionary Association from 1853 until her death in 1876.
SOURCES CONSULTED
Student Files of H. E. Woodcock and Lucy Angela Woodcock (RG 28).
Congregational churches--Clergy
Missionaries--Jamaica--Personal narratives
Oberlin College--Students--Biography
Woodcock, Harry Edwin, 1816-1911--Archives
Woodcock, Lucy Angela--Archives
Repository: Oberlin College Archives
Accruals: Accession Nos: 219, 1987/67, 1989/141
Access Restrictions: Unrestricted. Autobiographical writings in Series II, Subseries 1. are accessible on microfilm only to protect fragile originals.
Acquisition Method: The papers of Harry Edwin Woodcock were transferred to the Oberlin College Archives under deed of gift in 1973. Subsequent accessions occurred in 1987 and 1989.
Related Materials: For additional materials relating to missionary work in Jamaica, consult the Student File (28) of Ralph Tyler (Sem. 1837-38), a missionary in Jamaica. For George N. Allen's 1863-64 journal of his trip to Jamaica, consult Record Group 30/67. Miscellaneous materials relating to the American Missionary Association are located in Record Group 38/1. For other collections of the papers of women missionaries, consult the Guide to the Women's History Sources in the Oberlin College Archives (1990). Oberlin College diplomas of Harry E. Woodcock and Lucy A. Woodcock are in RG 0 College General, Series 27.
Finding Aid Revision History: Initial arrangement and description by William E. Bigglestone; rearranged and described by Valerie Komor, 1992. Revised July 2012 by Archives staff.
Other Note:
MICROFILM NOTE
The following papers of Harry Woodcock are fragile and researchers will be asked to access them on one roll of positive microfilm in the Oberlin College Archives:
"My Inheritance," n.d.
"Autobiography," n.d.
Condensed autobiography, 1907
Letters and manuscripts
Copies of letters, ca. 1841-1909
"Family Sketch," n.d. by Arthur Woodcock
"Reminiscences," n.d. by E. T. Woodcock
