Etha Mayo Woodruff memorial collection of family papers

The collection covers the Mayo and Woodruff families from the Civil War to World War I. The collection is arranged in the following manner: Manuscripts, Correspondence and Ephemera. Each series is arranged chronologically. The collection deals with four general topics: the American Civil War, the American West, physicians and World War I.

American Civil War

Three of the family members talk about the American Civil War. General topics covered by these authors include: President Abraham Lincoln and President Jefferson Davis; General Ulysses S. Grant and Civil War hospitals. The two diaries by William Henry Mayo detail two years of his experience with the 8th Regiment of Louisiana Infantry and Army of Northern Virginia. William talks a lot about marching from camp to camp, his feelings about the North and the war, ladies he meets along the way, the looting and burning of property, as well as fighting in battle and seeing friends of his die in front of his eyes. He specifically talks about Gettysburg (Little Round Top) and the Battle of the Wilderness, General Robert E. Lee and various other officers he sees on the battlefield and the conditions he sees while in Richmond, Virginia. William spends much of his time wounded or sick (he sprained his ankle at Gettysburg) so he writes often about traveling to and from his regiment to the nearest hospital; he travels through Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama detailing what he sees and the people he meets. (There is a tintype of William Henry Mayo in the ephemera of this collection. His third diary, written in 1868, covers his life in Louisiana as a farmer.) In the memoirs of Russell O. Woodruff, Lesley Day Woodruff Riter, talks about Woodruff's experience in the war with the 15th Illinois Infantry Regiment and U.S. Army, Department of the Tennessee. She mentions specifically the hospital administrator Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Stephen A. Hurlbut, William Tecumseh Sherman, and the battles of Fort Donelson and Vicksburg. Russell spent time in Andersonville Prison in 1864 and Riter talks much about Russell's recollections of his time in the prison.

The American West

Two items deal with the American West as experienced by Edward Day Woodruff. Both his own memoirs and "Through the Years. Stories that My Daddy Told Me," by Lesley Day Woodruff Riter, detail Woodruff's experiences in Wyoming, Montana and Colorado in the latter 19th century. In these manuscripts Woodruff and Riter talk about Fort Laramie, Wyoming, the Chinese in Wyoming and the Rock Spring Massacre, mining, outlaws, the building of railroads, mountain men and trappers, the Oregon Trail, as well as the Shoshoni Indians and Chief Washakie. Edward also talks a lot about his brother John Dwight (J.D.) Woodruff and his activities as a trapper and Indian fighter.

Physicians

The ledger of Harry Nathaniel Mayo lists patients' names, addresses, diagnoses (mostly tuberculosis), and treatments.

World War I

In his five letters to his sister and brother-in-law, Edward R. Woodruff, talks about his time at Kelly Field waiting for an assignment from the United States Army. He talks about life at the camp, his fellow soldiers and their barracks. These letters are written on Knights of Columbus letterhead. The sixth letter in the correspondence is by Lesley Day Woodruff Riter to her brother, Edward R. Woodruff. In this letter she talks about the distribution of her parents' property and her life in Salt Lake City. In the ephemera section, there is a photograph of Woodward Bruce Mayo in an Army uniform taken in 1920.

The ephemera includes a tintype of William Henry Mayo, a marriage certificate for William Henry Mayo and Ella A. Curley, newspaper clippings, photographs of the Mayo and Woodruff families (and two photographs of Native Americans performing sun dances) and a printed obituary of Edward Day Woodruff published by the Utah Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.