The 1880 Barbour (old fashined spelling) County Census listed: boy infant,
  1/4 year, in the family of Richard M. and Sarah Ellen Woodward. He was the
  fourth child. This same spring, boys were born in the James Warren and Thomas
  Gallagher families, and the wives ere able to care for each other.
     Rye grew up in the Medicine Lodge area. A good student and an excellent
  penman, he enrolled in Business School in Salina, Kansas. He enlisted as a
  volunteer in the Spanish American War. His parents were notified after he was
  on his way to the Philippine Islands.
     May Isabel Axtell was born in Watseka, Illinois, June 5, 1884, leaving 
  there in a covered wagon heading for Raton, New Mexico. Her brother, Dan, rode
  and walked their way from Illinois to New Mexico. The mountains made quite an
  impression on May and she looked forward all her life to seeing them again.
  They came to Medicine Lodge in 1889.
     Rye and May corresponded all the time he was away in the Army. She was
  teaching Rural School during this time, having begun teaching at the age of
  17. Rye returned from his stint in the army by way of Ft. Sill. He had served
  three years and four months. Approximately two years of this time was spent
  in the Philippine Islands, mustering out late in 1904.
     On April 12, 1905, Rye and May were united in marriage at the Baptist
  Parsonage. Their attendants were Nellie McCoy (Benefiel) and James Woodward.
  Their first home was a dugout near Grand, Oklahoma. Here their first child,
  Richard Axtell, was born July 31, 1906. By the time Axtell was nine years old,
  seven children had joined in the Woodward family. Rye and May had become
  rural mail carriers and moved to Gage, Oklahoma - to a farm - and then to
  Hardtner, Kansas. Rye was a carrier and May his substitute for seventeen years.
  They also had a leather goods and harness repair shop. Rye sold bicycles and
  motorcycles. They were always busy. May designed and made the family clothing,
  raised a garden, canned, kept a small her of milk cows, raised chickens and
  geese.
     The children were encouraged to be good students, to be independent, 
  resourceful, dependable and patriotic.
     Three children died in infancy - Howard Scott, 11 months, born at Sharon,
  James Harvey, 13 months and Helen Evelyn, only a few hours old, born and died
  at Isable, Kansas. All are buried at Highland Cemetery in Medicine Lodge, where
  the family moved in 1924. R. Axtell died a few weeks before reaching his
  twenty-first birthday. He was serving in the navy and died following surgery
  at the Naval Hospital in San Francisco.
     Rye was not well and spent a number of winters at the Veteran's hospitals
  in Wadsworth and Wichita, Kansas, having problems with arthritis, asthma and
  a rheumatic heart. May died July 19, 1940, after surgery in Wesley Hospital,
  Wichita, Kansas. Her surgeon was a former Medicine Lodge resident, Dr. Updegraff.
  Rye lived until January 7, 1942, dying in the Veteran's Hospital, Wichita,
  following a heart attack.
     Their eight children, who lived fifty years and five months without a death
  are: Edith Woodward Mullikin, Trantham, a graduate of Northwestern at Alva,
  Oklahoma, a teacher for twenty-five years, mother of three. Ethel Woodward
  Mullikin, a graduate of Emporia State College, Emporia, Kansas, a teacher for
  twenty-one years, mother of 5. Florence Woodward only taught two terms,
  attended Salt City Business College, Hutchinson. Died October 3, 1978, Deming,
  New Mexico - no children. D. Vernon Woodward, retired Sergeant Major from
  U.S. Army after thirty years of service, now living in Sharon, Kansas, father
  of two. William (Bill) Woodward, served approximatel twelve years in the army,
  serving in World War II, now living in New Mexico, no children. virginia
  Woodward Newton Measday, a beautician for thirty-five years, has her own shop
  in Deming, New Mexico, six children - four living. Dan Henry Woodward, graduate
  of Denver University, after serving thirty-nine months in the navy on the USS
  Reno during World War II, teacher and Psychologist, co-author of "Living with
  the Now Child", a book used by teachers and parents of exceptional children,
  teacher for a number of years, father of five - four living. B. Joyce Woodward
  Wesbrooks, a beautician back in the late 1940's, entered college after her
  two sons graduated, presently teaching 4th grade in Deming, New Mexico, was an
  honor roll Master's Degree recipient from Silver City, New Mexicon.
     Though never wealthy in material things a HOME full of live and affection
  such as this one was could never, by any stretch of the imagination, be
  considered poor.
     As of this writing, March, 1979, Rye and May's descendants number 89 - 78 
  of whom are still living, consisting of seven children, nineteen grandchildren,
  thirty-eight great-grandchildren and fourteen great-great grandchildren.
  Having preceeded or followed them in death are five children, four grandchildren
  and two great-grandchildren.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 496 
     Submitted by: Ethel Woodward Mullikin, daughter