Emma Abigail Shephard, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., married physician Benjamin Franklin Wooding (b. 1863) on 9 February 1897, in Denver, Colo. They had one daughter, Virginia Wooding (b. 1896). It is likely that Benjamin Franklin Wooding was graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago, Ill., in 1890. He then worked for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in Trinidad, Colo. Upon losing that position in the early 1890s, he moved to Denver to establish his practice. He was a member of the State Board of Health and was a cavalryman in the Denver City Troop. In 1898, he served as acting assistant surgeon in the United States Army, and, in September 1898, he reported to Josiah Simpson General hospital near Fort Monroe, Va., for several months duty. He was honorably discharged in 1899. Following Emma's early death, Wooding and his daughter moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., and then to Montclair, N.J., before returning to Denver.
Virginia Wooding attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, where she met Bryan Hanks. The son of Lillian Cayce and William Hanks, Bryan Hanks grew up in Coryell County, Tex., and was drafted into the United States Army in 1917. He then attended the University of Colorado in Boulder to obtain his law degree. Virginia and Bryan Hanks were married in 1921. They had two children. Nancy Hanks (1927-1983) became a national arts administrator. Larry Hanks was three years younger than Nancy and died in an automobile accident as a teenager. Following law school, the Hankses lived in New York for a brief period. They then moved to Miami, Fla., where Bryan Hanks worked for Florida Power and Light Company. The Hanks family then moved to Montclair, N.J., where Bryan Hanks worked with the speculator, Wallace Groves. Following Groves's indictment for fraud, the family moved to Fort Worth, Tex.
From the guide to the Virginia Wooding Papers, 1880-1947, (Southern Historical Collection)
