Info

After leaving Springfield, William Woodmancy returned to Michigan, where he soon married Elizabeth White and came to Lansing. Elizabeth was born January 22, 1851, probably at Somerset, Hillsdale County, Michigan, the daughter of Amos & Clarissa (Tryon) White.

They had one child, a daughter May Elizabeth, born at Lansing on February 28, 1878. On June 2, 1880, William, Elizabeth and May were living at 72 South Washington Street, with Elizabethís sister Fanny E. White, who was keeping house, and Otto Spitzel, a Bavarian-born dyer who boarded with them. William and Elizabeth are listed as taylor and tayloress.

On May 7, 1880, William began a several-year process of buying two lots of street-front property on the east side of South Grand Street between Michigan & Allegan Avenues, just south of the Michigan Avenue bridge. This property was between the street and the Grand River, and consisted of a hotel called Congress Hall and George Dayton's Feed Mill adjoining it to the north. This building was a busy place. The top two floors were the hotel. By at least 1883 William and family had moved to an apartment there, and in 1884, Lee Loy and Lee Song, who ran the laundry in the basement, were boarding with them. William ran a bath house (the only one in Lansing at the time) in part of the large basement, which was convenient for the boarders there, and for the guests of the Chapman House, a large hotel across the street. William also ran a clothes renovation business, and steam dye plant in the building. There was a restaurant on the first floor.

In May and June 1886, William sold out the dye plant to Mrs. M. J. Crowner, and moved with his family to Corunna, Michigan, where he bought a house and a hotel called the Mansard House. In September, 1887, they were living in Fenton, Michigan, but did not stay there long, as in May, 1888, they were living in Wayne, a village west of Detroit, Michigan.

About 1890, they moved north to East Tawas, Michigan, and William ran a steam dye plant, there, too. They lived on Bridge Street, and tradition has it William and Elizabeth also ran a hotel here. William and Elizabeth settled here for fifteen years, the longest time recorded for William in one place.

In August, 1905, William and Elizabeth moved to Bay City, where their daughterís family had moved. They rented a house on Stanton Street. William suffered a stroke the following June, from which he did not recover, and died at home on June 28, 1906. He is interred in Elm Lawn Cemetery, next to his wife, who did not long survive him, dying on July 31, 1907.