Mary C. Fleming was born on January 6, 1838, in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, to Irish immigrants James Fleming and Mary Criswell. She married John H. Woodward around 1864, and they had at least six children: George, born around 1866; James, born around 1868; William, born around 1870; Jessie, born around 1872; Mary, born around 1876; and Edith, born around 1879. By 1870, the family was living in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, and her husband was working as a book keeper. They owned $4,000 of real estate and $600 of personal property. They moved to Allegheny, Pennsylvania sometime in the 1870s and then to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1890s. She died of Angina Pectoris in Pittsburgh on March 13, 1913.