Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Woodruff, Orr F 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 January 31, 2008, 1:25 am

Author: Portrait/Bio Album, Whiteside County IL 1885

Orr F. Woodruff, attorney at law at Morrison, was born June 30, 1840, in the 
township of Clarendon, Orleans Co., N. Y. Winfield Woodruff, his father, was a 
native of the State of New York and was a farmer by vocation. He married 
Solemma Terry, who was also born in New York. Of their three children, Mr. 
Woodruff of this sketch is the oldest. William M. is an agriculturist and 
dealer in stock near Kearney, Neb. John J., resident at Kearney, was formerly 
an attorney and is now interested in sheep industry. In 1875 the parents went 
to Kearney, where the father died in November, 1884. The mother survives. 
Until he was 19 years of age, Mr. Woodruff continued under the direction of 
his parents on the homestead farm and acquired a high-school education. He 
came to Morrison in November, 1859, where he became a student of law in the 
office of Hon. Henry M. Teller, Secretary of the Interior under President 
Arthur. Mr. Teller was then engaged in legal practice at Morrison, and under 
his preceptorship Mr. Woodruff enjoyed unusual advantages and derived much 
practical benefit from the associations of the office. In May, 1861, he was 
admitted to practice in all the courts of Illinois, and on receiving his 
credentials he established his business in the former office of Mr. Teller, 
who went to Colorado. Mr. Woodruff has since conducted the relations of an 
extensive and popular law practice with success, and chieflly unaided. He has 
risen through ability, industry and undeviating devotion to his business 
interests, as well as through high-minded integrity, to distinction in his 
profession. He is still engaged in the management of a large and lucrative 
practice in the County, Appellate and Supreme Courts of Illinois and in the 
Federal Courts at Chicago. Mr. Woodruff has won an honorable and enviable 
position at the Bar as a criminal lawyer; and has been connected with a number 
of prominent cases involving the liberty and sometimes the lives of 
individuals. He is a logical and effective advocate, and possesses an 
exhaustive comprehension of legal principles. He is noted for keenness of 
perception and discrimination in presenting his argument, and when fully 
aroused to his work, exercises a magnetic influence which proves a controlling 
element in the courts where he pleads. He possesses the rare quality of 
sinking his own personality in the merits of his case, and fully imbuing 
himself with its justice and equity, a trait which rarely fails to achieve a 
purpose. He is a thorough student of human nature and recognizes above all 
other considerations that penalties are designed for reformation rather than 
punishment. Standing firmly on the fact that the results of crime are 
irretrievable in most instances, he is just as inflexible in taking the 
humanitarian view, and in his advocacy presents his views and appeals, to the 
tribunals before which his clients are arraigned, in the strength of the 
unwritten code of mercy and forbearance. He frames his argument with sagacity, 
and clothes it in simple, effective language calculated to reach the better 
part of the human heart, and wields a masterly power over the sympathies and 
emotions of both court and jury. The late Judge Heaton once said of him: "When 
Woodruff is thoroughly convinced that his cause is just, or that his client 
should win, he is often a dangerous adversary to meet, either before court or 
jury." Before the court in argument, he never fails to support his position 
with a long array of authorities, and to that extent that victories have in 
some instances been won that even the judge had doubts about sustaining upon 
more mature deliberation. Mr. Woodruff finds opportunity for the exercise of 
his peculiar abilities in the cross-examination of witnesses, and it is the 
opinion of those who observe his methods and admire his achievements, that his 
splendid repute as an attorney is due to the tact and shrewdness with which he 
manipulates an adverse witness, rather than to any other qualification he may 
possess. His ability and skill are universally conceded, and he is regarded as 
a safe counselor and a jurist of more than ordinary claims. He will always be 
a leader in his profession. In connection with his legal business he has 
extensive agricultural interests in Whiteside County, and is the owner of 
1,000 acres of land at Alpena, Jerauld Co., D. T. On the latter he is making a 
specialty of fine stock. His herds there comprise 150 head of short-horn 
cattle and 20 horses of Percheron grades. He owns two farms in Whiteside 
County, comprising 280 acres, located five miles southwest of Morrison, in 
Fenton Township, and 240 acres situated 14 miles distant from Morrison in the 
same direction, in Newton Township; and they are stocked with about 40 head of 
thoroughbred Durham cattle and 30 horses. He has obeyed the obligations of his 
citizenship at Morrison and responded to the demands of the general public by 
serving two terms as Mayor of the city, the aggregated period of his official 
career as the chief executive of the municipality including the years 1879 to 
1882. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Dunlap Lodge, No. 
327, at Morrison. Mr. Woodruff has been married twice. He first formed a 
matrimonial alliance with Victoria O'Hara, Nov. 11, 1862, and they became the 
parents of two children, Maitland J. and Maud, both now deceased. The death of 
the wife and mother took place at Morrison in October, 1867. She was a native 
of the Dominion of Canada. Mr. Woodruff was a second time married Feb. 22, 
1869, at Morrison, to Mary Lathrop. She was born in August, 1843, in Canada. 
The portrait of Mr. Woodruff presented on a preceding page is a copy of a 
likeness taken in 1882.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

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