Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Woods, Oscar ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 January 31, 2008, 3:12 am Author: Portrait/Bio Album, Whiteside County IL 1885 Oscar Woods, member of the hardware firm of Woods & Clendenen, hardware merchants and dealers in farm machinery, windmills and pumps, at Morrison, was born Oct. 18, 1837, at Homer, Licking Co., Ohio. Leonard Woods, his father, was born in Vermont and was but ten years of age when his parents removed from the Green Mountain State to Ohio, where the family was among the first of the pioneer element that located at Granville in that State. The senior Woods married Mary Sinnet. She was born in Massachusetts and went when a little girl with her father's family to Granville, Ohio, they being also among the first permanent white settlers. In early life Leonard Woods was a teacher, and though he became a farmer in more advanced life, he always recognized the value of intellectual culture, even in the most ordinary walks of life, and gave earnest attention to the education of his children. He and his wife are no longer living, but their six children survive, and in their various positions sustain the honor of the name they inherited and verify the value of mental training they received through the efforts and precepts of their parents. Mary, oldest child and only daughter, married Rev. A. A. Russell, who is stationed, at Exeter, Neb.; Warren belongs to a coal-mining corporation near Warren, Ohio; Arthur E. is a minister of the Baptist denomination, and is in charge of a flourishing society at Paterson, N. J.; Hubert C, D. D., is the officiating clergyman of a Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minn., he received his degree in 1880; Byron A., is the Pastor of a Baptist Church in the city of Philadelphia. The three last named completed their preparatory studies and were graduated at Madison University, N. Y., and were afterwards graduated in the theological department of the same institution. The parents removed to Illinois in 1861, and settled in Morrison, where the father lived in retirement till the time of his death. Mr. Woods is the third child of his parents. He was educated until he was 17 years old in the common schools, and afterwards attended school at Dennison University, in Granville, Ohio, after which he taught school and passed the winters of six years in that vocation, devoting his time through the summer seasons to farming. He came to Illinois in 1861, and became a land-holder in the township of Fair Haven, in Carroll County. In the spring of 1865 he removed to a farm of 240 acres in Union Grove Township, where he lived until 1871, and prosecuted his agricultural interests with satisfactory results, owning a valuable farm. In 1871 he moved to the city of Morrison, where he engaged in traffic in live stock, in company with George A. Whitcomb. After a business connection of five years, he bought the interest of his partner and soon after sold his entire business. In 1876 he bought the interest of A. A. Carter in the business in which he is now engaged, and its relations were conducted for a period of seven years, under the firm style of Ferguson & Woods. In January, 1883, he became by purchase the owner of the entire establishment and sold an interest therein to F. Clendenen, his present business associate. Mr. Woods owns a half interest in the buildings utilized in the prosecution of his mercantile interests, including a store and warehouse, also his residence and two acres of ground in the south part of the city. He has officiated several years as a member of the Board of Education of Morrison, and is at present Supervisor of Mt. Pleasant Township, in which capacity he is serving his fifth term; is Chairman of the Board. Mr. Woods was married Nov. 11, 1863, in Alexander, Ohio, to Amanda Shaub, and their three children were born as follows: Francie, Sept. 2, 1865; Edna D., Jan. 21, 1868; Louis O. April 28, 1875. The two oldest were born in Union Grove Township; the youngest at Morrison. Mrs. Woods was born Dec. 25, 1839, at Newark, Ohio, and is the daughter of Martin and Esther Shaub. Her father was born in December, 1811, in Lancaster Co., Pa., and is still living. Her mother was born Dec. 25, 1818, and was the daughter of Hon. John Sthrom, who was a member of Congress from Lancaster, Pa., at the time Abraham Lincoln was a member of that body. He died in January, 1885, aged 89 years. He was probably the oldest ex-Congressman in the United States at the time of his death. 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. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/whiteside/bios/woods2359nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb