Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Woods, Robert Mann ************************************************ 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 ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 2:22 am Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County ROBERT MANN WOODS. One of the best known men of Illinois is the subject of this article, who won the title of major during the Civil war and whose record, both in military and civil affairs, is one of which he and his may well be proud. He is a member of a family descended from old Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock. His father, William J. Woods, a native of Pennsylvania and a cabinet-maker by trade, removed from the east to Illinois in 1842 and settled in Pike County. He was the only man in that county who voted for James G. Birney for president. He was an Abolitionist and Prohibitionist as far back as 1825. In 1848 he moved to Galesburg, Ill., where he published a free-soil paper, the Galesburg Free Democrat, in which office the subject of this sketch learned the printer's trade. In 1855 Mr. Woods, Sr., was one of several gentlemen who founded the Western Industrial and Scientific Institution and organized the college at College Springs, Iowa. At a later date he moved to Minneapolis, Kans., and there died May 10, 1900, at the age of ninety-five years. He was three times married. His first wife was Sarah Lyon Mann, a native of Maryland, daughter of Maj. Robert Mann, a soldier of 1812, and of the family of Horace Mann, the great educator. She was a kin to Mary Lyon, founder of Mt. Holyoke Seminary. By their union ten children were born, of whom the major was the fifth. Born in Greenville, Mercer County, Pa., April 17, 1840, Major Woods was two years old when the family settled in Illinois. His earliest recollections are of the pioneer surroundings and incidents of Pike County. While living at Galesburg he attended Knox College. In 1858 he went to Iowa and taught school there and in Missouri for three years. At the opening of the Civil war he was appointed by Governor Yates to a position in the office of the quartermaster- general and afterwards that of the governor, where he remained until June, 1864. He was then made adjutant of Yates' Sharpshooters, which formed the Sixty-fourth Illinois Regiment. He served in this through the Atlanta campaign, after which he was detailed as a mustering officer. Later he served on the staff of Maj.-Gen. Giles A. Smith, taking part in the march to the sea and the campaign through the Carolinas. His commissions as captain and major were the reward of gallantry and valor on the field of battle. After taking part in the grand review at Washington and also serving as a mustering-out officer for General Sherman's army at Louisville, Ky., Major Woods was summoned to Springfield, Ill., by Adj.-Gen. I. N. Haynie, and there he compiled the regimental histories (filling nine volumes) of all the Illinois regiments. In the spring of 1866 he wrote the constitution and by- laws of the Grand Army of the Republic, which was organized by Dr. B. F. Stephenson, and of which Major Woods was the first adjutant-general. Soon afterward he organized the various departments throughout the northwest. The first charter issued, that of Decatur Post No. 1, has his name upon it. In 1868 he went to Chicago. For some years he was chief clerk during the construction of the United States custom house and postoffice in that city. In 1877 he was made insurance examiner of Illinois, a position of great responsibility and one which he filled most creditably. During the time in that position he was obliged to close up, in the courts of the state, every life insurance company then organized under this state. As a newspaper man Major Woods began his career in 1879, when he purchased the Joliet Republican from James Goodspeed. This paper he conducted successfully, proving that the ability which had made itself manifest in the army and in business was also fitted for the field of journalism. In 1883 he purchased the Joliet Sun, which he merged into the Republican. By the subsequent purchase in 1888 of the Daily and Weekly Press he extended his influence as a newspaper man, merging the three papers into the Republic and Sun, a popular and influential daily and weekly paper, which took a leading part in all the activities of the local Republican organization. There was also a job department and a book bindery. In 1892 he disposed of his interest in the newspaper business. Organizing the St. Louis Paving Brick Company of Galesburg, he became its secretary and treasurer. He afterward organized the Peerless Portland Cement Company of Union City, Mich., of which he was vice- president. He now has an office in Chicago and goes to that city daily, but still makes his home in Joliet, being too devoted to this place to desire to transfer his citizenship elsewhere. October 5,1867, Major Woods married Miss May Florence Miner, who was born in Harding, Ill., April 8, 1851, a daughter of Samuel E. and Asenath (Darrow) Miner. The Miners and Darrows were Massachusetts and Connecticut Yankees, having had six ancestors who were minute men at Lexington in the Revolutionary war, and twelve in the war of 1812. Major and Mrs. Woods have two children, Alice M. and Miner R. From this resume of the life of Major Woods it will be seen that he is a man who has wielded a potent influence in public affairs, bearing a part in many lines of activity that have been far-reaching and powerful. Every duty of life he has discharged faithfully and well. As a soldier he performed duties that were hazardous. In all the hardships and responsibilities of forced marches, bloody battles or monotonous camp-life, he proved himself a true son of Mars, giving unmistakable evidence of endurance, patience and heroism. From the ordeal of a soldier's life he emerged with laurels won upon sanguinary battlefields and with an official rank that had been well earned. Nor has his subsequent career as a private citizen been less meritorious. The same qualities that brought him success in the one contributed to his advance in the other. When in the world of journalism he used his influence to promote enterprises of undoubted merit, whose success would mean the enhancement of Joliet's progress. Realizing the power of the press, he sought to make his paper a power for good, a factor in the moral, educational and commercial advancement of his town. In the real-estate and loan business, to which some of his best years have been given, he has won many warm friends and built up a patronage that is valuable and of a high class. The wisdom governing his actions has inspired confidence in his judgment, and his entire circle of acquaintances concede to him high ability and unwavering integrity. Additional Comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/woods1074gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 7.4 Kb