HURON COUNTY OHIO - BIO: WOODWORTH, James Parker (published 1931)
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
Volume III, page 52-53

        JAMES PARKER WOODWORTH is owner of the Woodworth Storage & Transfer
Company at South Bend, a business he founded nearly a quarter of a century
ago, and in its growth and development it has reflected his personal
enterprise and energy.
        Mr. Woodworth was born at New Haven in Huron County, Ohio, July 17,
1868, a son of James and Lucinda (Shepard) Woodworth, his father a native
of the same Ohio county, while his mother was born at Republic, Ohio. In
1887 the family moved to a farm at Hillsdale, Michigan, and some years
later James Woodworth retired and lived at Hillsdale until his death at the
age of eighty-one. The mother reached the advanced age for eighty-six.
James P. Woodworth had two younger brothers, Charles, living at Hillsdale,
and Frank who died 1929.
        Mr. Woodworth's early life was spent on a farm. After the district
schools he attended the Hillsdale College and taught school there for a
year. After one year working in the lumber mills in Montana he returned to
Hillsdale and became a buyer among the farmers for J.H. Lane & Company,
wholesale dealers in butter and eggs. After two years he established a
butter and egg business of his own at Hillsdale, selling that in 1898, in
which year he became a resident of South Bend. For the first three months
here he was with the Mills Fruit Company and then established a wholesale
butter and egg business, which he conducted for several years. For a short
time he was in the real estate business with Mr. George Eberhart at Mishawaka.
        Mr. Woodworth in June, 1906, started his present business, since
known as the Woodworth Storage & Transfer Company. One small building gave
him quarters for his office and storage space and he had only one team. It
was almost entirely a one-man business at the start, and its prompt and
efficient service won it a steadily growing patronage. In 1913 he bought
the ground at 409 South St. Joseph Street and put up a three-story
warehouse, moving his business from its former location at 222 South
Michigan Street. A few years later he added two more stories, his warehouse
today being one of the most perfectly equipped and commodious
establishments of the kind in Northern Indiana. He also has a large fleet
of moving vans, trucks and other equipment. He operates his plant as a
general furniture storage and transfer business, and also makes a specialty
of transferring heavy machinery.
        Mr. Woodworth married, in 1900, Miss Winnella Merphy. She was born
in Ohio and spent her early years at Sturgis, Michigan and at South Bend.
They have two children, James Zalman and Olga Irene. James, who is
assistant manager of his father's business, is married and has a son, Earl.
        Mr. Woodworth is a past president of the Indiana State Warehouse
Men's Association, a member of the National Warehouse Men's Association.
Fraternally he has been for seven years a trustee and member of the
advisory board of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a thirty-second
degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the Knights of Pythias,
the Kiwanis Club, Knife and Fork Club, Chamber of Commerce, and is a
Baptist. He has been much interested in Boy Scout work, and has had charge
of the construction of the new buildings of the Boy Scout camp. His hobby
is horseback riding and he owns several fine riding horses.


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