BIO: Franklin M. WOODS, Clearfield County, PA
 
Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/

NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm
_____________________________________________________________

From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, page 800.
_____________________________________________________________ 

  FRANKLIN M. WOODS, justice of the peace in Chest Township, has resided on his 
present farm for the past eight years and is engaged with the Clearfield-Cambria 
Coal Company, as weighing boss.  He was born in Chest Township, May 2, 1852, and 
is a son of Israel and Catherine (Fishel) Woods.
  Israel Woods was born in Tioga County, Pa., and was a son of James and Nancy 
(Larson) Woods.  James Woods brought his family from Tioga County to Clearfield 
County and took up the first homestead in Chest Township and followed farming 
all his life.  He was a man of reliable character, as was evidenced by his 
election to the office of justice of the peace, in which he served continuously 
for ten years.  Israel Woods took less interest in politics than either his 
father or son, devoting himself closely to the clearing of the present farm, in 
association with his brother, locating here in 1850.  His death occurred in 
1905, at the age of seventy-two years.  He married Catherine Fishel, who 
survives, being now in her seventy-fifth year.  She is a daughter of Frederick 
and Nancy Fishel, of Cambria County, Pa.  The surviving children of this 
marriage are:  Franklin M.; Sarah, who is the wife of James Kitchen, of Chest 
Township; Harriet, who is the wife of Ira Toat, of Clearfield; Nancy, who is the 
wife of James McCully, of Chest Township; and James F., who resides with his 
mother on the old homestead.
  Franklin M. Woods attended the district schools in boyhood and afterward made 
himself useful and self-supporting by his work on the home farm and remained 
there until after his marriage, when he came to his present place.  He has been 
very active in politics for a number of years and is an influential factor in 
the Democratic party in Chest Township.  For twenty-seven years he has been a 
member of the school board and since 1907 has been a justice of the peace.
  Mr. Woods was married to Miss Carrie J. Smeed, who was born January 22, 1862, 
in Burnside Township, Clearfield County, Pa. and is a daughter of Lysander and 
Sarah (Snyder) Smeed, and a granddaughter of Jonas and Catherine Snyder and 
Othello and Matilda (King) Smeed.  Mr. and Mrs. Woods have five children, 
namely:  Emma S., who is the wife of Thomas Lewis, an engineer, residing in 
Cambria County, and has five children; Mary L., who is a trained nurse residing 
at DuBois; James Kelly, who resides at home; Sarah Catherine, who is the wife of 
Benjamin Hurd, a miner, and has two children; and Bessie, who lives with her 
parents.  Justice Woods is a member of Lodge No. 361, Red Men, at Mahaffey, and 
Lodge No. 561, P. O. S. of A., at La Jose, Pa.