Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of Frank WOODS This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 319 FRANK WOODS was born at Philippi, West Virginia, July 20, 1850, and was the oldest son of Judge Samuel Woods. He graduated from the West Virginia University in 1874. He was a member of the faculty and tutor in that institution until his admission to the bar in 1877, when he formed a partnership and practiced law at Graf- ton, West Virginia, with the late Benjamin F. Martin, under the firm name of Martin and Woods. He was a remarkably successful and clear headed lawyer, with a style and diction which were unusnally scholarly, lucid and forceful, and his pleadings were models, and will be found models to this day. In 1887, after having prac- ticed law in the courts of West Virginia for about ten years with unusual success, he moved to the City of Balti- more, and practiced his profession there in the courts of Maryland until his death in the year 1900. Mr. Woods attained a remarkably high standing in the able bar of Baltimore City, and was held in the highest respect by all who knew him. He was a devoutly religious man and a consistent member of the Monumental Metho- dist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, and was for a long time the superintendent of the Sunday School of that church. While he lived in Baltimore his services were in great demand. He had a large practice in questions of title and property relating to interests of clients in the state of West Virginia, and he frequently appeared and prac- ticed in the Federal courts in West Virginia and for a long time in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Vir- ginia after his removal to the City of Baltimore. Mr. Woods took great interest in educational and re- ligious affairs, and was very active and generous in char- itable activities in and about the City of Baltimore. He was for many years a member of the Board of Trustees of the Chelteham School for colored boys near the City of Baltimore. Mr. Woods was a democrat of the most independent character, but took no active personal participating in- terest in political affairs. He was six feet high, wore a dark beard, was as straight as an Indian, was always a deeply and devoutly studious and religious man, and was held in the highest esteem by all who knew him. He married Miss Harriet L. Deering, of Morgantown, West Virginia, in June 1879. They had no children. Mr. Woods died suddenly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on the 21st day of August, 1900.