J. F. WOODS

    J. F. Woods was a farmer.  John Power Woods, the father of Joseph F. Woods, was born in Rostraver, Westmoreland Co., Penn., in the year 1806, and within two years after his birth, his father, Rev. Samuel Woods, and his mother, moved out to Union County, in the State of Ohio.  In a short time after they moved here, he was ordained and installed the first Presbyterian pastor of what was then called Upper Liberty Church, or congregation, which had then been recently organized.  Upper Liberty Church was located about two miles below Milford Center, on the waters of Big Darby Creek.  Lower Liberty Church was situated twelve miles below Milford, on the Columbus road, on the waters of the same creek.  He preached in those two congregations from the time of his installment until his death, which took place in the year 1815, when he was in his thirty-fifth or thirty-sixth year.  He was much respected and esteemed as a pastor and in every way by his congregations and by all his hearers and members in his churches; had much influence in building up and helping to enlarge churches during the brief period of his pastorate.  He graduated in Dickenson College, Pennsylvania, and was thoroughly educated for the ministry.  He left a widow and five small children, four sons and one daughter, John Power, Eliza, Samuel, James F. and William W.  The eldest was in his ninth year, and youngest was about one year old.  The mother, Margaret Woods, brought up, raised and provided for these children principally by her own well-directed and wisely shaped industry and economy.  Her money income (if it may so be called) for the first ten or twelve years thereafter, was obtained by the results arising from the skillful and ingenious use and application of her needle.  Many wedding suits were made by her during this period of her life, and mid to be in the Infest and neatest style and of the best of fits.  The marriage suit of a learned Presbyterian Clergyman's son, the father of an ex Congressman from Union County, was of her make and finish.  She was young, healthy and handsome, educated, fluent, easy and interesting in conversation.  She instructed in the kitchen, and was not ashamed to put her hands to the help and the work therein.  She was a lady to entertain in the parlor, would often drop her needle and as often go from kitchen to parlor to entertain neighbors, strangers, doctors and lawyers, many clergymen and some divines from Scotland.  She taught her children by way of parables, to make their own shoes, and to stand in their own boots and not in those of any other person.  None of these five children are now living but James F., who now resides in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., Penn.  Her father was Col. John Power, of Rostraver, Westmoreland Co., Penn., an intelligent farmer, and a man of much moral force and worth.  Her mother was a daughter of Rev. James Finley, D. D., who was her grandfather and about the first Presbyterian who preached west of the Alleghany Mountains.  He and his brother, Samuel Finley, were both graduates of Princeton College, New Jersey, and both were thoroughly educated and learned for Presbyterian ministers, and became in early life influential Doctors of Divinity and distinguished theologian.  Samuel was President of Princeton College some time before his death.  Samuel Woods, the grandfather of these five small children aforementioned, came to this country at an early day, and first settled in Lancaster County, Penn., but in a short time thereafter, moved to Cumberland County, near Carlisle, Penn., and there educated his family.  He was an intelligent end energetic farmer, and was a man noted for his moral worth.  Two of his sons, William and Samuel, were graduates of Dickenson College, Pennsylvania, and educated especially for Presbyterian ministers, and became pastors in that church, of influence. William settled in Western Pennsylvania, and was installed pastor at an early day in Bethel Church, near Pittsburgh, and continued pastor in the same church and congregation for many years, from the time of his installment up to the time o f his de death.  Samuel went West to Union County in the State of Ohio, as before stated.  The three ancestral families or first stock of the Woods family and Power family were as much respected and as well educated and as noted and distinguished Presbyterians as any other three families in this county at that period.  Their descendants are now dispersed in divers locations through the Eastern, Middle, Western and Southern States.  Among them are doctors, lawyers, Judges of courts, clergymen, teachers in institutions of learning, Presidents of colleges and seminaries, and Doctors of Divinity.  The history of the first named ancestors, together with some of their descendants, anything like in fall, when put on paper, would require volumes.  J. F. Woods, a son of John P. and Jane (Finley) Woods, and a grandson of Rev. Samuel Woods, was born in Union Township May 28, 1837; his grandfather, Rev. Samuel Woods, came to the West in 1807, and settled on the banks of the Big Darby, where he purchased 400 acres of land, which he cleared and on which he died.  John P. Woods raised a family of five children, and selected a house near the old homestead, where he died March 6, 1851.  His estimable wife who survives, is in the seventy-second year of her age.  They were life-long members of the Presbyterian Church, and were highly respected.  The subject of this sketch enlisted in 1861, in Company D, Fortieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as Sergeant in the three-years call, and participated in the battles of Mill Creek, Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain, where he was placed on detailed service, and served to the close of his term.  He was married in 1867, to Miss Bell, daughter of Henry Martin, a pioneer of Darby Township.  This union has been blest with three children, two of whom are living, viz.: Nellie and Carrie.  Mr. Woods settled in 1874 on his present farm of 104 acres, which is among the most valuable and productive farms of the county.