San Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN NEWTON WOODS
JOHN NEWTON WOODS,
land-owner, residing in Stockton, was born in Fayette County, Indiana, June 7,
1837, a son of Johnson and Louisa M. (Estes) Woods. The father, born in Brown
County, Ohio, June 10, 1815, moved to Indiana, and was there married, June 4,
1834, and in 1840 moved to Savannah, Andrew County, Missouri, where he built
the first residence and was engaged in trading. In 1850 he came to California,
arriving in Hangtown on August 1, where he went to mining. He afterward became
interested in mining claims on Woods creek, so called after his name. He was
killed February 1, 1852, by a personal enemy for a cause unknown, but
conjectured to be the integrity of his evidence against the fraudulent claim of
a pretended friend, who became his murderer. He left three sons and two
daughters, all except one daughter living. The mother, born in Rush County,
Indiana, October 24, 1820, is living in Tulare County, California. Grandfather
Jeremiah Woods, born in Virginia, October 8, 1772, died November 29, 1858.
Grandmother Margaret (Wooster) Woods, born in Pennsylvania, February 7, 1785,
died December 21, 1874. Great-grandfather Rev. Robert Wooster, born in London,
England, in 1727, came to America and settled in Brownsville, Pennsylvania,
where he was married to Miss Mary Gorman. In the Revolution he sided as
Colonist, renouncing all his allegiance to the king of Great Britain and
Ireland. He was one of the first settlers of Fayette County, Indiana, and the
first minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church west of the Alleghanies. Mr.
and Mrs. Robert Wooster were the parents of eleven children, of whom the youngest,
Thomas, born in October, 1799, is living in Rushville, Indiana.
Great-grandfather Henry Woods, born in Virginia about the middle of the last
century, was married in Pennsylvania to a Miss Louderbach, who was probably a
native of that State. He emigrated to Kentucky and was killed by Indians about
1790.
The subject of this sketch became a clerk
in Savannah, Missouri, at the age of fourteen, and remained thus employed about
five years. He afterward worked in the same capacity in Knightown, Indiana,
some eighteen months, when he left for California by the Isthmus route,
arriving in Stockton, December 2, 1857. From this city he went to live with his
uncle, Jeremiah H. Woods, the founder of Woodbridge, and from whom it received
its name. Early in 1858 he became the owner of 320 acres northeast of
Woodbridge, on a portion of which the village of Acampo now stands. In 1859 he
engaged in mercantile business with a Mr. Porch, under the style of Porch &
Woods. He sold out his interests in 1860, to try his fortune in Virginia City,
Nevada; but finding that mining was not his forte, he returned to mercantile
business in Woodbridge, under the style of Woods & Davis, continuing from
1861 to 1863. He again sold out in 1863, and in that year was rejoined from
Missouri, by his mother and two brothers--Albert, now living in Tulare, and E.
W. S., now of this city.
In 1864 he went to farming on his ranch at
Acampo, and on December 22 of that year he was married, in Amador County, to
Miss Annie Victoria Farmer, born in Greenfield, Dade County, Missouri, January
24, 1843, a daughter of Washington and Sarah North (Dickinson) Farmer. She came
to California across the plains in 1859 with her father, brother and sister,
the mother having died at the age of twenty-seven. The father died at
Woodbridge, in 1872, at the age of sixty-three. The brother, Benjamin A.
Farmer, is now living in Tulare City; the sister, Mary Cordelia, by marriage
Mrs. Edward G. Rutledge, of Amador County, died February 22, 1887, at the age
of forty-one, leaving five sons. Mr. Rutledge, in company with Mr. Patterson, a
cousin, while on a prospecting tour, discovered the first copper mines in
Amador County, now known as the Newton mine.
Mr. Woods remained on his Acampo ranch,
which he had meanwhile enlarged to 400 acres, until 1877, when he removed to
this city. He is now joint owner with his two brothers of 640 acres near Lodi,
and with one of them, E. W. S., he owns about 3,700 acres in this county, and
2,250 in Tulare. From 1877 to 1882 Mr. Woods was secretary and manager of the
Granger’s Union of this city. In 1883 and 1884 he was deputy and acting
treasurer of this county. He has been a Mason since 1858, being the first
initiate of Woodbridge Lodge, No. 131, F. & A. M. He belongs to Stockton
Chapter, No. 28, and to Stockton Commandery, No. 8. He is a member of the San
Joaquin Valley Society of California Pioneers, in virtue of his father’s early
arrival.
Mr. and Mrs. Woods have two children:
Jessie Lee, born March 5, 1867, and Mary L., born February 22, 1869, both
graduates of Mills’ Seminary, near Oakland, in the class of 1887. The family
belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, of this city, of which Mr.
Woods has been one of the stewards and trustees since 1872.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 543-544. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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