George W. Woods

HON. GEORGE W. WOODS, who was formerly one of the prominent men of Cherokee County, Kansas, which he represented in the State Legislature for two terms (1872 and 1873) was born in 1827, in Frankfort, Kentucky, and died at the mines, near Springfield, Missouri, in 1887, age 60 years.

While still young, Mr. Woods removed to Owen County, Indiana, with his parents, and was reared, educated, and later, married in that locality. In 1853, six years after his marriage, he moved to Greene County, Iowa, where he was engaged in the milling business for three years.

He then located in Douglas County, Kansas, where he bought a farm of 160 acres and followed farming until 1869. In that year he came to Cherokee County, and settled down three miles east of the present city of Columbus. The city did not then extend beyond the box house of John Appleby, situated on a tract which he took as a claim, on the present site of the Cherokee County Poor Farm. In 1884, Mr. Woods sold his farm, went to Galena and became interested in the mining operations there, going thence to Lawrence County, Missouri, where he was engaged in mining until his death.

Mr. Woods was married in Owen County, Indiana, to Cassie Abrell, who is now deceased; and her remains, together with those of her husband, rest in the cemetery at Columbus. Their eight children were as follows: Robert, a farmer, who lives in Minnesota; Willis, a farmer of Lincoln County, Oklahoma; Mrs. Adelle Stockley, a widow, living in Colorado; Isaac, a cowboy in Colorado; James and Denver, both of Colorado; George, who is in the transfer business at Galena; and Helen Elizabeth, deceased in 1882, who was the wife of G. W. Crawford, now a resident of Texas.

For a long period Mr. Woods was prominent in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. A stanch Democrat, he took a leading part in political affairs in the county, was respected for the consistency of his principles, and was a standard bearer who won the approbation of the public. He was captain of the "Land League" organized here in the early days for the defense of the settlers' title to the Cherokee Neutral Lands. His name belongs on the honorable roll of the early settlers of Cherokee County, the directors of her public policies and promoters of her material development.

History of Cherokee County Kansas and its representative citizens, ed. & comp. by Nathaniel Thompson Allison, 1904, transcribed by Rebecca Alderman, student from USD 508, Baxter Srings Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, 02-27-97.