Bio – Woods, Samuel

Woods, Judge Samuel

Born: September 19, 1822 (East Canada at Three Rivers)

Died: February 17, 1897 (Philippi, Barbour County, West Virginia)

Education:

  • Meadville (PA) Public Schools
  • B.A. Allegheny College (1846)

Occupation:

  • Lawyer
  • Judge

Where they lived: Philippi, WV

Years Served: 1885-1897

Special Positions Held: President  1887-1897

Notes:

  • 1846-48 Principal of Morganotwn Academy
  • Studied law with Timothy John Fox Alden
  • 1848 Admitted to the Bar and opened law practice in Philippi with John S. Carlisle
  • 1861 Elected to Virginia Constitutional Convention which passed the Ordinance of Secession. He voted for it.
  • Served as a soldier in Stonewall Jackson’s Army Corp
  • 1871 Elected to Constitutional Convention frame the Constitution of the State of West Virginia
  • 1881-89 Appointed Judge of Supreme Court of Appeals in West Virginia
  • Lifelong active member in the Methodist Episcopal Church

“Samuel Woods (1822-97) was born in East Canada. His family moved to Meadvile, Pennsylvania, when he was a boy. He graduated from Allegheny Colleg in 1842, then studied law in Pittsburgh. He taught for a time at Morgantown and settled in 1848 in Barbour County or the Philippi District where he practiced law. He was a member of the convention at Richmond, Virginia, in 1861, which adopted an ordinance of secession from the Union. He espoused the cause of the Confederacy and served in the Confederate Army. His family refugeed south and returned to Philippi with the cessation of hostilities. In 1872 Mr. Woods was a member of the Second Constitutional Convention which prepared the constitution for the State of West Virginia. He served as a judge of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals from 1883-88. He served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the West Virginia Conference Seminary from the founding of the school until his death.”

Plummer, K.M. (1965) A history of West Virginia Wesleyan College 1890-1965.  [electronic] Retrieved from Internet Archive. Buckhannon, WV: West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Sources:

PLM 8/4/18; Updated 9/1/2019