My Genealogy Hound

MAJ. JOHN WOODS, the well-known and highly respected chairman of the Rutherford County Court, was born to the marriage of Thomas Woods and Susan Baldridge, who were both natives of Orange County, N. C., and came to this county after their marriage, in the spring of 1807. Thomas Woods was one of the sturdy pioneer blacksmiths of Rutherford County and he plied his trade on Overall Creek, also in Murfreesboro, a number of years. In 1827 he removed to near Hickman, Ky., where he died in March, 1838. Our subject was born in Rutherford County, September, 11, 1807, and spent his youthful days on the farm and in his father’s shop. Like his father he was a natural mechanic, but was prevented early in life from following his father’s trade, by meeting with an accident which permanently disabled his left hand and arm. His early education was such as could be procured by a few months attendance each year at the subscription schools, held in the primitive “log structures,” which were common at that early day. In May, 1827, Mr. Woods entered public life by being elected, by the court, to the office of constable of the district on Overall Creek. He served in this position two terms of two years each; then engaged in the grocery business one year at Middleton, this county, and thence until 1833 was engaged as clerk in Murfreesboro. During 1833-34 he was engaged in business for himself again at Salem. In the latter year he repaired to his farm, to which he devoted his entire time and labors until 1840. when he was elected register of the county, serving by re-election until 1848. During his term of office he served also as deputy clerk of the county court. In 1848 he was elected clerk of the county court, filling this office by re-election until 1856. It is a fact worthy of recording that Maj. Woods’ popularity as an official, as was evinced by his almost continuous term of office, for nearly thirty years before the war, was due entirely to the efficiency of the man, as his party the Democratic, were largely in the minority during that time. In 1859 he was elected to represent this county in the State Legislature. He served in the regular and called sessions during 1859-60-61. The Major was not a participant in the late war, but was a warm, advocate for the cause of the people of the South and this, together with the fact that he had been a member of the General Assembly that passed resolutions of secession, probably caused him much annoyance from persecution by the Federal soldiery after they had invaded these parts. They even went so far as to conspire with one of his former slaves and go though with a sham of arresting him, but the matter was dismissed without serious trouble. In March, 1866, Mr. Woods was elected a magistrate of this district, and the following January was elected chairman of the county court, and it may be said to his credit that he has filled these offices, continuously, by reelection to the present time, discharging his duties in a highly satisfactory manner, to his constituency and the people of the county at large. October 30, 1883, Maj. Woods married Mary F. Jarratt, of this county, who died August 19, 1884. October 15, 1885, he married Mrs. Nancy (Boring) Jetton. He has no children of his own, but has raised and taken care of a great many friendless children. He has always been prominently identified with all public and private enterprises in the city and county; before the war he was one of the foremost in establishing in the city a branch of the Planters’ Bank, and was afterward a director and stockholder in the savings bank and also First National Bank of this city, but has withdrawn from the latter of late years, having by his economical and industrious habits acquired a sufficient competency to support him in a comfortable manner in his declining years. He has never belonged to any secret society or church, but is a firm believer in the Bible, and his life has been spent in conformity with these views. He has been a life-long Democrat and his many and continued terms of office give evidence of the esteem in which he is held by the Democracy of old Rutherford County, and know him only to respect his many superior qualities as an official and a moral, upright citizen.