George Lemuel Woods

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder George Lemuel Woods (July 30, 1832 – January 7, 1890) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. A member of the Republican Party, Woods served as the third Governor of Oregon from 1866 to 1870. Failing to win renomination, Woods was then appointed Territorial Governor of Utah by President Ulysses S. Grant, serving in that position from 1871 to 1875.

Biography

Early years

George Lemuel Woods was born July 30, 1832, in Boone County, Missouri, the second of four boys born to Caleb Woods and the former Margaret McBride.<ref name=Horner>John B. Horner, Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature. J.K. Gill Co.: Portland, 1921; pp. 125, 153–154, 176.</ref> His ancestors came to North America from Scotland in the late 17th Century, settling first in Virginia before moving to the Kentucky frontier.<ref name=Shuck271>Oscar T. Shuck, Representative and Leading Men of the Pacific. San Francisco: Bacon and Co., 1870; pg. 271.</ref> His father had moved to Missouri in 1808.<ref name=Shuck271 />

In 1847, when George was just 15, his parents moved to the Oregon Territory.<ref name=Oregon>Howard M. Corning, Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956.</ref> In Oregon, the family settled in Yamhill County, George was educated in the public schools.<ref name=Oregon/>

In April 1852, Woods was married to Louisa A. McBride.<ref>Shuck, Representative and Leading Men of the Pacific, pp. 271-272.</ref> The couple had two sons.<ref name=Oregon/> The young couple took a homestead on unimproved government land, which Woods cleared, fenced, and plowed.<ref name=Shuck272>Shuck, Representative and Leading Men of the Pacific, pg. 272.</ref>

Unsatisfied with rural life, in 1856 Woods sold his property and enrolled at McMinnville College, where he studied law.<ref name=Shuck272 /> Working as a carpenter during the day and studying at night,<ref name=Shuck272 /> Woods purchased a small law library and was eventually admitted to the bar in 1858, setting up a private practice.<ref name=Horner/> Woods proved capable at the task and gained recognition as a proficient attorney.<ref name=Shuck272 />

Political career

In 1857, Woods organized Republican clubs in the state and was a noted speaker of the party.<ref name=Oregon/>

Woods was appointed a judge in Wasco County in 1863.<ref name=Oregon/> He was nominated as a presidential elector in March 1864 and was active in the campaign to re-elect Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, gaining a following as an eloquent and effective orator and stump speaker.<ref name=Shuck272 /> Woods toured the state as leading representative of the National Union Party (Republican-Pro-War Democrat coalition), debating the anti-war Democrat Aaron E. Wait, Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.<ref name=Shuck272 />

In 1865 he was appointed to serve on the Idaho Territory’s Supreme Court, but before his formal commission arrived he was nominated for governor by the Union Party.<ref name=Shuck273>Shuck, Representative and Leading Men of the Pacific, pg. 273.</ref> Woods won election over his Democratic opponent, prominent attorney James L. Kelly, in a heated and intense campaign, becoming the third Governor of the state of Oregon.<ref name=Shuck273 /> His term began on September 12, 1866, and continued until September 14, 1870.<ref name=gov>Oregon Blue Book: Elections Process and History</ref>

An 1870 portrait of Woods by one who had heard him speak on numerous occasions characterized the "positive and magnetic" Governor as

"...tall, graceful, and commanding, with a handsome, cheerful face, which is set off by a full, flowing beard and manifesting the utmost mental activity.... His manner of speaking is rapid, but distinct and impressive, never using long or high-sounding words or indulging in any extravagance or impropriety or metaphor. He seems to depend on the natural forces of ideas rather than upon the sonorousness of words; and although never written, unless by some very swift reporter at the time of their delivery, his speeches would be considered well adapted to the most refined of lecture-rooms.... Perhaps no American orator is capable of a quicker or keener retort, but it is a cut from a rapier, rather than a stroke with a bludgeon."<ref>Shuck, Representative and Leading Men of the Pacific, pg. 274.</ref>

Woods' prowess as a public speaker placed him in demand for other candidates around the country, and he made campaign speaking tours on behalf of Republican candidates in California in 1867 — where he made 30 speeches in 35 nights — and the New England states of New Hampshire and Connecticut in 1868.<ref name=Shuck273 />

Woods failed to win re-election but was immediately appointed by new Republican President Ulysses S. Grant as the Governor of Utah Territory in 1871.<ref name=Horner/> Woods proved to be a critic of Mormon leader Brigham Young, and was not reappointed in 1875 at the conclusion of his term.<ref>Hal Schindler, "The Territorial Governors," Template:Webarchive Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 7, 1996.</ref> During his term as governor, a "lion's share" of the new Japanese government under Emperor Meiji stayed in Salt Lake City on their way from San Francisco to Washington, DC as part of the first Japanese embassy to the United States. Governor Woods gave a speech to the delegation extolling the virtues of American industry, with its ability to erect a city in a "howling wilderness."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Later life

After leaving the Utah governorship Woods moved to California, where he remained for ten years.<ref name=Horner/> He then returned to Oregon in 1885, where he died on January 7, 1890. Woods was buried at River View Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.<ref>Lawrence Kestenbaum (ed.), "George Lemuel Woods (1832-1890)," politicalgraveyard.com/</ref>

Further reading

• Oscar T. Shuck, Representative and Leading Men of the Pacific: Being Original Sketches of the Lives and Characters of the Principal Men, to which are Added Their Speeches, Addresses, Orations, Eulogies, Lectures and Poems, Including the Happiest Forensic Efforts of Baker, Randolph, McDougall, T. Starr King, and Other Popular Orators. San Francisco: Bacon and Co., 1870.

External links

• Template:Citation
• Governor George L. Woods' Administration from the Oregon State Archives
• Oregon State Library: George Lemuel Woods