Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/299

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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scended on both parental sides from Scotch- Irish ancestry. His first American progeni- tor, Michael Woods, received a patent to a large tract of land in 1737, in the western part of Albemarle (then Gooch- land) county ; his wife, Mary Campbell, be- longed to the clan of which the Duke of Argyle was the head. William Woods, great-grandfather of Micajah Woods, was a member of the legislature of Virginia, 1798- 90 ; and his son, Micajah, was a member of the Albemarle county court, 1815-37, and sheriff of the county at the time of his death. Micajah Woods was educated at the Lewis- burg Academy, the Military School of Char- lottesville, taught by Colonel John Bowie Strange, and the Bloomfield Academy. In 1861 he entered the University of Virginia, but with many of the other young men of the South soon entered the Confederate army. He served when barely seventeen years of age as volunteer aide on the stafif of General John B. Floyd in West Virginia, and in 1862 was a private in the Albemarle light horse company. Second Regiment Vir- ginia Cavalry, and afterwards was first lieu- tenant in the Virginia state line. In May, 1S63, he was commissioned first lieutenant in Jackson's battery of horse artillery, in which capacity he served until the close of the war, participating in the battles of Car- nifax Ferry, Port Republic, Second Cold Harbor, New Market, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Gettysburg. At the close of the war he re- turned to the University of Virginia, where after studying in the academic department for one year, he took up law, and was gradu- ated therefrom in 1868 with the Bachelor of Law degree. He opened an ofifice for the practice of his profession in Charlottesville,

\'irginia, and in 1870 was elected common- wealth's attorney for that county, and filled that position for thirty-three years, with- out opposition for the nomination since 1873. In 1872 he was made a member of the board of visitors of the University of Virginia, a position which he held for four years, at the tmie of his appointment being the youngest member of the board ever selected. He was chairman of the Democratic party of Albe- marle county for several years ; as elector represented the seventh congressional dis- trict of Virginia ; and also was a member of the presidential electoral board in 1888. He was permanent chairman of the Virginia Democratic state convention which met in Staunton, in 1896, to elect delegates to the national convention. As captain of the Monticello Guard at Charlottesville, he com- ir.anded that famous old company at the Yorktown celebration in October, 1881. In 1893 he was made brigadier-general of the Second Brigade of Virginia Confederate \ eterans, which position he held until 1901, when he declined reelection. On June 9, 1874, he married Matilda Minor, daughter of the late Edward Minor Morris, Esq., of Hanover county, Virginia.

Croghan, George St. John, son of Col. George Croghan, was a Confederate officer, and was fatally wounded at McCoy's Mills, West Virginia, during the retreat of Gen. Floyd in December, 1861. He invented a pack-saddle for mules, which was first suc- cessfully used in carrying wounded soldiers over the mountains in West Virginia.

Thurman, Allen Granberg, born in Lynch- burg, Virginia, November 13, 1813. His grandfather, a Baptist minister, opposed slavery, and removed with his family to