Page:One of a thousand.djvu/685

 WOODS. WOODS. 671 Warren Lodge, F. & A. M., and in 1889 was appointed on the staff of Governor Ames, as assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of colonel. Mr. Woods was married in Boston, August 20, 1868, to Mary Frances, daugh- ter of Pardon and Mary (Parkinson) Smith. Of this union are two children W alter Hutton and Fred Lester Woods WOODS, Solomon Adams, son of Colonel Nathaniel and Hannah (Adams) Woods, was born in Farmington, Franklin county, Me., October 7, 1827. He is a descendant of Samuel Woods, an original landed proprietor of Groton, Mass., where the family dwelt till Mr. Woods's grand- father became a pioneer at Farmington. On his mother's side he is a descendant in the sixth generation from Captain Sam- uel Adams, magistrate and representative at Chelmsford, in its first half-century, a younger brother of Joseph, the ancestor ol the presidential line. Mr. Woods's early advantages were those of a boy in the country where his father was a leading man in his town, on a good farm, within reach of a district school The education here received was supple- mented at the Farmington Academy, four miles distant, where the young man could just catc h a glimpse of profounder study. All this was over before he was twenty years of age. In the spring of 1S47 he engaged with a local carpenter to learn the use of tools and tlu- art of house-building. In 1851 he came to Massachusetts with the view of purchasing a steam-engine and boiler, together with machinery for the manufac- ture of doors, sashes, and blinds, and era 1 ing a mill in his native town, contemplat- ing forming a co-partnership with his former employer. This trip resulted, however, in an abandonment of the factory enterprise, and his engagement in the same business, as journeyman with Solomon S. Gray in Boston. Within the first year Mr. Woods purchased the plant, went into the business on his own account January 1, 1852, and so continued for thirteen years. In 1854 the firm of Gray i: Woods was formed for the manufacture and sale of a wood-planing machine, originally designed by Mr Gray, but greatly improved and rendered more practical by Mr. Woods's inventions. This co-partnership lasted five ears, during which valuable improvements were patented. In 1S65 Mr. Woods added to his business the manufacture of the Woodworth Planer, with the Woodbury patented improvements, of which he was the sole licensee. To meet the demands of this extensive business, he commenced the erection of manufacturing works at South Boston, and established branch houses at New York and Chicago. In 1873 a corporation was formed with a paid-up capital of three hundred thousand dollars, — the S. A. Woods Machine Co.. of which Mr. Woods became president. which position he still holds. To the successive firms of Gray& Woods, S A. Woods, and the S. A. Woods Machine SOLOMON A. WOODS. Company, have been issued more than fifty patents for devices and improvements in machines for planing wood, and making mouldings. They have received nearly one hundred gold, silver, and bronze medals from the Massachusetts Charitable Me- chanic Association, and numerous other similar institutions. Mr. Woods was the organizer and leader in the successful defense of the manufact- urers of wood-working machinery in the celebrated suit brought in 1875, by the Woodbury Patent Planing Machine Com- pany, vs. the users of planing and mould- ing machines, the expense of the litigation on both sides aggregating nearly one hundred thousand dollars. In 1869, '70, and '71, Mr. Woods was a member of the city council of Boston ; in