Tim Woods

TIM WOODS, president of the Kanona State Bank, has practically seen the wilderness vanish from the Middle West and all the heroic deeds that transpired from the time railroads were first projected across the continent until the reign of civilization was complete. He is of Holland Dutch ancestry, of a family early established in Pennsylvania, and was born in Knox County, Ohio, December 3, 1847. His father, William Woods, was born in Pennsylvania in 1814 and died in Fremont County, Iowa, in 1897.

In early manhood the senior Woods moved to Knox County, Ohio, and followed the trade of shoemaker. In 1855 he went out to the frontier in Webster County, Iowa, pre-empted a claim, but after a year sold it, and in 1856 started for "bleeding" Kansas. His journey was interrupted and he determined to locate in Fremont County, Iowa, where he bought a farm and where he spent the rest of his days. He was a Douglas democrat in politics and his religious faith was that of the Congregational Church, while fraternally he was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. William Woods married Susan Baltzell, born in Pennsylvania in 1817 and died in Fremont County, Iowa, in 1869. Their children were: Joseph, a retired farmer living in Oregon; Tim, the subject of this notice; Eunice Jane, who died at Fullerton, Nebraska, wife of William Donley, a farmer there; Hester Ann, wife of Samuel Keyser, a farmer in Fremont County, Iowa; Edward Douglas, who was a farmer and died in the State of Washington at the age of fifty years.

Tim Woods was seven or eight years old when his parents moved to Iowa and he grew up in frontier surroundings in Fremont County. His life was spent on his father's farm there to the age of twenty-seven. In the meantime he had secured some eventful experience as a freighter on the plains, and he helped to build some of the first railroads westward from the Missouri River. He came to Kansas in 1874, homesteaded 160 acres in Smith County, and he lived on that homestead and promoted his varied interests from that as headquarters until 1901. He then sold his 320-acre farm and moved to Decatur County where he established a lumber business at Kanona. He sold this lumber yard in 1908 and has since been practically retired, although he still owns 480 acres in Decatur County, devoted to wheat and cattle production. In 1902 he built a modern home at Kanona, well situated and surrounded by ample grounds.

Mr. Woods served as a commissioner of Decatur six years and for two years was treasurer of Smith County. He is a democrat, is past noble grand of Cedar Lodge of Odd Fellows at Cedar, Kansas. He has been president of the Kanona State Bank since January, 1918.

Tim Woods married at Nebraska City, Nebraska, March 22, 1874, Miss Eva Manchester, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Woods' father died in her infancy, and her mother, June Tucker, was born in Maine. Mrs. Woods was born June 18, 1851. Their son and only child Lewis, died at the age of twenty-two years in Smith County, Kansas, while a student in the high school at Smith Center.

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