James Pleasant Woods

  General Notes:

The 1910 Federal Census for Roanoke (Independent City), Jefferson Ward, Virginia, District 103, dated April 26, 1910, page 19A records James P. Woods (40 - VA/VA/VA) with his wife Susan (33 - VA/VA/VA) and twin daughters Elizabeth (2 11/12) and Katherine (2 11/12) living at 1323 Jefferson Street. James in an Attorney in General Practice. James and Susan have been married for 6 years and have had 2 children.

The 1930 Federal Census for Roanoke (Independent City), Jefferson Ward, Virginia, District 23, dated April 11, 1930, page 277B records James P. Woods (62 - VA/VA/VA) with his wife Susie (53 - VA/VA/VA) and twin daughters Annie (22) and Virginia (22) and son James P. Jr. (18) living at 1241 Clarke Avenue. James in a Lawyer and has been married to Susan for 26 years. Also in the household is Susie's sister, Elizabeth Moon (50). [Note: The 1241 block of Clarke Avenue was a area that was torn down when interstatre 81 was built through Roanoke.]


The narrative below was taken from
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000723
Biographical Directory of the United State Congress
James Pleasant Woods, a Representative from Virginia; born near Roanoke, Roanoke County, Va., February 4, 1868; attended the common schools; was graduated from Roanoke College in 1892; studied law at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1892 and 1893; was admitted to the bar in the latter year and commenced practice in Roanoke, Va.; mayor of Roanoke 1898-1900; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth Congresses to fill the vacancies caused by the resignation of Carter Glass; was reelected to the Sixty-seventh Congress and served from February 25, 1919, to March 3, 1923; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1922; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1920; president of the board of trustees of Roanoke College; member of the board of trustees of the Randolph-Macon system of colleges; rector of the board of visitors of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute; resumed the practice of law; died in Roanoke, Va., July 7, 1948; interment in Evergreen Burial Park


The narrative below was taken from http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/d/a/r/Robert-E-Dargitz/GENE12-0013.html
The Robert Earl Dargitz Family Home Page
Updated October 8, 2008
James Pleasant Woods was a graduate of Roanoke College in 1892 and the University of Virgina law School in 1893. He was an attorney in Roanoke until his death. He served as the 6th District Congressman for 5 years and was the Mayor of Roanoke. 1899-1901. In August 1943 he wrote his "Personal Biographical Sketches and Reminiscences."

"I was born February 4, 1868 at "Indian Camp" on Catawba. It was in my time not known as "Indian Camp", but "Valley Echo". From old deeds in Botetourt and Augusta, however, it is referred to as a place called "Indian Camp," and most assuredly it was an Indian camp as many old arrow heads and Indian relics are found there. Besides, my Father, who was born 1817, said when he was young, frequently friendly Indians passing through on their way to Washington, stopped and camped there, and frequently came to the house for food. Within a stone's throw of the home there were four good springs.

Our place and the McConkey farm on the east were deeded to Archibald Woods of Albemarle Co., Va., by the Mcafees about 1700 or 71. It was deeded to the McAfees by Robert Poague and to Poague by James McCoun in Augusta Co. records. I have traced the title to "Indian Camp" through the records of Botetourt and Augusta, but have not found the original crown grant. It is a very old place. James McAfee was the first or second settler in what is now Roanoke Co. (See Mccauley's History of Roanoke Co.) "Indian Camp" may have been embraced in the Ben Borden grant of 500,000 acres.

It is not known who built the first very long log house which stood on the back side of where the garden now is - about 50 yards north of the present house. The log house burned soon after my Mother's marriage in 1856, and my father soon built the present house. While the new house was being built, my mother and father lived in part in the one room school house which stood at the edge of the meadow west of the branch. The old road didn't wind around as it does now, but ran straight across the branch lower down, and between the barn and the stable. The place would be improved in looks if the road were put back on the old location and further from the residence. The road would be straight. An old charred stump of a tree, burned when the house burned, still stood in the garden when I was a boy, fixing the location of the old house.

Archibald Woods had several children, among them John, my grandfather who owned "Indian Camp" and Joseph, a younger brother who owned the McConkey place and built the stone house thereon."

He concluded his reminiscences with thoughts for his children and grandchildren, "You come of sturdy but unpretentious, perhaps an overmodest ancestry. Have confidence in yourselves and maintain the strict integrity and solid virtues of your heritage."

Estelle Howe Winkler, descendant of Archibald Woods, Jr., son of Archibald and Mary, visited James Pleasant Woods at his office in 1945. He still came to his office every day - and she said he resembled her great grandfather, Archibald Clinton Woods. They would have been cousins. She said, "He hugged me and said I was the only one of his Missouri relatives he had ever seen."
Source: Mrs. Charles G. Drake

James Pleasant said his brother, John, had been almost convinced that he did not descend from Arch and Isabella (Goss) Woods, but had not been able to work out who he did descend from. He said John had many records which were lost after John's death. Woods-McAfee Memorial places John and James Pleasant Woods as descendants of Archibald and Isabella (Goss) Woods, but says that there seems to be some question about the authenticity of this assumption. We have proved this assumption to be incorrect. Source: Mrs. Charles G. Drake

James married Susan Catherine Moon in 1904 in Roanoke Co., VA. (Susan Catherine Moon was born in Apr 1872 in Pittyslvania Co., Virginia and died after 1930 in Roanoke City, VA.)