BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

William H. Woodward

SENATOR W. H. WOODWARD was born August 30, 1817, in Todd county, Kentucky, and was educated in the "Old Field Schools" of that State, with an academic course.  He engaaged at maturity in farming, but soon abandoned that for the law.  He studied law in Nashville, Tennessee, and commenced the practice in that city in 1849.

In 1852 he removed to Indianola, Texas, where he engaged in the practice of his profession.  He remained at Indianola until that town was swept away by the cyclone of August 20, 1886, when he removed to Port Lavaca, where he now resides and continues the practice of law.  He has served as county judge and United States commissioner.  He represented the counties of Calhoun, Jackson, Aransas, Refugio, Victoria, DeWitt, Bee, Goliad, Live Oak, San Patricio, Wilson, Karnes and Atacosa, composing the Twenty-fourth Senatorial district, in the Senate of the Twentieth Legislature.  He served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs.  His experience in the field gave him many advantages on that important committee.

When the civil war commenced, he entered the army and was appointed brigadier-general of State troops and assigned to duty with the Twenty-fourth brigade, which operated on the coast of Texas, principally about Matagorda bay.  General Woodward was detailed in 1963 by General Magruder to proceed to Louisiana on an important special mission.

General Woodward is a man of fine personal appearance, about six feet tall, straight as an arrow, and weighing about two hundred pounds, and made a conspicuous officer on the field.  His features are of that large caste that evidences the highest order of intelligence.  His forehead is high, eye bright, mouth large, composing a face of chaste intellectual strength.  His face is a true reflex of the mind and soul of the man.  His mind is comprehensive and cultivated, and he is fully impressed with that broad ympathy for his kind that in such a great degree distinguishes men as representatives of the highest type of American citizenship.  As a speaker and debater, General Woodward is fluent, logical and concise, quick to catch the full scope of debate, ready to sift the truth and establish it by argument.  His manners are genial and his conversational powers so agreeable that his influence as a man and Senator is very great.

It goes without saying that such a man is a Democrat of the old school, with a full knowledge and understanding of all the delicate relations of the different departments of government.  His popularity is evidenced by the fact that only fourteen votes were polled against him in the senatorial race.

General Woodward married Miss Penelope R. Woodward, of Christian county, Kentucky, and has three children living, one daughter and two sons.  

Source: Transcription from the book, Personnel of the Texas State Government, compiled by L. E. Daniell, published in 1887; located on the website, Hathitrust Digital Library (http://www.hathitrust.org), accessed on 8 March 2023.