Micajah Woods

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Captain Micajah Woods, c. 1905

Micajah Woods (May 17, 1844 - March 14, 1911) was well know in politics and as Albemarle County's prosecuting attorney for forty years. Today he is remembered locally as the prosecuting attorney in the 1905 murder trial of Charlottesville ex-mayor Samuel McCue and the father of Maud Coleman Woods, the first "Miss America."[1]

He was one of two vice-presidents of the Belmont Land Company, a firm that developed the Belmont-Carlton neighborhood in the late 19th century. His colleague was Barrett Bolling. [2]. Confederate Soldier (1861–1865), Commonwealth Attorney for Albemarle County (December 1870 until his death on March 14, 1911, 41 years). Woods served as president of the Virginia State Bar Association in 1909.

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Biographical Sketch

Micajah Woods, the son of John Rodes Woods and Sabina Lewis Stewart Creigh, was born on May 17, 1844, at "Holkham," his parents' residence near Ivy Depot, in Albemarle County. The eldest son of a family of ten children, he received his early education at Lewisburg Academy, the military school at Charlottesville, and the Bloomfield Academy. In August 1861, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Confederate Army as aide-de-camp on the staff of General John B. Floyd in West Virginia. He spent the winter of 1861-1862 at the University of Virginia, being under military age. In May 1862, Woods joined the Second Virginia Cavalry (Co. K) and fought under "Stonewall" Jackson at Port Republic, under J. E. B. Stuart in the Northern Virginia raids, and in the battles of Second Manassas, Crampton's Gap, and Sharpsburg. Woods was related to Stuart through his mother.

In October 1862, he was appointed first lieutenant of cavalry in the Virginia State Line, recently organized by General Floyd. He spent the winter of 1862-1863 involved in campaigns in West Virginia and Kentucky. From April 1863, to the close of the war he served as first lieutenant in Jackson's (Virginia) Horse Artillery, participating in the battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, and the battles of New Market, Second Cold Harbor, Lynchburg, Fisher's Hill, and Monocacy.

After the war he returned to the University of Virginia where he studied for three sessions, receiving a Bachelor of Law degree in June, 1868. He began his practice in Charlottesville; and, in 1870 was elected Commonwealth's Attorney, a position he held until his death in 1911. In 1881 Woods was elected and commissioned captain of the Monticello Guard, and commanded the company at the Yorktown Centennial in October of that year. In 1889, the John Bowie Strange Camp, United Confederate Veterans, was organized with Woods as commander. In 1909 he served as president of the Virginia State Bar Association.

On June 9, 1874, Woods married Matilda ("Tillie") Minor Morris, the second daughter of Edward Watts Morris and Matilda E. Coleman of "Clazemont," Hanover County, Virginia. They had five children: Edward Morris, b. March 17, 1875; Sallie Stuart, b. June 5, 1876, m. April 28, 1910 to William James Rucker of St. James, Missouri; Matilda (Maud) Coleman, b. August 23, 1877, d. August 24, 1910; Mary Watts, b. August 9, 1880, m. February 13, 1908 to Frank Lupton of Birmingham, Alabama; and Lettie Page, b. October 23, 1888, m. June 1, 1921 to Martin E. Rehfuss. Edward Morris Woods, the couple's only son, disappeared after 1902 and apparently died sometime before 1911. The Woods' daughters were renowned for their beauty; Maud Coleman Woods was one of the two women chosen to typify the beauty of North and South America on the official emblem of the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo in 1901. https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=uva-sc/viu00001.xml

[3]

References

  1. Web. [1], Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, March 14, 1911
  2. Web. Belmont - A History of a Neighborhood, James H. Buck Jr., Paper for James Kinard's Local History course, May 1980, retrieved July 28, 2014.
  3. Web. Micajah Woods Papers 1847-1926, The collection was given to the library by Mrs. Thomas H. Fox on 24 April 1978., Paper for James Kinard's Local History course, Micajah Woods Papers 1847-1926, 2021, retrieved November 7, 2021.

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