Benjamin A. Woods who died at his home near Neosho on Wednesday, June 7, was born November 8, 1810 in Robinson county, [sic. Robertson ?] Tenn. His father moved with his family to St. Clair county, Ill. when his son Benj. A. was only four years old, settling in the town of Lebanon when the subject of this biography was raised and married in 1832 to Miss Mary Lenard. He came to Southwest Missouri in 1837 and settled on land two miles north of where Wentworth now stands. His wife died in 1852 after there had been born to them nine children. He was married again in 1854 to Cynthia A. Jamison of this county and of this union there were born eight children. Of these seventeen children only two of the first marriage and three of the second survive the father.

Deceased was a minister of the Gospel and helped to organize the Protestant Methodist church in Southwest Missouri before the Civil War. After the war for a few years he labored with the South Methodist church but for the last twenty-five years of his life he was a Cumberland Presbyterian. He was what was known in the early days as a "circuit rider," that pioneer of civilization and Christianity, and his voice was heard in many a log school house and church in Newton, Jasper and other counties. He and Judge M. H. Ritchey, another pioneer who settled in the county in 1832, were associated together in the cattle business for 13 or 14 years before the war, between 1840 and 1860, and bought and drove cattle to market at Independence and Westport on the Missouri river. He made money and accumulated property at this business and for the greater part of his life was well-to-do and regarded in those days as a "good liver." He lived an honorable and upright life during the nearly four score years and ten allotted to him and the confidence and esteem of all the community.

[Source: The Neosho Times [Neosho, Missouri] Thursday, July 6, 1899]

Mr. ? Woods
wife: ?

Children of ? Woods and ?:

1. Benjamin A. Woods
born: 8 November 1810 - Robinson [sic. Robertson ?] County, Tennessee
died: 7 June 1899 - Neosho, Newton County, Missouri
buried:
1st marriage: 1832 - Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois
1st wife: Mary Lenard
died: 1852

Children of Benjamin A. Woods and Mary Lenard:

1.1.

1.2.

1.3.

1.4.

1.5.

1.6.

1.7.

1.8.

1.9.

2nd marriage: 1854
2nd wife: Cynthia A. Jamison

Children of Benjamin A. Woods and Cynthia A. Jamison:

1.10.

1.11.

1.12.

1.13.

1.14.

1.15.

1.16.

1.17.