Woods, W. B
soldier, lawyer, jurist, state legislator, was born in Newark, Ohio. In 1857 he was elected to the Ohio legislature and made speaker, and was re-elected to the same body in 1859. In 1861 he went into the military service as lieutenant-colonel of the seventy-sixth Ohio infantry; served until the close of the war, and was mustered out with the rank of brigadier-general and brevet major-general. He was mustered out of service in Alabama, where he remained.
In 1868 he was chosen a state chancellor for six years; and after serving as such two years, was appointed circuit judge of the United States for the fifth circuit, residing in Mobile. In 1881 he was appointed a justice of the supreme court of the United States.