Edward F. Woodward
Foremost among the citizens of Santa Rosa who won themselves a place of note by years of honest and zealous labor, mention should be made of the late Edward F. Woodward, whose death, September 11, 1910, was the cause of general mourning in the community in which he had lived for nearly three decades. During this time he was not only associated with business interests in Santa Rosa but he was also prominent in political and administrative affairs in Sonoma county, serving first as city treasurer of Santa Rosa, subsequently as mayor, and still later as treasurer of the county, to all of which he was elected as candidate of the Republican party. Still greater honors were bestowed upon him by his fellow-citizens when they elected him to represent them in the state senate, where for one term he gave his constituents faithful service.
Mr. Woodward was a native of the middle west, his birth having occurred in Dubuque, Iowa, January 1, 1853. During young manhood he cast in his lot with the great west, locating first in San Francisco, and from there coming to Santa Rosa in 1882. Here he became a member of the real-estate firm of Proctor, Reynolds & Co., and upon the death of the senior member, the firm became known as Reynolds & Woodward. Not only was Mr. Woodward endowed with splendid business ability, but he also possessed a personality that made a friend of everybody with whom he was brought in contact, and no one held a higher standing as an upright, honorable business man than did he. During his early residence in Santa Rosa he became interested in political matters in the county, and so faithfully did he serve the interests of his fellow-citizens in the capacity of city treasurer for two terms that they elected him for a similar period to the office of mayor. It was during his incumbency of this latter office that the city established the municipal water plant, which was largely the result of his own personal efforts. It is the history of progress that it wins its way only by gaining supremacy over opposition, and Mr. Woodward found no easy road to the successful accomplishment of his plan for municipal ownership of the city water plant. With the other members of the council he was made defendant in a number of lawsuits over the matter, but in all cases the council were victorious.
After the expiration of his office as mayor Mr. Woodward was elected county treasurer for two terms of four years each. Subsequently he was elected state senator, serving in this capacity for one term, at the end of which time he received the appointment of collector of the port of San Francisco, and it was while serving his second appointment in this capacity that he was called from the scenes of earth, September 11, 1910. Among his personal friends Mr. Woodward claimed such men as Senator George C. Perkins, and Congressman Duncan McKinley, besides many other men who have held high rank in political and business circles. Mr. Woodward was financially interested in the Perkins-McKinley Paint Company, besides which he was president of the Union Trust Savings Bank of Santa Rosa, an institution of which he himself was the organizer, and of which he continued president from the time of its organization until his death. Among his large real-estate holdings was a ranch near Woolsey station, which he made his country residence, and upon which he raised general farm produce, making a specialty, however o raising hops, in which he took great pride.
In his wife, Mr. Woodward had a faithful co-laborer and help-mate. Before her marriage, which occurred February 7, 1891, she was Miss Lizzie L. Frear, the daughter of Rev. Walter Frear, a well-known clergyman of the west, and whose field of labor for years has been in the Hawaiian Islands. The only son born of the marriage of Mr. Woodward and his wife is deceased. Two daughters survive, Mrs. Allan J. Wallis, of Dubuque, Iowa, and Miss Bessie Woodward, the latter of whom makes her home with her mother. Fraternally Mr. Woodward was identified with but one organization, being a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of Santa Rosa.
History of Sonoma
County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
May 13, 2012 Pages 845-846.
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