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CAPTAIN MICAJAH WE

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Captain Micajah Woods, Ex-President Bar Association, died at his residence in Chare en the fourteenth day of March, 1911. H marle county, Virginia, at Holkham, on the May, 1844. His father, Dr. John Rodes Ways years considered the leading authority uper Virginia, and his mother was Miss Sabina Lewi On both sides of his family he is descended ... ancestry. His first American progenitor, ME, ceived a patent to a large tract of land from C. in the western part of Albemarle county, which w land county. The wife of this Michael was Mat who belonged to the clan of which the Duke of A. head. William Woods, the great-grandt ther Woods, was a member from Albemarle cotLIA DI of Virginia in 1798 and 1799, and his son Mica is of the Albemarle County Court from 181 High Sheriff of the County, ex officio Through his mother he was descended County Lieutenant of Augusta County,

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His early education was obtained at the 4. the Military School of Charlottesville, taught: Strange, and at the Bloomfield Acad. in Broun and Tebbs. In 1861 he entered ginia, and like many of the other young Te soon a member of the Confederate An

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when barely seventeen years of age as staff of General John B. Floyd, in the West Virginia camp n of 1861, and then in 1852 as a private in the Albemarle Läht Horse Company, in the Second Regim. in Virginia Cavalry, and

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CAPTAIN MICAJAH WOODS.

Captain Micajah Woods, Ex-President of the Virginia State Bar Association, died at his residence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on the fourteenth day of March, 1911. He was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, at Holkham, on the seventeenth day of May, 1844. His father, Dr. John Rodes Woods, was for many years considered the leading authority upon stock raising in Virginia, and his mother was Miss Sabina Lewis Stuart Creigh. On both sides of his family he is descended from Scotch-Irish ancestry. His first American progenitor, Michael Woods, received a patent to a large tract of land from George II in 1737, in the western part of Albemarle county, which was then Goochland county. The wife of this Michael was Mary Campbell, who belonged to the clan of which the Duke of Argyle was the head. William Woods, the great-grandfather of Micajah Woods, was a member from Albemarle county of the Legislature of Virginia in 1798 and 1799, and his son Micajah was a member of the Albemarle County Court from 1815 to 1837, and was High Sheriff of the County, ex officio, at the time of his death. Through his mother he was descended from Col. David Stuart, County Lieutenant of Augusta County, from 1755 on for several years.

. His early education was obtained at the Lewisburg Academy, the Military School of Charlottesville, taught by Col. John Bowie Strange, and at the Bloomfield Academy, taught by Messrs. Broun and Tebbs. In 1861 he entered the University of Virginia, and like many of the other young men of the South, was soon a member of the Confederate Army. He first served when barely seventeen years of age as volunteer aide on the staff of General John B. Floyd, in the West Virginia campaign of 1861, and then in 1862 as a private in the Albemarle Light Horse Company, in the Second Regiment Virginia Cavalry, and

afterwards was First Lieutenant in the Virginia State line. In May, 1863, he was elected and commissioned First Lieutenant in Jackson's Battery of Horse Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. Among the battles in which he participated were Carnifax Ferry, Port Republic, Second Cold Harbour, New Market, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Gettysburg.

At the close of the War he returned to the University, where he studied in the Academic Department for one year, and then studied law, being graduated therefrom in 1868 with the degree of Bachelor of Law. He immediately opened an office for the practice of his profession in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in 1870 was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for that County, which position he filled for nearly forty-one years without having had opposition for the nomination since 1873. The office of Commonwealth's Attorney for Albemarle county for over sixty years, up to the time of Captain Woods' death, has been held by only three lawyers, all of them highly distinguished in the profession: Judge William J. Robertson held the office from 1850 up to his election to the Supreme Court Bench in 1858. Colonel R. T. W. Duke was then elected and held the office until he was elected to Congress in 1870. Captain Woods was then elected and held the office up to the day of his death, his successor by appointment being Judge R. T. W. Duke, Jr. the second son of Colonel R. T. W. Duke.

In 1872 Captain Woods was made a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, a position which he held for four years, having been at the time of his appointment the youngest member of that Board ever elected.

In politics he was a Democrat. He was Chairman of the Democratic party of Albemarle county for several years, and as an elector represented the Seventh Congressional District of Virginia, and also was a member of the Presidential Electoral Board in 1888, which cast the vote of Virginia for Cleveland for President. He was permanent Chairman of the Virginia Demo

cratic Convention which met in Staunton in 1896 to elect delegates to the National Convention. In two Democratic Congressional Conventions of the Seventh District he received the almost unanimous vote for Congress of all of the Eastern Counties in the Seventh District, and each time failed of nomination by only a few votes.

In 1881 he was elected Captain of the Monticello Guard at Charlottesville, and commanded that famous old Company at the Yorktown Celebration in October, 1881. In 1893 he was made Brigadier-General of the Second Brigade of Virginia Confederate Veterans, which position he held until 1901, when he declined re-election.

At the meeting of the Virginia State State Bar Association, August 5th, 1908, Captain Woods was unanimously elected President of that Association. His address upon the "Necessity for General Culture in the Training of a Lawyer" will be found in the proceedings of 1909 and, was a paper showing the broad mind and high cultivation of the writer.

Captain Woods as a lawyer was noted at the Albemarle Bar for the great thoroughness and care with which all of his legal. documents were prepared. He was a strong and able advocate, entirely in earnest, but carrying into the legal forum the amiability and courtesy which marked him as a man. Few men had greater popularity amongst the people and few men deserved it more. His home in Charlottesville was noted for its hospitality. In 1874 Captain Woods married Miss Matilda Minor Morris of Hanover county, Virginia, and by that marriage there were five children: E. Morris Woods, Sallie Stuart, who married James Rucker, Mary Watts, who married Dr. Frank Lupton of Birmingham, Ala., and Miss Lettie Page Woods. One daughter, Maude Coleman, was widely noted as one of the most beautiful women in Virginia. She died in 1901.

R. T. W. DUKE, JR.

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