Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Samuel Baker Woods, Accession #4648-a, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These papers were given to the Library by Anne E. Woods of Arlington, Virginia, on September 4, 1991.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of ca. 2000 items (4 Hollinger boxes), 1894-1937, chiefly the personal and business correspondence, business ledgers and journals of Samuel Baker Woods (1856-1952) of "Arrowhead," Albemarle County, Virginia. Woods, a lawyer, peach and apple orchardist, farmer, and former council member and mayor of Charlottesville (ca. 1890), was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, to the Reverend Edgar Woods (who served as pastor of the Charlottesville Presbyterian Church from 1866-1877) and Maria Baker. The Reverend Woods established the Pantops Academy (1879-1906) a Presbyterian school for boys to prepare young men for college, where Samuel Woods taught while attending the University of Virginia (1873-1877, 1879-1880). When he received his law degree in 1880, he began a law practive in Charlottesville.

On September 1, 1881, he married Lucretia Gilmore of Marion, Smyth County, Virginia, whose father, James Houston Gilmore, taught international and constitutional law at the University of Virginia. Sam and Lucretia had eight children who survived into adulthood: Dr. Edgar Lyons Woods (attended UVA 1900-1904), Washington, D.C.; Archibald Paull Woods (attended UVA 1914-1915), Petersburg; William Sharpless Derrick Woods (attended UVA 1918-1924), Richmond; Theodore K. Woods (attended UVA 1921-1923), Darien, Connecticut; Addison Gilmore Woods (attended UVA 1908-1909); Lucretia Woods; Maria Woods (1894- ?); and Anne Woods (1899- ?), all of Albemarle County. Woods was extremely interested in the improvement and promotion of agriculture and was one of the founders of the Virginia Horticultural Society and served as its first president .

He was also one of the oldest of the members of the Charlottesville Presbyterian Church at the time of his death where he served as a trustee and a deacon. The three brothers of Samuel Woods, the Reverend Dr. Henry McKee Woods (1857- ?), Dr. Edgar Woods, and Dr. James B. Woods, were all graduates of the University of Virginia and Presbyterian missionaries to China.

The main topics in the correspondence of Samuel Woods include the sale of livestock, agriculture, the sale of insurance (most of this material can be found in the Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company and Woods Family folders), prohibition and the Anti-Saloon League, property matters, the Presbyterian Church, and Virginia and national politics. The collection is arranged alphabetically by the subject of the letter or the name of the correspondent.

The correspondence of the Woods family with each other is filed separately from the rest of the collection. Topics discussed in the Woods family correspondence in other correspondence files are listed below.

Also present in the collection are ledgers, journals, and letterpress copybooks, 1898-1899, 1909-1917, pertaining to Samuel B. Woods' orchard and livestock business.

Index

Woods Family Correspondence Subjects
Birth control (1931 Mar 27)
Chinese missionary letters (1931 Jan 21; 1933 Oct 27; 1934 Jan 21)
Covesville property deed (1930 Nov 24)
education (1935 Feb 25)
evolution, theory of (1930 Jul 9, 21; 1931 Mar 21; 1933 Jul 25)
global conflict predicted (1934 Dec 8)
Gone With the Wind critique (1937 Apr 5)
Japanese attacks on China (1932 Feb 12)
politics and prohibition (1932 Jan 7, 20, Feb 4, Mar 15, Apr 9, 28, Oct 24; 1933 Apr 18, Jun 7, Jul 10, Aug 19, Oct 23, Nov 4; 1934 Mar 19, Apr 5, May 31)
Presbyterian Church controversies (1934 May 9, 10, 31, Jun 28, Aug 1, Sep 25, Nov 3, Dec 20; 1935 Mar 20, Apr 5, Sep 5, 17, Oct 19; 1937 Jul 1, 21, Aug 20, Nov 5)
Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia (1930 Oct 11, Nov 25)

Education
Albemarle County Public Schools Directory (1931)
Baptist, E.L. (1932 Feb 19)

Presbyterian Church
Campbell, William S. (1935 Jul 25, Aug 20)
Chalmers, Dwight M. (1931 Jan 7; 1933 Feb 19; 1934 Mar 27; 1935 Oct 25, Nov 8)
The Christian Observer (1931 Apr 28; 1937 Jul 31, Aug 23, Oct 22)
Clark, R.F. (1931 Nov 28)
Cloud, Rev. (1936 Sep 6)
Crawford, Robert B. (1933 Nov 9)
Dinwiddie, Edgar E. (1933 Oct 22)
Eggleston, J.D. (whole folder)
Federal Council of Churches (1937 Jul 18, 23, 27, & n.d.)
Gilmer, Graham (1935 Apr 20)
Higginbotham, E.C. (1937 Jul 16)
Johnson, Albert Sidney (1930 Oct 10)
Mathews, Mark (1934 Dec 19)
Presbyterian Church (1937 Jun 23, n.d.)
Stewart, Rev. Donald (1933 Nov 7)
Stribling, Rev. Charles (1933 Oct 31, Nov 21, 23, Dec 5; 1937 Jul 17, 20, Oct 21)
Sweets, Dr. David M. (1931 May 22)
Westminster Theological Seminary (1934 Jan 18, Feb 7)
Williams, W. Twyman (1933 Dec 13; 1934 Jan 5, Feb 20)
Woods Family (see section on Woods family for individual entries)
Yarbro, D.N. (1935 Mar 25, Apr 1)

Miscellaneous
Clemons, Harry (1935 Oct 25, Nov 13)
Davis, Westmoreland (1931 Apr 24)
Ethiopia (n.d.)
Hauptmann case (1935 Dec 13, & n.d.)
Income Tax (1931 May 22)
Jones, Chapin (1932 Nov 4)
Long, Huey - editorial comment (n.d.)
National Recovery Administration (n.d.)
Newcomb, J.L. re Pantops property (1937 May 24, Jun 10, 12)
Troubetzboy, Amelie Rives (1933 Nov 9, 11)
University of Virginia Women's College (1932 Jan 21)

Prohibition
Anti-Saloon League and Alcohol (whole folder)
Carter, Dr. Charles (1931 Oct 18; 1932 Mar 3)
Coleman, E.G. (1933 Oct 20; 1934 May 14)
Freeman, D.S. (1931 Oct 30)
Grahame, J. Alexander (1930 Aug 8; 1932 Nov 8)
Graves, Kate Lipop (1932 Feb 16, 23)
Hardy, J.A. (1930 Dec 18)
Hawkins, Mrs. Clarence (1931 Jan 5; 1932 Jan 12)
McConnell, John Preston (1933 Oct 5)
Midyette, D.R. (1930 Dec 18)
Montague, Andrew J. (1932 Mar 7)
Pitt, R.H. (1931 Sep 17, 24, Nov 27; 1933 Jun 20)
Powell, Louis F. (1933 Mar 17)
White, C.W. (1931 Jun 14)
Wood, John W. (1931 Oct 19)

Unions & Strikes
Covington, Virginia (1937 Aug 16)
Dabney, Charles William (1930 Aug 26)
Danville Register (1934 Sep 21)
Gibbs, W.W. (1937 Aug 16)
Payne, John Barton (1931 Jan 22)

Virginia & National Politics
Adams, Berkley D. (1932 Mar 31)
Akerman, Alfred (1932 Feb 18)
Baptist, J.H. (1931 May 16; 1932 Feb 18)
Bertram, H.W. (1933 Feb 1)
Black, Hugo L. (1937 Jul 29; n.d.)
Brown, William Moseley (1933 Aug 15, 17, 18)
Bustard, Maitland H. (1931 Oct 10; 1932 Feb 9)
Byers, Vincent G. (1932 Dec 30; 1933 Jan 11, 31, Feb 28)
Cardona, R.A. (1931 Sep 3)
Chaloner, John Armstrong (1932 Feb 13)
Deal, Joseph T. (1932 Feb 12)
Fishburne, John W. (1932 Feb 29, n.d.)
Green, Raleigh T. (1931 Jul 11)
Hopper, J.L. (1931 Jul 8)
Ozlin, Thomas W. (1932 Jan 11)
Pollard, Gov. John Garland (1930 Dec 1; 1932 Mar 14; 1933 Jun 30)
Price, James H. (1937 Oct 27)
Rixey, R.P. (1931 Jul 23)
Smith, Howard W. (1937 Apr 15)
Socialist Party of Virginia (1931 Dec 18; 1932 Jul 6)
Swanson, Claude (1930 Jul 9; 1931 Jan 20; 1933 Jan 17, Feb 21)
Wingfield, C.H. (1932 Jan 26, Feb 5)lt;lb/> Wood, John W. (1931 Apr 20

Woods Family
Christian Observer obituary draft for Eliza Sampson [1933 ?]
Woods Family Correspondence folders