Biography - Daniel Woodman
DANIEL P. WOODMAN. One of the most useful men in a community is the lumberman and the honest dealer in all building supplies. The original of the name that opens this sketch carries on a business in lumber, cement and builder's hardware in the town of Litchfield, Ill. He has been located in this place since 1861, and has been very successful in his business ventures here.
Mr. Woodman was born in Newbury, Essex County, Mass., September 11, 1834, and was the son of Sewall and Hulda (Perley) Woodman. His father was engaged in farming and was also a stone-builder and contractor, and took contracts for stone-work on dams and on coasts and in interiors. The grandfather was also a workman of the same kind, and it was he who built the Boston milldam. The father, Sewall, remained with his wife in the old home in Massachusetts and died there in 1888, a just man, well known and respected. His wife only survived him three weeks.
Our subject obtained his education at Dummer Academy, a preparatory school, and after he finished his course he came to St. Louis. There he engaged as a clerk in a wholesale house, dealing in dry goods and straw goods, and in this place he remained for four years. He then changed his location, but not his business. He went into the same kind of business in Louisville, Ky., and remained with that establishment for a number of years and only left it in July, 1861, to come to Litchfield. He was pleased with the appearance of the place and remained until 1863, when he went to Alton and opened a lumber yard with R. G. Perley, which continued for sixteen years. Then the Litchfield yard was operated until 1879, when Mr. Perley died, and our subject became sole owner of the yard until he disposed of it in 1889. It is a large plant and the most important one in this part of the county. It was bought by the Litchfield Lumber Company and will be carried on by them. Since the sale Mr. Woodman has been settling up his business, which in a long career has grown irksome. He has been interested in many enterprises in this little city, one of them being the Car Company. He was a stockholder in the Beach, Davis & Co.'s Bank and in the Litchfield Coal Company, and was among the first of those who took stock. He was trusted with supplying the furnishings of many of the large buildings in the town, and sold the most of the material for the large mills.
Mr. Woodman has been one of the useful men of the community. He has acceptably held the position of Alderman of the Third Ward, and has been a member of the Library Board, and was on the School Committee when he was in the Council, as he was known to favor all educational matters. He was not brought up under the shadow of Boston without feeling her influence. His marriage to Miss S. M. Knowlton, of Bunker Hill, Ill., whose grandfather commanded Connecticut troops at Bunker Hill, Mass., was the happiest event in his life, and three children have been born to them, but only one of these is now living, named Mary P.
Extracted 29 Nov 2016 by Norma Hass from 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record of Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, pages 141-142.
