Until he was 19 years of age, Mr. Woodruff continud under the direction of his parents on the homestead farm and acquired a high-school education. He came to Morrison in November 1859, where he became a student of law in the office of Hon. Henry M. teller, Secretary of the Interior under President Arthur. Mr. Teller was then engaged in legal practice at Morrison, and under his preceptorship Mr. Woodruff enjoyed unusual advantages and derived much practical benefit from the association of the office. In May 1861 he was admitted to practice in all the courts of Illinois and on receiving his credentials he established his business in the former office of Mr. Teller, who went to colorado. Mr. Woodruff has since conducted the relations of an extensive and popular practice with success. He has risen through ability, industry and high-minded integrity, to distinction in his profession. He is still engaged in the management of a large and lucrative practice in the County, Appellate and Supreme Courts of IL and in the Federal Courts at Chicago.
Mr. Woodruff has won an honorable and enviable position at the Bar as a criminal lawyer; and has been connected with a number of prominent cases involving the liberty and sometimes the lives of individuals. Standing firmly on the fact that the results of crime are irretrievable in most instances, he is just as inflexible in taking the humanitarian view.
In connection with his legal business he has extensive agricultural interests in Whiteside County, and is the owner of 1,000 acres of land at Alpena, Jeraud Co. D.T. On the latter he is making a specialty of fine stock. His herds there comprise 150 head of short-horn cattle and 20 horses of percheron grades. He owns two farms in Whiteside County, comprising 280 acres, located five miles southwest of Morrison in Fenton Twp. and 240 acres situated 14 miles distant from Morrison in the same direction, in Newton Twp. and they are stocked with about 40 head of thoroughbred Durham cattle and 30 horses.
He has obeyed the obligations of his citizenship at Morrison and responded to the demands of the general public by serving two terms as Mayor, the aggregated period of his official career as the chief executive of the municipality including the years 1879 to 1882.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Dunlap Lodge 327 at Morrison.
Mr. Woodruff has been married twice. He first formed a matrimonial alliance with Victoria O'Hara Nov. 11, 1862 and they became the parents of two children, Maitland J. and Maude, both now deceased. The death of the wife and mother took place at mOrrison in October 1867. She was a native of the Dominion of Canada. Mr. Woodruff was married a second time Feb. 22, 1869 at Morrison to Mary Lathro. She was born in August 1843 in Canada.
Orr F. Woodruff, attorney at law at Morrison, was born June 30, 1840 in the township of Clarendon, Orleans Co NY. Winfield Woodruff, his father, was a native of the state of NY. He married Solemma Terry, who was also born in nY. Of their three children, Mr. Woodruff of this sketch is the oldest. WIlliam M. is an agriculturist and dealer in stock near Kearney NE. John J., resident at Kearney was formerly an attorney and is now interested in sheep industry. In 1875 the parents went to Kearney, where the father died in November 1884. The mother survives.
