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BENJAMIN NELSON WOODSON
Vol. 3 p. 1137-1138
photo

Probably few of the men of Oklahoma who have been so uniformly
successful in varied lines of activity have found the time to so
generously devote to the welfare of their communities than has
Benjamin Nelson Woodson, who at various times in his career has been
lawyer, jurist, legislator, agriculturist, prominent politician and
able journalist, and who, at this time, is editor and proprietor of
the Walters New Era, at Walters. Mr. Woodson was born at
Houstonville, Lincoln County, Kentucky, February 25, 1850, and is a
son of James P. And Mary (ISON) Woodson. James P. Woodson was born in
Rockingham County, North Carolina, in 1818, and was seventeen years
of age when he went to Casey County, Kentucky. Later he moved to
Lincoln County, in the same state, and in 1854 went to Honey Grove,
Texas, where he passed the rest of his life, dying in 1892. He was a
hardware merchant during the greater part of his life and through
good business ability and steady industry accumulated a satisfying
competence. In early life a Whig, with the organization of the
republican party he gave it his support, and his religious views were
those of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a lifelong
member. He was a Mason. During the Civil was he joined the
Confederate army, but saw no active service. Mr. Woodson married Miss
Mary Ison, who was born in Garrett County, Kentucky, in 1819, and she
died in Honey Grove, Fannin County, Texas, in 1891. Eleven children
were born to them, namely: Martha Ann, Bettie and Jennie, who are all
deceased; Emma, who married James BOONE, a retired contractor and
builder of Fort Worth, Texas; Virginia, widow of the late George
DALEY, a druggist, residing in California; Benjamin Nelson, of this
notice; James, deceased, who at the time of his demise was holding a
position in the state auditor's office, at Austin, Texas; Lorena, who
is the widow of Joseph KENDELL, an educator and at the time of his
death was state superintendent of the State Normal at Denton, Texas,
Mrs. Kendell being now a resident of Dallas, Texas; John T., who is a
merchant of Childress County, Texas; Robert who is a merchant of Era,
Colorado; and William, who died in infancy.

Benjamin Nelson Woodson belongs to a family which originated in
England and came to the Virginia Colony in 1620. He received his
preliminary education in the public school at Honey Grove, Fannin
County, Texas, and was subsequently graduated from Pritchett College,
Glasgow, Missouri, in 1875, receiving the degree of proficiency.
Later he entered the law department of the University of the City of
New York, where he was graduated in 1876, at which time Ulysses S.
Grant, Junior was sworn in, although a graduate of Columbia
University. Returning to Honey Grove, Texas, Mr. Woodson engaged in
the practice of law, and was elected state's attorney for Fannin
County, an office he retained for two terms. On April 22, 1889, he
removed to Oklahoma City and engaged in the practice of his
profession, remaining there for five years with a full measure of
success. He was the representative of Texas on the famous committee
of fourteen that was selected at the mass meeting in Oklahoma City to
survey and lay off the city into lots and blocks, streets and alleys,
and took an active part in all the public affairs of the city until
he left for Kay County. He was chairman of the committee that settled
the contest on the Gault 80 of the city.

In 1893 he went to the Cherokee Strip, where he was appointed county
judge by Governor Renfrow, a capacity in which he acted to the end of
the term and lived there for seven years, and in 1901 came to Kiowa
County, Oklahoma, where he opened an office for the practice of his
profession in Hobart. While there he was honored by election to the
last Territorial Senate, the twelfth session, in which he represented
Kiowa and Washita counties, in 1904. After five years in Kiowa
County, Mr. Woodson removed to a ranch and proved up a homestead in
the south end of Greer County, which afterwards became Jackson
County, this property being situated nine miles from Altus. He was
there elected county judge in 1911 and served as such two years, and
January 1, 1913, came to Walters and purchased the Walters New Era, a
democratic organ which had been founded in 1901 by J. A. Stockton.
The success which has been attained by Mr. Woodson in his
journalistic work would seem to prove, as claimed by many, that
editors, like poets, are born, not made. The qualities which make a
successful journalist are inbred and no amount of study can supply
the lack of a keenness of observation, acute perceptions of the
tastes of the public, and accurate judgment on matters treated in
various newspaper departments. While it has a respectable foreign
list, the New Era circulates principally in Cotton and the
neighboring counties, and is the democratic organ of Cotton County,
as well as the official city paper of Walters. The commodious and
well-equipped offices are located on Broadway, and are fitted with
all appliances and machinery to found in the modern newspaper and
printing office.

A stalwart democrat from the time of attaining his majority, Mr.
Woodson was secretary of the first democratic organization ever
established in Oklahoma, at Oklahoma City. He was likewise chairman
of the county central and territorial central committees there, has
helped to organize the party in five different counties in Oklahoma,
and has been very active in all state and county conventions. He is
both a forcible writer and eloquent speaker, and his voce and pen are
always at the service of his party; as they are also at the command
of movements which promise advancement and progress in the affairs of
his city, county and state. Mr. Woodson has long been a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is at present superintendent
of the Sunday school. His various fraternal connections include
membership in the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. Of
recent years he has disposed of all his farming interest, and now
devotes himself unreservedly to his journalistic duties and his
political activities.

Mr. Woodson was married in May, 1880, at Glasgow, Missouri, to Miss
Nellie COCKRELL, who was born at Glasgow, Missouri, daughter of the
late Maj. H. Clay Cockrell, who was a major of reserves in the Union
army during the Civil war. Mrs. Woodson, a graduate of Pritchette
College and of the Southwestern Conservatory of Music, has been
prominent in club, religious, charitable and social work, and is at
present secretary of the Oklahoma L.T.L. Six children have been born
to Mr. and Mrs. Woodson: Lalla is the wife of John KEITHLEY, a banker
and agriculturist of O'Fallon, Missouri. Marion Marle, a graduate of
the Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Stillwater, Oklahoma, is
now a commercial salesman, with Lexington, Kentucky, as his home. He
was for a number of years at the head of the demonstration department
of agriculture of the State of Oklahoma, and as such in charge of the
exhibits of the state in the Dry Farming Congress in Lethbridge
Exhibition, in Canada, in 1912. Benjamin Nelson, Jr., is manager for
the Emerson-Brantingham Implement Company at Kansas City, Missouri.
James Clay graduated May 28, 1915, from the Agricultural and
Mechanical College of Oklahoma with the degree of Bachelor of
Science. Genelle Attended the Agricultural and Mechanical College,
Stillwater, Oklahoma, and is now a teacher in Walters public schools,
and John Mortimer will graduate from that institution with the class
of 1917.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Earline Barger, December 16, 1999.