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- From "History of Mercer County, Its Past and Present", 1888 (archive.org)
THE WOODS FAMILY were among the earliest settlers of West Salem Township. William and Mollie (Laird) Woods, natives of Ireland, immigrated to Philadelphia and thence to Westmoreland County, Penn., about 1792. In 1797 William took up the tract of land in West Salem whereon his grandson, Willis O. Woods, now lives, upon which he settled permenently the following year. Four children were born ere the removal of the family to the county, viz: Jane, Alexander, Thomas and Rebecca. William, now a resident of Page County, Iowa, was the first born in their new cabin home, his birth occuring in January, 1800. Mary, John W. and Betsy were born subsequently.
From "The History of the Woods Family, with a genealogy of Alexander Woods" by Roy Cleo Woods, 1936
Frances M. Woods of Washington, D.C., in 1897 sent papers to Mr. and Mrs. James B. Secrist, West Newton, Pa., in which she said that her line was descended from James Woods, son of Sir John Woods. Sir John disinherited this son James because he married Deborah M'Lellan, a daughter of the gatekeeper. In Pennsylvania, as late as 1829, lived a James Woods who was of this line. He was brother of the father of Alexander Woods, 1768-1848. For sake of convenience we will call this father Alexander, 1st generation. Besides Alexander and James of this 1st generation were two sisters. One married and had son, James Leard, also called Laird. The other sister married and had a son, John Donnel....Undoubtedly all of Alexander's (1st) children were born in Tyrone County, Ireland. They were Alexander, James, John, William, Thomas, Robert, Isabella, and a daughter who married a man named Shannon....William 2nd (Alexander 1st) lived in Shenango, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. He was married and had several children, three of whom apparently died at or about the same time. In 1814 William visited his brother Alexander in Ohio. He went to see if that country pleased him better than did Pennsylvania but it did not. William died March 29, 1828, leaving his family "in good circumstances."
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