Woodson, David Meade

BIOGRAPHIES
1905 PAST and PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY ILLINOIS

Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.


Page 338

HON. DAVID MEADE WOODSON, who as judge of the first judicial circuit of Illinois, left the impress of his individuality upon the legal history of the state and whose superior ability and attainments reflected credit upon the bench and bar of the commonwealth, was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky, May 18, 1806. His father, Samuel H. Woodson, was an eminent lawyer of the Kentucky bar. A native of Albermarle county, Virginia, he was taken to Kentucky by his mother and step-father, Colonel Joseph Crocket, an officer of distinction in the Revolutionary war. He was then but seven years of age and in the Blue Grass state was reared. He studied law with the celebrated George Nicholas and was a contemporary of Henry Clay, William T. Barry, William Logan, Jesse Bledsoe, Robert Wickliffe, John Roman and other distinguished men who figured in the judicial and political history of the state at a time when the brilliance of its bar attracted the attention of the nation. Mr. Woodson was a gentleman of polished address, varied acquirements and great personal popularity. He repeatedly represented Jessamine county in the state legislature and in 1820 was elected from the Ashland district to congress, where he displayed a statesman's grasp of affairs in the manner in which he performed his service as one of the lawmakers of the nation. He was married, January 1, 1804, to Ann R. Meade, a daughter of Colonel David Meade, who had settled at an early day nine miles south of Lexington, in what is now Jessamine county. His mansion (Chaumier De Prairie) was long celebrated as the seat of elegant and bounteous hospitality, while the master was renowned for his graceful and polished manner. He died in 1827, at the age of fifty years.

Judge Woodson, the second son of the Hon. Samuel Woodson, spent his youth in the atmosphere of refinement and intellectual culture, and acquired his education in classical schools near Lexington and in Transylvania University, of that city. At the age of seventeen years he became a student under the preceptorship of Jesse Bledsoe, then a professor in the law department of Transylvania University, thus securing daily association with one of the most acute legal minds of the country. In 1827 his father died and this occasioned Judge Woodson to devote his attention to other pursuits in connection with the settlement of the estate. His natural ability, however, combined with his deep interest in the political issues of the day, led to his selection, when he had but just passed the prescribed age, for the candidacy for the state legislature. This was in 1831 and was at a time when there was a peculiarly interesting crisis in the political history of the county, which up to this time had given Democratic majorities, in which Mr. Woodson was the Whig nominee. His personal popularity and his ability led to his election and amid the shouts of the people he was borne in triumph on the shoulders of his friends through the streets of the town. While a member of the legislature he assisted in electing Henry Clay to the United States senate.

In the fall of 1833 Judge Woodson first visited Illinois and the following year he took up his abode in Carrollton, Greene county, entering upon the practice of law in connection with Charles D. Hodges, the partnership continuing for fourteen years and reaching its conclusion when Judge Woodson was elevated to the bench. In 1835 he had returned to Kentucky and spent another session in Transylvania University as a student under the Hon. George Robertson, chief justice of Kentucky. Having graduated with honor he returned to Illinois and again entered upon law practice in Carrollton.

In the year in which he attained his majority and in which he entered political life Judge Woodson was also married. On the 6th of October, 1831, he wedded Miss Lucy McDowell, a sister of Dr. McDowell, a prominent physician and surgeon of St. Louis and a daughter of Major John McDowell, of Fayette county, Kentucky. Her health failing he returned with her to her old home in Kentucky and there among old friends she passed away in 1836. In November, 1838, Judge Woodson was again married, his second union being with Julia Kennett, a daughter of Dixon H. Kennett, formerly of Kentucky. By his first marriage he had a son, the Hon. John M. Woodson, of St. Louis, Missouri, and by the second marriage a daughter-the wife of the Hon. H. C. Withers, who for a number of years was her father's law partner and who is represented elsewhere in this work.

Judge Woodson continued the practice of law in Carrollton and for some time filled the office of states attorney, to which he was first appointed by Governor Duncan and then elected by the state legislature during the session of 1838-9. He served in that capacity until 1840, when he was elected to represent Greene county in the general assembly, being chosen for the office on the whig ticket in a county usually giving four or five hundred democratic majority. In 1843 he received the nomination of his party for the office of congressman, but was defeated by Stephen A. Douglas. In 1847 the people of Greene county, without distinction of party, elected him to a seat in the convention called to amend the state constitution and, to his credit be it said, he fought all of the detrimental provisions of the amendment. In 1848 he was called to the circuit bench, to which he took the very highest qualification, his course as a judge being in harmony with his record as a man and citizen-distinguished by unimpeachable integrity and a masterful grasp of every situation which was presented. He had a most thorough and accurate understanding of legal principles and precedents and he always considered the questions involved in the equity of the case. His decisions were strictly fair and impartial and his record was one which reflected credit upon the judicial history of the state. By re-election he was continued in the office until 1867, when he retired and resumed the active practice of his profession. In 1868, having in the meantime become an advocate of the Democratic party, he was elected on its ticket to the state legislature, which was his last official service. He died in 1877. The favorable opinion which the world had passed upon him at the outset of his professional career was in no degree set aside or modified throughout all the years of his practice or of his service upon the bench; on the contrary it was strengthened as the length of his professional life increased, and professionally and socially he was honored by all with whom he came in contact, his circle of friends including some of the most distinguished men of Kentucky and of Illinois.

Transcribed by: Bertha Emmett


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