Historic Families of Kentucky by Thomas Marshall Green, Cincinnati, 
1889, reprinted Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1959. pp. 43-44. 
[Jessamine county].

WOODSON is a good old Virginian name, one of the family, Colonel John 
Woodson, of Goochland, marrying Dorothea, daughter of Isham Randolph, of 
Dungeness, and sister of President Jefferson's mother; he was the 
ancestor of John J. Crittenden's third wife.  Samuel Hugh Woodson 
represented Jessamine county in the Kentucky Legislature in 1819-25, and 
from 1820 to 1823 was a representative in Congress.  His wife was a 
daughter of Colonel David Meade, an elder brother of Colonel Richard 
Kidder Meade, of the Revolution, and uncle of Bishop Meade, who gives an 
interesting account of that family in his "History of Old Churches and 
Families."  David Meade Woodson was the Whig representative from 
Jessamine county, in 1833, while his brother, Tucker, represented the 
county and the senatorial district a number of years - more frequently, 
indeed, than any other man.  David Meade Woodson and Lucy McDowell were 
married in October, 1831; she died in August, 1836, in Fayette county, 
leaving an only son, John McDowell Woodson, born June 5, 1834.  In the 
latter year, David M. Woodson removed to Carrolton, Greene county, 
Illinois.  There he filled many prominent positions:  state's attorney, 
probate judge, member of the legislature, member of the convention that 
framed a constitution for that state in 1847, and for almost twenty 
years judge of the circuit court.  In 1840, Judge Woodson was the Whig 
opponent of Stephen A. Douglas for Congress, and, after one of the most 
noted and heated contests that had ever taken place in the state, in 
which he successfully held his own with the "Little Giant," was defeated 
by only a few votes.  He died in 1877, in his seventy-first year, full 
of honors and universally esteemed.  His son, John McDowell Woodson, 
graduated at Center College, in the class of 1853, and after success as 
a civil engineer, graduated at the Law School of Harvard, and, in 1857, 
was admitted to the bar.  In the legal profession his success has met 
the full measure of his ambition.  In 1860 he was elected a member of 
the convention that framed a new constitution for Illinois. In 1865 he 
was elected mayor of Carlinville, to which place he had removed.  In 
1866 he was elected to the State Senate, and served in that body with 
ability for four years.  He then removed to St. Louis, where he now 
resides, and where he at once entered upon a lucrative prctice, chiefly 
as attorney for railroads and counsel for other corporations.  Reaping 
abundant reward for his industrious labors, his rapid success enabled 
him to withdraw from the general practice when his failing health 
required rest and ease.  Mr. Woodson has been twice married, and has 
issue.
	The limits prescribed for this sketch compels an omission of many 
other descendants of Major John McDowell, who are as numerous as they 
are eminently respectable.

Woodson Randolph Jefferson Crittenden Meade McDowell Douglas
=
Fayette-KY Carrolton-Greene-IL MO

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jessamine/woodson.txt