JOHN DWIGHT WOODRUFF.

John Dwight Woodruff

    John Dwight Woodruff, grower of sheep and cattle and also interested in real estate, mines and oil, making his home at Shoshoni, was born in the state of New York, December 20, 1846, a son of John and Lucinda (Dimick) Woodruff, who removed to Illinois, where they spent their remaining days. They had a family of eight children, of whom four are now living.
    John Dwight Woodruff crossed the plains in 1862. He left Belvidere, Illinois, with a four-horse team early in the spring and arrived at Denver; which was then a small place, on the 4th of July. He remained in Colorado until the spring of 1867 and then went to Fort Laramie. From there he traveled to the South Paer gold fields and in the spring of 1868 he joined the Big Horn expedition and eventually reached Bozeman, Montana, in the fall of that year. He spent several years in prospecting, in trapping and in acting as guide. He then followed the stampede to the Black Hills in the spring of 1875 and he acted as guide for the Sheridan military expedition from Fort Washakie to the Little Big Horn. The next year he guided the Captain Mix military expedition from Fort Washakie to Fort Custer. In the summer of 1878 he located on Owl creek with the first herd of cattle that was taken to the Big Horn basin. He also built the first house in the basin and there continued cattle raising until 1882, when he closed out cattle and in 1883 engaged in the sheep business on an extensive scale.
    In the spring of 1883 Mr. Woodruff was united in marriage to Miss Josephine Doty, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and they became the parents of three sons: Dwight J., who is now engaged in the garage business in Shoshoni; and Fred D. and Leon, both of whom have passed away.
     Mr. Woodruff gives his political endorsement to the republican party and he served as a member of the state senate of Wyoming for Fremont county during the first and third sessions. He has occupied several minor political positions, the duties of which he has intelligently discharged. In Masonry he has attained high rank, having taken all of the intermediate degrees from the lodge up to the Shrine. He has filled most of the chairs in the order and exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit upon which the craft rests. One of the first settlers of what is now Wyoming, there is no phase of its history with which he is not familiar. The history of the early development of Wyoming would be incomplete without his record, for from the earliest founding of the town of Lander and the earlier development of Fremont county he has been a prominent factor in its substantial growth and improvement. When Wyoming was cut off from the advantages and comforts of the east by the long, hot stretches of sand and the high mountains he made his way across the plains, braving all the trials and hardships of pioneer life in order to make a home in this state, rich in its. resources yet unclaimed from the dominion of the red men. Tales of heroism have been the theme of song and story throughout the ages, and the bravery of the man on the battlefields has stirred the souls of men through all times. All honor to such a one, and yet his heroism is no greater or his daring more pronounced than that of the honored pioneers of the west.


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