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John H. Woodhouse City of Troy |
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John H. Woodhouse City of Troy |
Mr. Woodhouse is a descendant of an ancient English family, the name being spelled Wodehouse, Woodis, Woodies, Woodice, Woodeues, Wooddy and Woodhouse, the latter form being prominent in Shropshire as the name of a place adjoining Lee Parva or Leonard's Lee, which was in the possession of Thomas deLegh in 1180. The principal tenants on estate at Woodhouse seem to have taken their family name from this place, as about 1270 Henry de Woodhouse appears as a man of much importance in the county. The name also occurs in York, and Woodhouses and Wentworths were closely connected. A Thomas Woodhouse was persecuted for his religion and executed in 1573, and London records contain the name in 1618 as merchants of standing. The family bore arms, those of the Staffordshire family being:
Arms�Sable, on a chevron or, giittee-de-sang between three cinquefoils ermine, a griffin passant of the field.
John H. Woodhouse is a grandson of John Woodhouse, of Cradley
Heath, South Staffordshire, England, a chain manufacturer, and a man
of prominence in business, town and church. William Woodhouse, son
of John Woodhouse, was born in Cradley Heath, South Staffordshire,
England, in 1846, died in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1908. He was educated
in the town schools, and when young began working in his father's chain factory. In January, 1882, he came to the United States and located in Trenton, New Jersey, becoming there an employee of the New Jersey Iron & Steel Company. The year following (1883) he began the manufacture of chains under the name of William Woodhouse Chain Works, continuing that business very successfully until his death in 1908. He became a man of prominence, was well known in Trenton, and in England was a friend of the great English statesmen, Gladstone and Chamberlain, having entertained them in his own home. He was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church (like his father before him), and was a tower of strength to the Trenton church. For several years after his death the chain manufacturing business which the father founded and developed was conducted by his sons, John H. and Thomas T. Woodhouse. William Woodhouse married Sarah Ann Troman, daughter of Thomas Troman, born in England, and they were the parents of nine children: William; Thomas T.; Alfred; Charles E., deceased; Emma Jane; Elizabeth; Ann Maria; Rebecca, deceased; John H., of further mention.
John H. Woodhouse, son of William and Sarah Ann (Troman) Woodhouse, was born in Cradley Heath, South Staffordshire, England, August 11, 1875, and there the first seven years of his life were passed. In 1882 he was brought to Trenton, New Jersey, by his parents, and there he attended the public schools and the State Normal School. When his years of study ended, he learned the tool maker's trade with the Trenton Iron & Steel Company, and later took courses in mechanical engineering and drawing under Professor Crampton of Trenton. Later he was associated with his father as superintendent of the chain works in Trenton, and after the latter's death, he continued the business with his brother, Thomas T., until 1912, when he moved to Troy, New York, having purchased the J. B. Carr Company, August 10th, of that year. The J. B. Carr Company was a chain manufacturing company, whose business had greatly run down, Mr. Woodhouse taking it over at a time when its fortunes were at a low ebb. The company was established in 1865, and under Mr. Woodhouse's management it has taken honorable rank with similar concerns. Its business, domestic and foreign, is large, and is a splendid monument to the energy, enterprise and executive ability of John H. Woodhouse. In 1896 the company was incorporated as J. B. Carr-Woodhouse Company, Incorporated, and Mr. Woodhouse became president and treasurer in 1912. The firm, J. B. Carr-Woodhouse Company, Incorporated, is a member of the National Association of Manufacturers of the United States. During the war the J. B. Carr-Woodhouse Company, Inc., was working one hundred per cent on war supplies for the navy department and emergency fleet, and Mr. Woodhouse was often called to New York City and Washington, District of
Columbia, in consultation by the various bureaus on specifications as to the practicability, etc., and in nearly all cases the government accepted
the recommendations made by Mr. Woodhouse. He was vice-president
of the Troy Barracks, Incorporated, which the State of New York recently
purchased, and was president of the Arsenal Extension, Incorporated,
which was formed by citizens of Troy and Watervliet, to purchase property adjacent to the Watervliet Arsenal. The arsenal property was purchased and turned over to the government. Mr. Woodhouse is a director of the National State Bank, of Troy; formerly a director of the Walter A. Wood Company, of Hoosick Falls; director of the Pixine Chemical Company, of Troy; member of the United States Chamber of Commerce; and in 1921 was elected president of the Troy Chamber of Commerce. He is a thoroughly modern man of affairs, interested in everything that is of benefit to his city.
In the Masonic order, Mr. Woodhouse is affiliated with Trenton Lodge, No. 5, Free and Accepted Masons, of Trenton, New Jersey, and past master of same; Three Times Three Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Palestine Commandery, No. 4, Knights Templar; and Oriental Temple,Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Troy. His clubs are the Troy, Rotary, Fort Orange of Albany, and Van Schaick Island Golf Club. In church relation he is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Troy.
Mr. Woodhouse married, August 23, 1898, Anna May Pullen, daughter of Frank and Virginia May (Stahl) Pullen, her parents residents of Trenton, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Woodhouse are the parents of two children: John S., born April 29, 1900, educated in Troy schools and Albany Boys' Academy, now a student at Middlebury, Vermont, and pursuing (1923) a course in commerce and banking at New York University summer school; and Sarah, educated in the Bennett School at Middlebrook, New York. Mrs. Woodhouse is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The family home is at No. 58 Pine Woods avenue; the summer residence, Averill Park, New York.
JOHN H. WOODHOUSE�As president of the J. B. Carr-Woodhouse Company, of Troy, New York, Mr. Woodhouse is head of a manufacturing business which has attained its present large proportion through business ability, energy and devotion to its interests. The plant, which was bought in 1912, bears little resemblance to the plant of to-day, and there the manufacture of chains has been reduced to a science. Mr. Woodhouse is of that type of man properly denominated "selfmade," and he has indeed been the architect of his own fortunes. The success which he has attained has been richly deserved, and every man who knows him agrees with that statement. The products of the J. B. Carr-Woodhouse Company are sold in the markets of the world, and when the fact is known that ten years ago the company was about at its last gasp, the marvelous work Mr. Woodhouse has accomplished becomes apparent.
Mantling�Sable and or.
Crest�Upon a wreath of the colours, issuing from clouds, a cubit arm vested argent, and charged with a cinquefoil gules, hand grasping a club, all proper.
Motto�Agincourt.
