Biography - Joseph Woodside
JOSEPH P. WOODSIDE was born in Calloway County, Ky., July 6, 1821. He is a son of William Woodside, a Virginian farmer, whose father was an Irishman. William Woodside was born in 1775, and was married in Kentucky to Mary Rowlet, of that State, in 1805. Miss Rowlet's father was a wealthy Kentucky planter, owning more than twenty slaves, and William Woodside was his overseer. Mr. Rowlet died in Shelby County, Tenn., and left a valuable estate to his five children, four sons and one daughter. The wife of William Woodside died in 1832, in the prime of life, leaving nine children. She had had eleven, but two of them died before her death. In all, there were nine sons and two daughters, and Joseph P. was the ninth child and seventh son. Of the nine that survived their mother two died in early childhood, and seven reached adult age.
Joseph P., our subject, was reared from the age of six to sixteen years by his mother's sister. He was brought up on the farm, without opportunities to secure any education that are worth mentioning. At the age of sixteen he began life for himself as a flatboatman on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. While this was for him a hard life, yet it brought good pay, as high as $30 per month. He followed this life about six years, and at the age of twenty-three was married to Mrs. Dicy Snider, nee Griffin, a daughter of Cannon and Winaford (Wamac) Griffin, who were natives of North Carolina and Georgia respectively. He came to Illinois in the spring of 1845, reaching here April 3, and remaining about three mouths, when he went back to Memphis, Tenn., and also to his former occupation, that of boating. In the spring of 1848 he returned to Illinois, locating in Johnson County, and was married, as above stated, July 23, 1848. He began life then on a rented farm, remaining on this place one year. He then bought a claimant's improvements and remained on this farm until 1852, after which he sold out and removed to the home where he now lives, taking up one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he deeded in 1865. His first house was a double log cabin, 16x16 feet in size, with a large stick and clay chimney in the middle. This chimney he replaced with a good stone one within a few years, and in 1869 he built his present large one-story frame-house, 18x44 feet, and of five rooms, with two good stone chimneys.
Mr. Woodside has been a servant of the people nearly all the time he has lived among them, serving as a school officer and Justice of the Peace twelve years, and in the latter capacity he has tried many a case, and has tied many hymeneal knots. He has held office under both Democratic and Republican regimes, but in the main he votes the Democratic ticket. He is not, however, radical in his views. Mr. and Mrs. Woodside have buried five children: John, who died March 15, 1870, aged thirteen years; Julia who died December 5, 1873, aged twelve; and Thomas Benton, who died February 2, 1891, aged thirty-six, and left six orphan children, who have been cared for by their grandparents. Besides these they lost an infant son and daughter. The remaining children of Mr. and Mrs. Woodside are two sons and two daughters, viz.: William, a Baptist preacher, who has a wife, two sous and four daughters; Alexander L.; Mary E., now Mrs. Rushing; and Lucy, now Mrs. Yandle.
Extracted 24 Jul 2016 by Norma Hass from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 268-269
