Biographical Sketch of Martin Woodruff

Transcribed by Robert Schieber
Source: Memorial and Biographical Record and Illustrated Compendium of Biography of Citizens of Columbia, Sauk and Adams Counties, Wisconsin, published 1901 by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1901, Pages 463 - 464

Martin R. Woodruff, a native of Avon, Hartford county, Connecticut, born April 8, 1827, is one of the pioneer settlers of Adams county, Wisconsin, and has done much to promote its growth. He is a resident of Quincy township, and has gathered about him an estate, and a competence to tide him through his declining years. He is a progressive agriculturist,and his farm bears evidence of modern methods for the tilling of the soil and the care of his products. He engages extensively in stock raising, and has some fine specimens of sheep and hogs. He has erected a comfortable residence and commodious barns, and every detail of the work is done with the least labor possible and in the most approved method.

Mr. Woodruff was the son of Romanty and Nancy (Robbins) Woodruff. His maternal grandfather, John Robbins, fought in the Revolutionary war. His father was born in Avon, Connecticut, of English extraction, and the mother of our subject was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut. The father died in Avon, Connecticut, in 1839, and the mother's death occurred in the same town in 1880, aged about eighty years, and both were buried in Avon.

Martin Woodruff attended school and assisted his father on the farm until his twenty-second year, when he took a farm of Benjamin Sedgwick, of Goshen, Connecticut, father of General Sedgewick, which he conducted for about three years. In 1854 he decided to try his fortune in the west, and accordingly came to Wisconsin, and engaged in lumbering above Steven's Point and on the Yellow river. He stayed for a short time with his brother, Julius R., of Baraboo, a prominent farmer of Sauk county, and in 1880 came to Quincy township, Adams county, and purchased about five hundred acres, on which he makes his present home. Mr. Woodruff was married, December 25, 1869, to Mrs. Mary Chase, of Quincy, widow of Samuel Chase, and daughter of Winthrop and Roxanna (Sanborn) Hadlock, of Bath, New Hampshire. Mrs. Woodruff was born in Bath, New Hampshire, September 12, 1837, and moved when twelve years of age with her parents from Hartford, Connecticut,to Quincy, Wisconsin. They went by way of the lakes to Milwaukee and thence by ox team, one week being required for the overland trip. The country around Quincy was a wilderness, and there were but three white families in that vicinity. They went to Portage for mail and provisions. Bear and deer were plentiful, and other evidences of wild life were to be found. The Indians were numerous, but quiet, and no difficulties were experienced on their account. Her parents built a log house about two miles from where she now has her home, and there were no schools, but before going to Wisconsin she had learned to read and write, and continued her studies alone and gained a good education. When eighteen years of age, February 6, 1857, she married Samuel Chase, of Quincy. Mr. Chase enlisted in the Civil war and went to New Orleans, where he died after three months' service. To Mr. and Mrs. Chase three children were born, as follows: Alvin, born May 3, 1859, residing at home; George, born Oct. 14, 1861, now at home; and Samuel H., born November 20, 1863, now at work in the woods of Wisconsin. Mrs. Woodruff's father met his death in a sawmill a short time prior to the death of the mother, who died in Delton, Sauk county, in March, 1893. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Marin Sanborn, of Bath, New Hampshire.

Mr. and Mrs. Woodruff are the parents of three children, as follows: Alice M., born August 26, 1868, now Mrs. J. Austin, of Vernon, Waukesha county, Wisconsin; Annie, born July 4, 1871; and Winthrop, born August 20, 1873, a mechanic, employed in the machine shops in Chicago. Mr. Woodruff is a member of Quincy Lodge, No. 72, A. F. & A. M. In political faith he is a free silver man and well versed on the topics of the day. He has been called upon to fill various township offices, and in every possible way has promoted the general welfare of Adams county. He is well known and has a host of friends who hold him in the highest esteem.

Those interested in Woodruff, Niles and Sanborn genealogy may wish to read a relative's comments on this biography.