George Alonzo Woodford

From the 1850 federal census, George Woodford lived in Avon, Hartford County, Connecticut, with his father, mother, and siblings. The family at the time consisted of:

• Head Alonzo Woodford 35
• Wife Harriet Woodford 32
• Daughter Henrietta Woodford 10
• Daughter Marilla Woodford 8
• Daughter Frances Woodford 7
• Daughter Adelaide Woodford 4
• Son George Woodford 2
• Daughter ufn Woodford 11 months

From the 1860 federal census, George Woodford lived in Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut, with his father, mother, and siblings. The family at the time consisted of:

• Head Alonzo Woodford 45
• Wife Harriet Woodford 42
• Daughter Marilla Woodford 18
• Daughter Francis Woodford 17
• Daughter Adelade Woodford 15
• Son George Woodford 12
• Daughter Hattie Woodford 11
• Son Howard Woodford 7
• Son John Woodford 5
• Daughter Eliza Woodford 3

The Woodford family is one of whose names has been long identified with the annals of Connecticut, and the lineage is traced back to Stephen Woodford, who came to this country and established his residence in Connecticut in 1657.

From the Sawyer, Alvah Littlefield, "A History of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan and Its People." Volume III. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911.

George Alonzo Woodford was born at West Avon, Hartford county, Connecticut, on the 11th of February, 1847, and is a son of Alonzo and Harriet N. (Thompson) Woodford, both of whom are likewise natives of West Avon, where the former was born in 1812 and the latter in 1815. The Woodford family is one whose name has been long identified with the annals of Connecticut, and the lineage is traced back to Stephen Woodford, who came to this country and established his residence in Connecticut in 1637. Giles Woodford, grandfather of him whose name initiates this article, passed his entire life in Hartford county, Connecticut, where he was a representative farmer and honored and influential citizen. Alonzo Woodford was reared to the sturdy discipline of the New England farm, and throughout his entire active career he never severed his allegiance to the great basic industry of agriculture, with which he continued to be identified, in Hartford county, until the time of his death, which occurred in 1858. His devoted wife, who likewise was a member of one of the old and honored families of New England, was summoned to the life eternal in 1861. They became the parents of two sons and five daughters, and of the number five are now living, namely: Henrietta, who is the wife of Julius Parsons, of Waterbury, Connecticut; Adelaide, who is unmarried and resides in Waterbury, Connecticut; Harriet, who is the wife of Rev. A. Wesley Bill, secretary and treasurer of the Woodford & Bill Piano Company, of Menominee, Michigan, where he was pastor of the First Presbyterian church for sixteen years; and Howard A., who is now a resident of Oregon. The father identified himself with the Republican party at the time of its organization, and died before the election of Lincoln. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
George A. Woodford passed his boyhood and youth on the old homestead farm that was the place of his birth, and he is indebted to the common schools of West Avon, Connecticut, for his early educational training. He was but twelve years of age at the time of the death of his father, and his early experiences in connection with the practical affairs of life were those gained on the farm and in a wood-working shop in his native county. In 1865 at the age of eighteen years, he decided to seek a new field of endeavor in the west. He accordingly joined his uncle, the late Rockwell M. Thompson, at Kilbourn City, Wisconsin, where he became associated with the business operations of his uncle, who was a buyer and shipper of grain. He soon gained a thorough knowledge of this line of enterprise, and his early experiences in connection with farm work made him a good judge of the products handled. He was finally admitted to a partnership in the business, of which he had the entire charge for sometime. Through this medium he gained his initial success as a business man, and he recalls with a feeling of just pride that when nineteen years of age he won the firm the sum of five_ thousand dollars in a period of six months as a buyer and shipper of grain. Later he was employed for a short period in the sash, door and blind factory of the firm of York, Hunger & Company, of Kilbourn City, Wisconsin, and he then, in the winter of 1866, removed to Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, where he learned the jewelry trade, finally purchasing the jewelry store of Jacob Norton, of that place. In the autumn of 1869 he sold the business and on the following Christmas day he established his permanent home in Menominee, where he engaged in the jewelry business, to which he continued to devote his attention until 1894. In this long intervening period of more than a quarter of a century he gained prestige as one of the reliable, enterprising and substantial business men of the city, and thus he was well fortified in popular confidence and esteem when, in the year mentioned, he disposed of his large and prosperous jewelry business to turn his attention to his present line of enterprise, in which his success has been of the most gratifying order. He began operations in the handling of pianos, organs and musical merchandise in an individual way, and the business finally attained such large proportions that he found it expedient to fortify the same in a commercial way by the organization and incorporation of a stock company. This was done on the 1st of January, 1909, when the Woodford & Bill Piano Company was organized, being duly incorporated under the laws of the state, with a capital stock of forty-four thousand dollars. The company occupy a two-story building at 612 Main street, and here are to be found the best lines of standard pianos and organs, minor musical instruments and musical merchandise. The concern is the largest of its kind in this section and its trade extends throughout the territory normally tributary to Menominee and has now reached a large volume. As already indicated Mr. Woodford is president of the company and his brother-in-law, Rev. A. Wesley Bill, is secretary and treasurer; the other member of the executive corps is William H. Ounsworth, who is sales manager. Mr. Woodford himself is a talented musician, and for many years he has been a valued and popular figure in connection with the musical life of Menominee, where he has been director of the leading musical societies and where he organized the Menominee brass band, of which he was leader for sixteen years. This band became under his leadership one of the best organizations of its kind in this section of the state, and its services were much in demand in connection with public observances and social functions in Menominee and in many other cities and towns of northern Michigan and Wisconsin. Mr. Woodford is one of the pioneer business men of Menominee, and he has ever evinced the most loyal interest in all that has tended to advance its civic and business prosperity. He is a stanch adherent of the Republican party but has never found public office to be in the least alluring. The only civic office in which he has consented to serve is that of member of the Menominee Board of Education, with which he was identified for two years. Mr. Woodford and his wife are both members of the First Presbyterian church.
Mr. Woodford has been an appreciative member of the Masonic Fraternity for more than forty years, having been made a Master Mason in the Blue Lodge at Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, in 1868, and he joined Menominee Lodge in 1870, while it was working under dispensation. His original capitular affiliation was with the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in Marquette, Michigan. He is a member of Menominee Lodge, No. 269, Free & Accepted Masons, of which he has served as worshipful master, and he is also a charter member of Menominee Chapter, No. 107, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is past high priest and of which he was principal sojourner for many years. He was one of the organizers of Menominee Commandery, No. 35, Knights Templars, and served as its eminent commander for one year. In the city of Marquette he is affiliated with Ahmed Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and he also was one of the organizers of the Circle of Confidence Masters, and is Master at the present time, having held the office since one year after its organization.
On the 8th of January, 1871, Mr. Woodford was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Freeman, who was born in Waterville, Maine, and who is a daughter of Joseph W. and Bethia (Williams) Freeman, both of whom were likewise born in the old Pine Tree state. Mr. Freeman was a hotel keeper in his native state, whence he removed with his family to Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, about 1866. There he was engaged in the grocery business for a number of years, and he and his wife now maintain their home in Menominee, where he is living retired. Mr. and Mrs. Woodford have three children, namely: Grace, the wife of William J. Frost of Portland, Oregon, and they have two children; Edward, who is engaged with the Girard Lumber Company, at Dunbar, Wisconsin, married Miss Jane Gram and they have one child; and Chester, who resides in Webbwood, Ontario, married Miss Beryl Vaughn.