J. D. WOODMANSEE was born in Monmouth County, N. J., Oct. 13, 1816. His father, John Woodmansee, was a native of New Jersey, also, and by occupation a shoemaker and farmer, which vocations he carried on until his death. Subject's paternal grandfather was a native of England, and during the war of the Revolution served as surgeon in the British army. At the close of the war he located in New Jersey, where he married and reared a family. The maternal ancestors of subject, the Marks family, came from Germany shortly after the struggle for Independence, and located in one of the eastern States. Catherine (Marks) Woodmansee, wife of John Woodmansee, and mother of subject, was born in New Jersey, and died in 1880 at an advanced age. J. D. Woodmansee is the eldest of a family of six children. After receiving a common school education in his native town, he learned the shoemaker trade with his father, at which he worked at different places in his native State for a period of eight years, when he came West and located at Rome, Ind., where he did a good business for seventeen years. He next engaged in merchandising at Rome, where he carried on a successful trade for a period of seven years. In 1856 he came to Livingston County, Ky., locating at the mouth of Bayou Creek, on the Ohio River, where he carried on merchandising, selling goods from a large boat, and did a fine business. In 1860 he located at Carrsville, where he engaged in general merchandising, selling from a boat for one year, at the end of which time he moved into the village and erected a large business house, which he has since occupied. He carries on a good business, and has a stock representing a capital of about $4,000. Mr. Woodmansee has been twice married—the first time in October, 1841, to Miss Mary Whitehead, daughter of Isaac Whitehead, of Rome, Ind., by whom he had five children, as follows: Infant (deceased), Otho (deceased), Harriet, Julius and Mary E. Mrs. Woodmansee died in October, 1873, at the age of fifty-two years. In the year 1879 Mr. Woodmansee married Mrs. C. E. Hodge, daughter of Mr. Doneky, of Smithland. Mr. Woodmansee has never aspired to political preferment, but is a firm supporter of the Democratic party. His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Source: J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin, & G. C. Kniffin. Kentucky. A History of the State. Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL: Battey, 1885. Pages 837-838.