George Lemuel Woods (30 July 1832-7 January 1890) was the Republican Governor of Oregon from 12 September 1866 to 14 September 1870 (succeeding A.C. Gibbs and preceding La Fayette Grover) and Governor of the Utah Territory from 1871 to 1875 (succeeding Vernon H. Vaughan and preceding Samuel Beach Axtell).
Biography[]
George Lemuel Woods was born in Boone County, Missouri in 1832, and his family relocated to Yamhill County, Oregon in 1847. He worked as a carpenter before becoming a lawyer in 1858, becoming known as a proficient attorney and speaker for the Republican Party. He became a Wasco County judge in 1863 and a presidential elector in 1864, serving as a stump speaker for Abraham Lincoln during his re-election campaign. In 1866, Woods was elected Governor of Oregon, and he made speaking tours for Republican candidates as far as New England during the late 1860s. He failed to win re-election in 1870, but President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Governor of the Utah Territory, and he served there from 1871 to 1875. He went on to live in California for ten years before returning to Oregon, where he died in 1890.