Cyrus Woods

He was born September 3, 1861, in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, to Matthew Woods and Catheine/Katharine (Bella) Spice/Speece.{{cite web | title=Woods | publisher=The Political Graveyard | url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/woods.html | access-date=February 19, 2012}} He attended Lafayette College.He entered as a junior: {{cite journal|journal=The Lafayette|volume=X|issue=10|date=July 1885|title=Supplement: New Students|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhkUAAAAIAAJ&q=%22cyrus+woods%22&pg=PA145}} He later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a law degree in 1889. Woods practiced law in Philadelphia and then in Pittsburgh, where he became associated with the interests of the Mellon family. On January 18, 1893, Woods married the former Mary Todd Marchand,{{cite book|title=The Twentieth Century Bench and Bar of Pennsylvania|volume=I|location=Chicago|page=135|year=1903|publisher=H.C. Cooper, Jr., Bro.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_4rAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA135}} a great-granddaughter of James Todd, former state Attorney General.

In 1900, Woods made his first bid for political office, successfully contesting the Westmoreland County-based 39th district of the Pennsylvania State Senate. He served in the Senate for two terms, from 1901 to 1907.{{cite book|editor=Sharon Trostle| title = The Pennsylvania Manual| publisher = Pennsylvania Department of General Services | year = 2009| location = Harrisburg, Pennsylvania| url = http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_8486_1294_244739_43/http%3B/pubcontent.state.pa.us/publishedcontent/publish/cop_general_government_operations/dgs/community_content/publications_and_media_services/subcommunities/publications/portlets/pa_manual___home/vol_119___entire_manual.pdf| volume = 119| isbn = 978-0-8182-0334-3}}

Woods received his first diplomatic appointment in 1912, when President William Howard Taft named him the United States' Envoy to Portugal, with the official title of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, as the United States had not yet elevated the post to ambassador status.

In 1915, Governor Martin Brumbaugh appointed him Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Woods would serve six years in the post, before resigning in 1921 to take-up the post of Ambassador to Spain. In 1923, he moved to the post of Ambassador to Japan. During his time in Japan, he organized the American relief effort in response to the devastating 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, before resigning in 1924.

In 1929, Governor John Fisher, with whom Woods had served in the State Senate,{{cite web | last = Cox | first = Harold | title = Pennsylvania Senate - 1901-1902| work = Wilkes University Election Statistics Project| publisher = Wilkes University | year =2004 | url =http://staffweb.wilkes.edu/harold.cox/legis/114S.pdf}} appointed him Pennsylvania Attorney General. Woods served in the post, his final political or diplomatic appointment, for eighteen months.

Woods died December 8, 1938, in Philadelphia, where he had gone for medical treatment. After his death, his widow established a foundation which became the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.{{Cite web | title = History of Westmoreland County Museum | url = http://www.wmuseumaa.org/about/history.cfm | access-date = 2009-11-22 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100518105450/http://www.wmuseumaa.org/about/history.cfm | archive-date = 2010-05-18 | url-status = dead }}

{{reflist}}

• "Cyrus E. Woods Dies", The Washington Post, December 9, 1938, p. 6.
• "Cyrus Woods Dies, Ex-Envoy in Japan", New York Times, December 9, 1938, p. 25.

{{commons category|Cyrus Woods}}

• [https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/woods-cyrus-e Profile] at the U.S. Department of State
• [http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/cl112.htm The Cyrus E. Woods Papers] at Georgetown University

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{{S-bef|before=Charles Warren}}

{{S-ttl|title=United States Ambassador to Japan|years=1923–1924}}

{{S-aft|after=Edgar Bancroft}}

{{S-bef|before=Joseph Willard}}

{{S-ttl|title=United States Ambassador to Spain|years=1921–1923}}

{{S-aft|after=Alexander Moore}}

{{S-bef|before=Edwin Morgan}}

{{S-ttl|title=United States Envoy to Portugal|years=1912–1913}}

{{S-aft|after=Meredith Nicholson}}

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{{s-bef|before=Thomas Baldrige}}

{{s-ttl|title=Attorney General of Pennsylvania|years=1929–1930}}

{{s-aft|after=William Schnader}}

{{succession box | before= Robert McAfee | title= Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania | years=1915–1921 | after= Bernard Myers }}

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{{succession box|title= Member of the Pennsylvania Senate for the 39th District|before=John Brown|after=John Jamison|years=1901–1907}}

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Category:People from Clearfield, Pennsylvania

Category:1861 births

Category:1938 deaths

Category:Pennsylvania Republicans

Category:Secretaries of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Category:Pennsylvania attorneys general

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Portugal

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Spain

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Japan

Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni

Category:20th-century American diplomats

Category:20th-century Pennsylvania politicians