Bill Woodson with John Lewis Smith – Wells-Smith Family Album, circa 1873

Bill Woodson with John Lewis Smith – Wells-Smith Family Album, circa 1873

Year: 1873

Comparison page documenting the identification of Bill Woodson in the Wells-Smith family album. The lower photograph comes from page 8 of the album and shows John Lewis Smith, my great-grandfather, seated on the right holding his son Lewis Nolan Smith, likely around 1873. The man seated beside him on the left was previously unidentified. A Douglas County Museum portrait identified as Bill Woodson is shown at upper right, with a crop from the Wells-Smith album photograph at upper left for comparison. The resemblance between the two men strongly suggests that the unidentified man in the album photograph is Bill Woodson. This identification is also supported by related archival context. W. J. Woodson appears in an 1875 Modoc War claim transfer from Oakland, Oregon, also included in the Dear Hunt archives. That document was witnessed by J. L. Smith, placing Woodson and John Lewis Smith in the same Oakland business and social network. Other family letters in the archives also mention Mrs. Woodson, suggesting that the Woodson connection may extend beyond this single photograph. This item is part of an ongoing effort to identify people in the Wells-Smith family album and reconnect them to