George Catlin Woodruff

Male

December 1, 1805

November 21, 1884

Litchfield, CT

Litchfield, CT

Henrietta Seymour Woodruff (September 28, 1829)

George Catlin Woodruff was the oldest son of Major General Morris and Candace (Catlin) Woodruff, born in 1805. His brother Lewis B. Woodruff also attended the Litchfield Law School and his sister Lucy Morris Woodruff attended the Litchfield Female Academy.

Before graduating from Yale College in 1825, Woodruff attended Morris Academy. After receiving his undergraduate degree, he studied law with James Gould at the Litchfield Law School. In 1827, he was admitted to the bar and traveled to the Ohio Valley in search of a location for a new practice. Discouraged, he returned to Litchfield and opened a law office there instead later the same year.

Woodruff served in various public positions throughout his lifetime, including postmaster of Litchfield from 1832 to 1846. He served ...as Justice of the Peace, a Grand Juror, the town Treasurer, the town clerk, a clerk of the Superior Court, a Colonel in the Litchfield Militia, and the Judge of Probate.

Woodruff also became involved in local and national politics, was a member of the State House of Representatives in 1851, 1866, and 1874. While a state Congressman, he served as the chair of the judiciary committee and was a vital player in the 1875 revision of the statutes.

He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-seventh Congress (1861-1863). As a Congressman, he served on the committee on public lands, using his experience to advise on legislation regarding public lands. He lost his re-election bid in 1863 because of his affiliation with the perceived anti-war Democratic party.

Woodruff was also a local historian. In 1845, he authored a History of Litchfield.

In 1829, he married Henrietta Sophronia (Seymour) Woodruff, a Litchfield Female Academy graduate and the sister of Origen S. Seymour, a Law School classmate who in turn married Woodruff's sister Lucy. Woodruff and his wife had two children: George and Henrietta. George C. Woodruff died in Litchfield, CT in 1885 and was buried in the East Cemetery.


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"That all classes of people should implicitly trust Mr. Woodruff was natural. That confidence was begotten of an honesty, a faithfulness, a zeal that was unswerving. No better proof of this could exist than the fact that at some time he was not only counsel for every town in Litchfield county but many of the towns in adjoining counties." -- Obitiuary sketch of George C. Woodruff

1825

Attended the Morris Academy in the South Farms section of Litchfield, CT and graduated from Yale College in 1825.

Lawyer; Political Office

Litchfield, CT in 1827

Democrat

U.S. Representative (CT) 1861-1863

State Representative (CT) 1851, 1855, 1874

Clerk of the CT General Assembly.

Postmaster (Litchfield, CT) 1832-1846
Justice of the Peace (Litchfield, CT)
Grand Juror (Litchfield, CT)
Treasurer for the Town (Litchfield, CT)
Clerk for the Town (Litchfield, CT)
Clerk of the Superior Court
Judge of Probate

LHS Papers of Agatha Ryan, # 1986-97; “Recd. Sept 22 1827, of Morris Woodruff Esq One Hundred & Thirty Dollars, in full for the tuition of his son George, in my Law School. James Gould”; Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case,

"Obituary Sketch of George C. Woodruff." Printed in the Connecticut Reports, Vol. 54, p. 596 - 598. http://www.cslib.org/memorials/woodruffg.htm