William Martin Woody (1858 - 1945)

In the spring 1909 Georgia-born William Woody (photograph) began construction on the 25-room hotel in anticipation of Thunder Mountain traffic through Sweet. The hotel was completed in Ocotber of the same year.

"William Woody, was born on April 7 1848 at Dahlonega, Georgia. He was the son of a Baptist minister named Josiah A. Woody. During the Civil War when he was a small boy he and his family hid from Union soldiers who were led by General William T. Sherman in the famous "Sherman's March to the Sea." The family home was plundered and burned while the family watched from their hiding place. At 15 years of age, William Martin Woody left home and joined the cowboy trail herders who were driving herds of cattle over the famous Chisholm Trail from Texas to Canada.

"In Lincoln County, Kansas he met Catherine Amanda Wittle and they were married on January 22, 1880. Soon after their marriage they traveled west by covered wagon and settled in Star Valley, Nevada. While living in Star Valley, William heard of the fertile fruit country in the Emmett Valley of Idaho so they packed up and moved to the Emmett Valley. There he engaged in raising fruit from 1884 to 1910."**

Jamie Chilcott, daughter of early-day Pinehurst postmistress (Boise County) and Sweet historian, tells of continuous day-and-night travel on this route during the Thunder Mountain Rush. But Thunder Mountain did not live up to expections. Woody sold the hotel in the spring 1913 to a Mr. Kvoko and purchased land in Hagerman Valley.

The old Woody Hotel stands to this day and the ground floor, which survived earlier fires, houses the Sweet Syringa Club.

• • Woody family history courtesy descendants of Pearl Woody Fredericksen. See William Woody photograph for news items.

Photo courtesy of Gem County Historical Society and Museum, 501 E. First Street, Emmett.

Sweet History

Name: Woody, WILLIAM MARTIN Cert or Record #: 146665 Death Date: 3 Dec 1945 Place of Death: GOODING