Woods Bros 125

woodsbros125

H

ow

do

you

want

to be a part of the future? By creating a useful invention? By

leaving a philanthropic or family legacy? Perhaps an artistic creation? All the things we can think of to extend the memories of ourselves may have a different context, but individuals and families living 100 years ago also wanted to be a part of the future.

The Woods Family has had a range of interests and abilities that put them in the position to help shape the future. Let’s take a look at a few of the family’s different businesses and concerns.

In 1889, using their collective knowledge of law, land, and livestock, Colonel F.M. Woods and three of his four sons, Mark W., George J., and Frank H. Woods started the firm of Woods Brothers. Beginning with land and real estate development in Lincoln, they broadened their activities to nurture close contact within prominent financial and investment circles.

By the mid- and late-1920s, Woods Brothers had diversified to form Woods Investment Company; Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Company; Standard Timber Company; and Woods Brothers’ Silo and Manufacturing Company. Planning was underway to engage in inland waterway development all around the country that would provide riverbank mitigation and bridge building work.

The list continues. Other Woods Brothers interests included the Lincoln Traction Company that ran the city’s trolleys; major holdings in Illinois’ O’Gara Coal Company; department stores; dry goods manufacturing; securities and insurance; and construction. They went into the ranching business, and they were leading breeders and dealers of purebred draft horses. They manufactured aircraft.

They were into so many interesting and diverse business activities, it is not surprising to find exotic bits of American history like this from historian Jim McKee, writing in the Lincoln Journal Star: “On March 3, 1931 the [Woods Brothers] corporation submitted a bid of $58.6 million to build Hoover Dam but was bested by a six-corporation combination whose bid of $48,890,955 was said to be only $4,200 more than the government calculated as the actual cost of construction.”

Although it was critical to the development of the city of Lincoln, their ambition and success came to help define so much more. Theirs are a series of fascinating stories that reach into the recent past of the United States and its development, as well.

Their stories can remind us that a combination of vision, hard work, tenacity, and a dose of good timing can culminate not only a family legacy, they can come together to help shape the future.

Lucky thirteen

F

rederick Moffatt Woods, the father of the Woods Brothers, was born August 13, 1844. He was told that it was a Friday.

Friday the thirteenth. Counter to the growing superstition of his day that the coincidental phenomenon of day and date was unlucky, he came to consider it good luck. Lucky thirteen.

As a boy in Illinois, Woods was struck and bitten by a rattlesnake that had thirteen rattles. It was reported that the lad recovered from the attack, “without the aid of whiskey.” Throughout his successful career as an international auctioneer, he claimed to have conducted his best business on those rare Fridays the thirteenth.

Of F.M. Woods it was said that he, “possessed a peculiar style of eloquence—earnest, forceful, logical, and convincing always.”

These skills were apparent in his proud crusade to promote the State of Nebraska and its resources, and to spread the word about the importance of good agricultural practices such as soil improvement techniques and livestock breeding enhancements.

became extraordinarily savvy developers and businessmen in real estate. It is perhaps no surprise that in 1871 F.M. Woods sold his family’s farm in Illinois for a net profit increase of roughly 13 times—a pretty tidy sum.

In a way, Woods became inspired by 13, and especially by Friday the thirteenth. Who may guess what nuances or phenomena will motivate and inspire us, and why? Perhaps it is for the best that F.M. Woods never checked to learn that August 13, 1844 was actually a Tuesday.

This work ultimately resulted in Woods being recognized for his vision and tenacity on Friday April 13, 1923 by the University of Nebraska’s Department of Agriculture with an honorary Doctorate.

Of course, his descendants

COL. F.M. WOODS

Lincoln: the young city as a garden During the 1860s and 1870s, if they thought of it at all, most people considered Nebraska part of a great American desert.

city’s emergence from the dust and soil was patient and steady as prairie flowers.

To many, our State was barren space to be traversed, an obstacle beyond which was the shimmering prize of a distant western goal. A common sentiment, both literal and metaphoric: what could possibly grow here?

Settling a city was irresistibly alluring for a certain type of young person who found risk and adventure glamorous. But dreams alone wouldn’t make success, and risk can be tempered by order, mitigated by hard work.

Fortunately, some dreamed beyond that sentiment.

Where others saw only desert, a few envisioned a robust garden. Roots were set and Lincoln rose up. The

A plat, originally made in 1867, roughly delineated the borders of the city from A Street north to U Street, and east from First to 17th Streets.

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA IN 1889 o 17th Streets.

Over J.the coming and George Woods began Over the coming quarter qua city realty development in century, land booms were Lincoln. Platted additions under way. Within these stretched six miles north of borders the young city was the University, south of city a garden beginning to bud; hall to the penitentiary, and outside, the borders’ tenwest of what is now Piodrils crept. neers Park. Lincoln began to In 1889 Mark W. Woods flower.

Like great gardens, fine cities demand dreams and creativity.

The Woods Brothers added to the equation courage, compassion, and common sense. Lincoln thrived and so did they.

A city of essence and the importance of balance

R

eflecting upon Lincoln when it was young,

fulfill their planting needs.

John E. Miller wrote that in 1880 it was a

With their brother, Frank, and their father, “Colonel” F.M. Woods, their every touch seemed to positively mark the city and help it grow. They helped lead the way in business and community development.

proud place – but deficient of a few essentials

of a city. “What it lacked was at times conspicuous, as if a reveler should appear in shorts and a tuxedo.”

Like the city itself, Lincoln’s leaders of the time were young. The State’s Governor was 32. The city’s leading banker (and first millionaire) was 31. The average age in the legislature was 34.

Youth literally ruled, and growth was rapid. To follow Miller’s tuxedo metaphor: the vibrant young city needed to upgrade from shorts to pants, so practical issues needed addressing.

hogs to eat the garbage.”

An example: Formalities of staking out and connecting additions to the city’s perimeter were few, as no water or sewer utilities had to be planned.

They introduced curving streets to the city’s basic grid structure; they hired the nation’s best landscape architects; they even started their own nursery to

As Mark Woods reflected, “Sanitation was becoming a problem.

Not everyone could keep a few

THE WOODS BROTHERS: MARK, GEORGE AND FRANK (CLOCKWISE)

In 1889, Mark and George Woods founded Woods Bros Realty.

When they entered the game with vision for growth, they not only planned for these types of practical matters, they also made certain that such intangibles as beauty and elegance were considerations of their projects.

Part of the reason that Lincoln became so fine is that they thought big, and they knew the

importance of balance in establishing a city of essence.

From tallgrass prairie to silicon prairie, Lincoln continues to recreate itself. The decades of maturation have similarities because scales are balanced - growth and development equalizing tradition and maturity. Leading the way, Woods Bros Realty is an embedded fixture in the transformation of the city.

Weaving the Spider Web Outward The natural development of young cities often clustered in their centers. By 1908, Lincoln’s roughly 43,000 inhabitants mostly travelled by way of mud streets (with nearly 300 miles worth) and 75 miles of streetcar lines. The growing city’s edges were no longer so sharp and the time was right to continue moving outward from the cluster and connecting burgeoning additions.

In 1910 the area south of South Street (between 13th and 27th to Calvert) was still a beautiful tract of cornfield. It was about then the Woods Brothers began executing a 20year plan for its development, and they purchased much of that land, some for as much as $600 per acre.

There was confusion in the growth of Lincoln at the time. Mark Woods reflected that, “… buildings just went up according to the owner’s urge.” It was time for much-needed residential planning, both to create order and to beautify his city.

It was a major challenge to lure citizens past South Street, which mostly created the peak of a natural hill, and also to lure them past the railroad tracks to the east (Rock Island Line, today a hiker/biker trail that meets South Street at about 32nd).

trees. These large areas would lend to the city a distinctive character and an aesthetic appeal that shines brightly still.

Their plans for motivating people included winding streets with structures set back away from them, all landscaped with shrubbery and

Their innovations would guide growth eastand southward, and help add to what Woods called Lincoln’s “… spider web development.”

Exciting Days and Great Anticipations When he was 80 years old Mark Woods sat in his office on the 13th story of the old Sharp Building. In 1950 his office provided a vista of south Lincoln and literally miles of neighborhoods that Woods had helped to create. He recalled a story from his boyhood.

In Woods’ recollection, his father, Col. F.M. Woods, was facing a fidgety crowd at a land auction.

There was not much bidding on the land for sale around 27th and R Streets, and the Colonel

tried to, “bark the sale from $39 to $40 an acre.” Mark Woods remembered his father trying to perk up the bidders by making what the boy imagined to be some wild claims. “This land ... will be worth hundreds of dollars an acre… Lincoln’s [population] will some day be 50,000.”

The crowd, Mark Woods said, “Gaped and twittered ... the population in 1885 was only slightly over 10,000.” In disbelief on the way home, he asked his father if

OLD FOR SALE SIGN

“If people are properly, healthily, and happily housed you will have an inviting and prosperous city.” ~ MARK WOODS he truly thought Lincoln would grow to 50,000, and he heard the earnest reply, “Yes, Mark. I do.”

properly, healthily, and happily housed you will have an inviting and prosperous city.”

By the time Mark Woods was sharing these memories, he and his brothers had already helped to propel the city’s population to over 100,000. “The entire business structure of a city is dependent upon … successful residential development. If people are

It had been a lifetime of hard work and commitment. “The heartaches and fights were many—exciting days and great anticipations. Disappointments, too. But hope for the future is always present in any real estate development.”

Let the Horses Go Where They Will South Street at 25th in Lincoln is a hilltop. In the first part of the twentieth century if you were standing there, you would have had a nice view in all directions. There was surrounding countryside to the south, east, and west. Looking north, a view of the growing city. Mark Woods eventually built a beautiful home at the site. It provided an anchor at the north end of what would become Sheridan Place.

The beautiful and stately two-mile thoroughfare Sheridan Boulevard would become a main artery through the development, and later it would help connect the Woods developments that followed: Woodscrest, Van Dorn Park, Woodsdale, Woodsshire, and the Country Club additions.

Accounts vary about how this lovely street came to be laid out well over one hundred years ago, but it is accepted that a boy laid

out the general path of Sheridan Boulevard.

Mark Woods prepared a buckboard buggy with two horses for his son, Pace, then quite young. The boy would ride along and mark the pathway that would become Sheridan Boulevard.

He was to point them in the right direction, south and east through the countryside, and then simply, “let the horses go where they will.”

The idea was that the horses would follow the natural ridge top as they pulled the buggy along. Staying atop the ridge would help provide best views, breezes, and natural drainage.

There are some fun variations on the story of the way that young Pace Woods marked the path of the road. In one version, he rode on the step at the back of the wagon, and

because it was shortly after Independence Day, he placed individual American flags in the ground every several feet.

In another version, he had the family’s hunting dogs along with him and to mark the path of the future boulevard, he tossed large stones every few yards that the dogs would chase with delight.

In any event, it is clear that the method was successful - young Pace Woods and his horses forged a beautiful path through farm and prairie. The course that was eventually carved resulted in Sheridan Boulevard - still a signature thoroughfare in our city.

Photos Courtesy of Lincoln Planning Dept.

“Why Lincoln is a Most Desirable Place to Make a Home.”

— Omaha Daily Bee 3 Sept. 1914.

“On Sheridan Boulevard in the south part of the city can be seen many beautiful and substantial residences. Among these are the homes of some … who have chosen the sightly [sic] place where they can look out over the city and enjoy the cool breezes during the summer …

“The home of Mark Woods is a beautiful place … and while his house is built on a high eminence, he provided for further observations by erecting on the top of the mansion a beautiful parlor where the surrounding country can be taken in [from] all directions and on warm nights a comfortable place to sleep is provided.”

This article from 100 years ago Photo: Lincoln Planning Dept.

remarks on a burgeoning Sheridan Boulevard stretching from about 25th and South Streets nearly two miles southeast to Calvert and 44th Streets. Laying it out was among the first steps in the Woods Brothers’ ambitious 20-year plan for Lincoln.

When they began development, there were major challenges. Chief among them was that many were reluctant to move past South Street, both because there was a railway there forming a perceived border, and because it forms a hilltop stretching from the west to about 25th Street. There, the hilltop widens and veers to the southeast. Mark Woods wrote that they conceived the plan for Sheridan Boulevard to help move Lincoln’s development south and east, to, “…draw the city over the hill and into our districts.”

As noted in the article, Sheridan Boulevard was, and still is one hundred years later, host to, “… some of the finest residences within a tenminute ride of the state capitol.”

MARK WOODS HOUSE, SHERIDAN BLVD

Getting over the hill By the late F. Pace Woods II My grandfather, Mark Woods, and my father, Pace Woods Sr., as a young boy, used to take a horse and buggy from their home at S. 26th and N Streets and drive out to the area of S.27th and what is now Woodsdale Blvd. to hunt ducks. In the early 1900s that area was a series of ponds west to S. 17th filled with water fowl.

In the 1920s after my grandfather developed the Woodscrest Addition between S. 27th and S. 24th Streets, he had some concern about bringing new home owners over the hill at Van Dorn Street and into the area of the ponds. He needed an attraction that would encourage people to live in the area.

In 1917 the members of the Country Club of Lincoln were thinking about moving the Club from its location near Gooch’s Mill. Mark Woods offered to purchase the old Club building and land, which allowed the members to make the move it its present location on S. 24th Street.

This move opened up the development of Capitol Hill between Sheridan Blvd. and Calvert, Woodsdale Blvd. between S. 27th & 20th, Woodsshire between 20th & 17th, and Indian Village from 20th to 14th St. The Woodsdale ponds remained for many years until the 1930s. During the drought, they all dried up except for the pond at Lake Street and S. 17th. This remaining pond is still used for ice skating, as all of them were earlier.

The White Line By the late F. Pace Woods II Up until the end of World War II, street cars were the life blood of transportation in most cities in the United States. Some cities such as New Orleans and San Francisco still have a few street cars running in the downtown and a few residential areas.

THE WHITE LINE

The White Line then ended where Sheridan intersects Calvert Street.

I am told that The White Line was not allowed to extend into College View as the Mayor purportedly owned the street car line running down Normal Blvd to 48th St and then into College View.

Mark W. Woods founded the White Line for the purpose of serving the many residential areas created for homes by Woods Bros Realty.

The price to ride the streetcar was 10 cents. When it reached the bridge over the Rock Island Railroad tracks, passengers could continue to the end of the line at Calvert St for 1 cent.

The line started as did all street car lines by a loop in the 10th and P Streets area and then ran south down 17th Street to South Street, then east to Sheridan Blvd. Both of these streets were paved with bricks at that time with the tracks in the middle of the street.

During World War II both the White Line and the Randolph St. Line were compelled to continue their operations due to the lack of gasoline and rubber tires used by the military.

After V-J Day all of the streetcar lines were merged into the Lincoln Traction Co. and the rails were torn up.

WOODSSHIRE (IRVING JUNIOR HIGH TOP LEFT) AND COUNTRY CLUB OF LINCOLN (RIGHT)

Great breeding

T

he Woods family was involved in the breeding and sale of European draft horses, including French draft horses called Percherons.

Their importing company predated the beginning of the development firm of Woods Brothers.

The purebred horse business, started with partners in 1880, may be the first use of the now ubiquitous Woods Bros name then established as Watson, Woods Bros., & Kelly. The office was located downtown at the Lincoln Hotel and the barns and exercise areas were located between 33rd and 38th Streets and between Holdrege and Apple Streets.

RMS Titanic departed Southampton without the Kellys and young Woods as passengers.

Early buying trips were conducted

by Mr. Watson

who was highly credentialed and came to be considered one of the greatest judges of horses in the world. The first importation totaled one dozen Percherons and took five grueling weeks to travel west – first across the Atlantic to Montreal, and then by train to Lincoln.

As the business matured, Mr. Watson undertook four annual purchasing expeditions. He filled the bottoms of his suitcases with cash, covered the money with a change of clothing, and sailed for

Europe to buy.

The process was streamlined and business grew. Ships would sail back to New York with as many as eighty of the massive horses, each weighing between three quarters and one ton. Express trains would convey the animals to Nebraska. The entire travel time from Europe to Lincoln for the horses, hostlers, and other staff was just eleven days.

The operation became incredibly sophisticated and featured sumptuous advertising materials, specially modified railway spurs and switches, and facilities for showing horses in inclement weather and even at night. Watson, Woods Bros., and Kelly Company became the largest draft horse operation in the Midwest and second largest in the United States. Visiting the establishment on a typical day was said to be like attending a fancy large horse show.

After several years, the Kellys took over purchasing and made frequent trips to the British Isles and Europe to buy purebred

draft horses. In 1912 they met up in France with 17-year-old Pace Woods Sr., who was spending a year overseas. The First World War loomed. Woods was at risk of conscription in the French Army, and although he wanted to stay, it was clear to family and business partners that he needed to return to the United States.

The Kellys had booked passage on a magnificent luxury liner leaving from England, but young Woods was eager to introduce the Kellys to a special customer in France.

Pace Woods promised to cut his time in France short and to return with the Kellys if they would cancel their plans, rebook passage on a different ship, and extend their visit just long enough to meet this important customer.

This they did, and RMS Titanic departed Southampton without the Kellys and young Woods as passengers.

Selecting the right horses can be profitable. Selecting the right ship can save your life.

Famous Ranch In 1917 the Woods Bros were already in the farm business. They had a 5,600-acre farm near Tekamah, for example. But in that year the Woods Bros delivered a keen feat of diversification when they purchased the Watson Ranch near Kearney, Nebraska.

Better known as the 1733 Ranch, (it was thought to be situated 1733 miles equidistant to San Francisco and Boston,) Woods Bros paid about half a million dollars for the ranch. The 4,200-acre showplace was a spot of local pride and one of the great “country places” in the whole state.

According to a Lincoln State Journal article from June 1917, “Everything connected with the ranch is pitched on a huge scale.” When Woods Bros took over ownership of the ranch it featured: • More than one thousand acres under irrigation.

• Hundreds of head of cattle and pigs.

• 100 head of horses and mules to work the land and livestock.

• 42 men who live on the property employed as ranch hands.

• Between 7,000 and 8,000 pedigreed poultry with 48 incubators.

• Hundreds of fowls of other kinds, both tame and wild.

• A kennel of Airedale dogs.

• 3,000 cherry and apple trees, and a 15-acre cedar grove (for decoration, windbreak, and lumber.)

1733 RANCH

Photo: Stuhr Museum

The property’s manor house had 40 rooms and there were 15 tenant houses located about the ranch. Dairy herds were fed from what was said to be the world’s largest silo, and the farm animals were housed in a four-story barn that spanned 320 x 80 feet (over 102,000 sq. ft.).

Scattered on the ranch were three lakes stocked with bass.

As one might expect, the ranch was much coveted and very well respected because of its grand scope, its “precision as a large business enterprise,” and its “tremendous attractiveness.”

It was considered possible that the Union Pacific might even want to take over the place because it was perfect as “advertisement [of] Nebraska territory by the use of money and intelligence in operating on a large scale.”

In true Woods Bros fashion, their famous ranch, as with their other endeavors, was bold, monumental, and full of grand vision.

THE SECOND VERSION OF THE ARROW SPORT, WITH PACE SR., GEN. JOHN PERSHING AND TEST PILOT JIMMY HEARST.

Flight The Take Off

beguiled. The aviation industry was still young, and thoughts of flight set imaginations into motion.

The Woods family set trends and realized success in a number of areas. This was often due to an ability to look ahead to the future.

In 1925 Pace Woods and his father Mark first saw the Arrow airplane. They were instantly

According to Pace Woods, his father, “…envisioned airplanes as the wave of the future.”

In 1926 the family acquired an airplane manufacturing facility in Havelock and became part of that future.

Another foresighted aviation enthusiast, Charles Lindbergh, learned to fly, wing-walk, and parachute from airplanes in Lincoln, Nebraska. The former airfield where he trained sat next to one of jewels of the Woods’ development - the current Country Club of Lincoln. The airfield is memorialized at 20th and High Streets with a bronze plaque set in stone that sits next to the stately east gates of another of the Woods Bros development gems, the Woodsshire neighborhood. In 1927 “Lindy” made a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris, and became

THE ARROW SPORT CAN NOW BE FOUND IN THE LINCOLN AIRPORT.

the most celebrated person the world had ever known.

By 1929, the Woods’ Arrow Aircraft and Motor Corp. was the world’s leading producer of the Arrow Sport bi-wing. The 1920s really roared and the wildly successful facility employed between 500 and 700 people. Crews built four aircraft per day and at its peak, the company had orders for a total of over 250 airplanes, which cost $2,500 apiece.

Pace Woods was prodigious and had an unquenchable, entrepreneurial spirit. He got his real estate license at age 17, about a dozen years before embarking upon the Woods family’s future in aviation. Engaging in such diverse interests and opportunities made for a life rich in fact and in anecdote. More broadly applied, such varied pursuits not only keep life interesting, they keep others interested as well.

The Bear and the Windy City In 1926 the Woods family entered the aviation business. By 1929, the Woods’ Arrow Aircraft and Motor Corp. was a world’s leading aircraft producer. Pace Woods must have been about 30 when he was doing the initial marketing of his family’s airplanes, and Chicago would have been ripe with clients for plucking.

Marketing planes built in Lincoln and meant to sell to the whole country, Woods decided that a bear would accompany him on his maiden flight to the Windy City.

Why? Maybe because the bear is a symbol of the city of Chicago, or perhaps simply because the sight of a small bear can be delightful. At any rate, the plan provided that the pilot, the young Woods, and the young bear would fly and descend together, alighting in the landing field among hundreds of Chicagoans gathered to see the machine and the animal.

The bear tactic combined the kind of fun and audacity that marked the family’s touch on all its endeavors. But this was a some-

what more complicated plan than most—arranging for a crowd in Chicago to meet the arrival of your company’s new product (A Glistening Arrow Sport Airplane!), printing fliers, obtaining a bear, etc.

Not everything in such a complex plan can be considered, and in the wide world of unintended consequences, calculating for the effects of altitude pressure on the ears of a young bear did not get on the marketing plan. As the anecdote goes, they got the bear loaded in the plane and everything was fine for takeoff and during the flight. When they began to descend, the bear became restless and then agitated, breaking its restraints. When the airplane landed and came to a stop, the bear was able to let itself out of its seat and climb down off the wing.

It promptly relieved itself in front of the crowd.

Some bears are more delightful than others, and some marketing plans are better than others.

The Crash In the summer of 1929, the aviation industry was literally flying high. In October the stock market crashed, and suddenly the already short list of people who could afford an airplane became very short indeed. The aviation market evaporated. It would take patience, imagination, and boldness to face the tests of the nation’s devastating financial collapse.

Pace Woods was determined to keep key employees from his aircraft manufacturing business on the payroll. He started a welding school for them and continued to manufacture one Arrow Sport bi-wing per month.

They conceived of and began to develop an innovative new airplane that could be run from an automobile engine and would be a single-wing craft.

During the lean years between the crash and the Second World

War, there were struggles. The new single-wing plane was deemed an industry “breakthrough” and according to Pace Woods, the factory, “…delivered 100 and they were a great success; however, in 1938 … we couldn’t get refinanced.” The plant was closed.

Later, the Woods’ Arrow Aircraft and Motor Corp. facility became a home for Goodyear in Havelock. When he reflected on the times, Woods expressed both great joy at being a part of an exciting, burgeoning industry and some wistfulness for what might have been if the bottom hadn’t fallen out of the world.

He did what he could to protect his business and his employees, and if the scales of fate had tipped a bit differently, Lincoln may have become a major private and commercial aircraftmanufacturing hub. As with so many endeavors, the Woods family would have been right in the thick of it.

Ghost Stories With such a long and storied family history, it is no surprise that a few of the Woods family’s haunts are rumored to actually be haunted. For instance, Nebraska Row is a “street” of vacation homes on Madeline Island, Wisconsin, that are owned and enjoyed by Nebraska residents.

The island has been the Woods family’s summer getaway since the early 1900s. Ghost gossip has long been part of the Woods family lore during summers up in Wisconsin.

The stories run from puzzling and eerie, to warm and welcoming.

Family member ‘LB’ describes the mystical feeling of the island and of the Woods family cottages as, “safe, loving, and mostly magical.” ‘LB’ continued to say that she took from the spectral presences, “… a welcome feeling.“ She described a time from earlier in her life when she was alone in one of the Woods family cottages. In the spacious and

beautifully decorated room there was a pleasant warmth. The room filled with dancing flashes of light, like sunlight diffused through water playing on every surface of the walls, floor, and ceiling. This visitation from family ghosts gave her a longstanding feeling of family community, like the opposite of loneliness. “It makes me want to be there.”

The original Woods family patriarch, Colonel F.M. Woods, built a cottage that still stands called the Dew Drop Inn. It has a haunter that some believe to be the ghost of the Colonel’s wife, Eliza. Others think that from time to time Eliza has even crept over to the cottage next door that was built for Helen Woods Haecker.

Of the Colonel himself, his spirit has been seen a number of times in the cottage that was originally owned by his son George. The family claims that the Colonel’s

ghost has been seen only once by a blood relative. The incident involved a young woman of the family who was too young to have known the Colonel but knew him from photographs and family stories. She awoke in the night to see him standing at the foot of her bed. She added with a shiver, “He did not look happy.” The Colonel is apparently a stern apparition, and the main targets of his hauntings have been prospective husbands and husbands newly wed into the Woods clan. They have often been paid visits from the Colonel’s spirit as if in ominous warning.

Of all the Woods Brothers, perhaps George has the most claims to the Madeline Island title “resident poltergeist”. He loves to play tricks. According to ‘GH’, a family member and longtime Madeline Island summer habitué, “Uncle George” (the ghost of

George Woods) “favored paying his visits to the younger ladies of the family.” Maybe they are more fun to trick.

Uncle George was married to Aunt Rachel. Of Rachel’s spirit, multiple family members have said, “You know if Rachel is in the room because you can smell her perfume.” Rachel had a signature fragrance of lavender perfume.

Even now, the hallways in their former cottage will take on the surprising, distinct, and pleasant bouquet of lavender, and the current residents of the cottage feel her friendly presence.

‘GH’ went on about his Uncle George, “While he was living, Uncle George was a kindly soul.

As a very little boy, I once found myself alone and a bit lost downtown in Lincoln. This was the early-1940s. Uncle George found me. Without hesitation, he pointed me in the right direction, and

VISITORS TO A WOODS CABIN AT MADELINE ISLAND IN 1994 gave me a quarter—lots of money then—to catch the streetcar back home.” He concluded wistfully of the ghost of his kind uncle, “I myself can confess no visit (from the spirit), but I liked him so well and would be glad to say hello and see how things are going.”

Clark Pace Woods, the wife of

Mark Woods, was a rather eccentric woman who is the subject of lots of wonderful stories. Her nickname was Gigi, and, Great Grandmother Gigi is referred to as, “one ghost you don’t want to mess with.”

At a recent summertime cocktail party held at Uncle George’s

former island cottage, one family member, ‘SW’ was telling an eccentric Gigi story to a group of guests. Included in the group was ‘SW’s cousin, who was filming the story with his phone. As the story was unfolding, a framed photo of Gigi and Mark’s island cottage fell off the wall. Everyone gasped. All supposed that Gigi was mad or offended by the story. In the film, one can see a tiny glow of light that goes from the photo on the floor into the dining room where the lights began to go on and off.

Then the lights began flickering in the downstairs bedroom as well.

Startling the guests – well, that is one way to shake up a cocktail party!

Back to George’s ghost and the spookier side. Perhaps, as ‘GH’ said, “younger ladies” were more fun to trick, but George’s ghost has, at least on one occasion, provided a trick so chilling, that it has

kept a family member away from the beloved island.

‘LB’ related the story of her husband. One day he was in a basement room where boat rigging and sails were kept. He decided to rest for a bit and dozed, but was sleeping lightly. On that day there were workmen in the house.

He was awakened and assumed that one of the workmen had needed something – had joined him in the sail room. But what ‘LB’s husband saw, no workman or live soul could do: Recognized from hundreds of photographs, it was the ghost of Uncle George.

He was in a hat and a fisherman’s vest and he was hovering -missing the lower half his body. Staring over his shoulder, Uncle George floated away from the awakened man, not through an open doorway, but through a solid wooden door.

History of Pioneers Park and the Lone Buffalo By the late F. Pace Woods II A few years after the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana, Mark Woods decided to take the train to Native American Territory and buy cattle. While there was still a feeling of hostility between some of the white settlers and the Native American tribes, trading and buying of cattle still occurred, and Mark Woods was interested in buying cattle.

Before the chiefs of the tribes would parlay, Mark had to

wrestle the strongest brave of the tribe for the honor of sitting down to negotiate. The Native Americans did not know that Mark was captain of the wrestling team at the University of Nebraska, so his skills opened up many opportunities to buy cattle.

The cattle were then shipped by rail back to Lincoln where Burlington Northern Railroad had fattening pens in what is now Lincoln’s Pioneers Park.

Photo courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society

Several years later Mr. Harris, President of Burlington, after having closed these pens, was hosting Mark Woods and Pace Woods Sr. in his New York City apartment. Mr. Harris was anxious to make a gift of some kind to the City of Lincoln. Mark suggested that he donate a park to the citizens in the land owned by Burlington west of the City.

The Harris family was so pleased with the idea that they also decided to donate several items of animal sculptures for the park.

Mark agreed to donate evergreen trees and lilac bushes from his nursery then located south of Sheridan Blvd. and east of South 33rd. They were to line the south side of Van Dorn leading to the Park and south on Coddington to the Park entrance leading to the buffalo.

THE BUFFALO STATUARY AT PIONEERS PARK IN LINCOLN

The buffalo with its green patina was to be the first piece of sculpture to arrive and later several other animals indigenous to Nebraska were to follow. The entrance to Pioneers Park was landscaped by Ernst Herminghaus and over the years has become a favorite of Lincoln’s citizens.

A few years after the buffalo was in place and the other sculpture had not arrived, City Hall decided that the buffalo would look better if painted with gilt. That decision so disturbed Mr. Harris that when he saw the result, he cancelled all the other animals which were to follow. While that decision by the City Hall was quickly reversed, the remaining sculpture has never arrived.

Pioneers Park has continued to be a place of beauty and growing activity and would not have occurred without the generosity of the Harris family and the Burlington Railroad.

Traditions of Excellence Some special kind of anticipation begins to sweep across the state each year when the old pigskin is set to appear in Memorial Stadium. For many Husker fans football seasons bring a wonderful mix of eagerness and hope that spans from the still hot days of August to the crisp days of the holiday season.

Just like Woods Bros Realty, Nebraska football began building its rich traditions nearly 125 years ago, and many of those traditions remain. For instance, releasing balloons to celebrate each of the Huskers’ first touchdowns is a tradition begun in the 1940s.

number of Academic All-Americans in football, (and all NCAA sports).

Success naturally follows solid leadership.

Nebraska’s teams have had a great variety of leaders on the field executing plays, and on the sidelines calling them. Bob Devaney, beloved by the fans, was a decisive and creative coach on the sidelines and a colorful character off the field.

Some newer traditions have evolved. For example, the Tunnel Walk, which is already about 20 years old, gets periodic tweaks. It has served to fire up the team and the crowd with straight game-faces, theatrical smoke, and even a house cat.

Nebraska’s football traditions are richer for the efforts of Tom Osborne. His rock steady demeanor and his dignified approach will always be associated with Husker football, and of course his legacy reaches well beyond sport to make him a distinguished Nebraskan. Among Osborne’s achievements is his incredible record of victories, (255 wins out of 307 games coached). He made Nebraska a consistent winner.

Perhaps the proudest Husker tradition of excellence: Nebraska leads the nation in the

In 1976, the bicentennial year, Nebraska was a preseason favorite to contend for the Na-

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND F. PACE WOODS II WITH THE LITTLE RED FIRE TRUCK IN 1976. tional championship. Tom Osborne was not yet 40 years old and was already in his third season as head coach. Many people felt that the finest game of the bowl season was that year’s Astro Bluebonnett Bowl in Houston where Osborne’s Nebraska team met Texas Tech on New Year’s Eve. Sometimes you have to shake it up, and Osborne pulled out all the stops to allow the Cornhuskers’ quarterback Vince Ferragamo to lead the team to a big win.

In that same 1976 season, the Woods family made a donation that added the delightful Little Red Fire Truck to the traditions of the state’s great game.

Kinship The late 1970s and early 1980s was a boom time in Lincoln. Everyone working for Woods Bros Realty during the time of great growth felt a part of a family. Pace Woods Jr. really promoted that.

Any occasions for parties or celebrations, birthdays or holidays or even major sales, were seized upon with cakes and cookies. Interaction and relationships worked as strengthening bonds that would transcend business and amity. This kinship empowered agents to embrace change and growth.

Made up of two offices in 1975, (one at the Cornhusker with eight employees, and the second with

about 20 employees at the Country Club,) the business family would come together on Tuesday mornings for weekly sales meetings.

Following the meetings, agents would carpool around town together touring new listings. After tours, they would gather together for lunch and more camaraderie.

There were discussions of strategy and opportunities to air different challenges that they may face.

Soon, agent numbers grew too large to carpool. Pace hired a bus so that everyone could tour together.

Not long after that, a second bus became necessary to accommodate the

PACE WOODS, JR. (SECOND FROM BACK LEFT) AND AGENTS ON TOUR o 17th Streets. Over the coming of pizza or sandwiches or growing family of agents. qua other snacks. This tradition When two busses were not continues today. The busses enough, a new idea was hit were let go and there was a upon – individual agents return to carpooling. would host open houses for colleagues at their Pace Woods’s determinanew listings, luring their tion to foster a family spirit coworkers with promises

led to great success.

He was busy galvanizing people and relationships so that it surfaced not only with results and prosperity, but also showed the power of belonging and affinity.

A White Halloween

L

ate October 1997 brought massive ice- and snowstorms to Lincoln. The trees were still clinging to nearly all their leaves. Branches

and limbs were taxed by the great weight of building snow and ice. The sound of trees, bent until snapping, alternating with failing electrical transformers in making the sounds tare recalled as being as startling as gunfire. Images taken of the city for several days following the storms recall a warzone. Conditions were so unsafe for traveling that Mayor Mike Johanns “cancelled” Halloween.

Bob Moline, President and COO of HomeServices of America, was Woods Bros’ comptroller at the time and still new to the career. He recalled that Halloween was a time for some serious fun around the Woods Bros offices. “We had open houses, and the agents decorated.

Everyone was in a costume. People worked on decorative themes, and we even had judges come in, so Halloween was lots of fun and intensely competitive.”

Moline remembered that the conditions outside were, “Horrific.” He continued, “Everyone figured the Halloween open house was off.” In spite of the mayor’s call for foregoing tricks and treats, Moline said, “I got an afternoon call from one of my bosses – I think it was Gib Eley – and he said, ‘Bob, call the radio station and let them know that we’re not cancelling. We’ll have that open house and give people a place to come and trick or treat.’ So, I followed Gib’s order.”

A little later that day the young Moline, new to real estate, looked up to see standing in his office doorway a very unhappy and stern Pace Woods Jr. “Mr. Woods had a red face, and I never saw him so angry,” Moline said. “He looked at me and asked evenly, ‘What are you trying to do, override the mayor?’ I was stunned, and I knew I had to fix it.”

Moline called the radio station to call off the event, and Gene Brake, managing broker of the Pioneers office at the time called the TV station, though he did end up keeping his office open that night. Agents agreed to leave decorations up and return to the office in their costumes a few days later for a postponed open house. “It was after Halloween by a few days, but everyone had a great time,” Moline said.

Gene Brake, now CEO of HomeServices of Nebraska, remembers the mayor later answering that his biggest mistake as a mayor was cancelling Halloween.

“Bob and I were vindicated,” Brake said.

“What are you trying to do, override the mayor?” ~ Pace Woods, Jr.

F. Pace Woods II F. Pace Woods II served Woods Bros Realty and the lincoln real estate and development markets for 50 years , having retired from his position as chariman in 2004.

Woods followed his father, F. Pace Woods Sr., in the family business, which was founded

by Pace’s great-grandfather, Col. Frederick M. Woods, and grandfather, Mark W. Woods, in 1889.

Born in 1924 in Lincoln to Frederick Pace and Olive (Black), Woods was educated in the Lincoln Public Schools through junior high and then attended The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey where he graduated cum laude in 1943.

He later earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., in 1950, graduating with Dean’s honors. At Yale he majored in creative writing and drama and minored in economics.

During World War II he served in both the U.S. Army Air Corps and the 75th Infantry Division, earning the rank of sergeant.

In 1950 he started his career in the television industry in Hollywood.

At ABC he was the Audience Promotion Director and later transferred to NBC where he became the Advertising and Promotion Director for KNBH, NBC’s Los Angeles affiliate.

At NBC he transferred to the live television part of the network operation and ultimately became senior director for NBC Hollywood, directing such shows as The Dinah Shore Show, the Jimmy Durante Show, the Bob Hope Show, Matinee Theatre and Colgate Comedy Hour with stars such as Martin and Lewis, Ethel Merman, Frank

F. Pace Woods II

Sinatra and others. He also had a hand in NBC’s first color television commercial for RCA. Late in 1958, Woods returned to Lincoln between shows to work for the family business. He had planned to return to his own pilot TV project in Hollywood; however, he soon became an integral part of Woods Bros Realty.

Woods received his real estate license Oct. 6, 1965, and his broker’s license Oct. 10, 1968. He aided his family in advertising and management, land development, financing, residential development, farm management and new construction, helping to grow Woods Bros Realty into one of the top real estate firms in Nebraska.

Under Woods’ leadership, Woods Bros Realty embraced the concept of “one-stop” shopping to provide better service to the public. He served as president of Woods Bros Realty; Woods Investment Company, a land development company; and Woods Bros Real Estate Group, which included Capitol Title Co. (now Nebraska Land Title and Abstract); Woods Bros Insurance (now HomeServices of Nebraska Insurance); and Community Mortgage Company.

Woods expanded the brokerage business with his father in 1968 by merging Woods Bros & Swanson Realtors, and then again in 1999 with the purchase of RE/MAX Professionals.

Woods earned his CRB (Certified Residential Broker) designation from the National Association of REALTORS® and was the Nebraska REALTOR® of the Year in 1997 and the REALTORS® Association of Lincoln (RAL) REALTOR® of the year in 2000. As 1999 RAL President, he followed his grand-

PACE WOODS, JR. AND PACE WOODS, SR. AT THE LATTER’S HOME IN 1976 father Mark Woods, president in 1924 and his father, Pace Sr., president in 1956. He was named to the Woods Bros Realty Hall of Fame in 2003.

He served as a director of the Nebraska REALTORS® Association, was a Nebraska REALTORS® Political Action Committee (RPAC) Trustee and was a member of the Legislative Review Committee, along with serving on the MLS Committee of the National Association of REALTORS®.

His political involvement promoted excellence in real estate, including supporting fair housing education, voluntary affirmative marketing agreements and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) laws and regulations. Woods always encouraged political involvement by Woods Bros associates and managers as well.

Woods also established the Woods Bros Realty Foundation for Giving. The Foundation is funded through a matching program with the Woods Bros associates. The Foundation for Giving has given more than $200,000 over 20 years to charitable organizations supporting children and the elderly.

Woods sold Woods Bros Real Estate Group on June 19, 2002 to HomeServices of America Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. Woods Bros Realty is an industry leader still today with more than 200 sales associates and three offices in Lincoln and offices in Beatrice, Seward, York, Wahoo and Grand Island, and Woods celebrated the company’s 120th anniversary in 2009.

Woods was a strong supporter of the arts. He was active in Friends of the Lied, Lincoln Symphony, National Historic Trust, as well as numerous other organizations. He served on the Nebraska Repertory Theatre Advisory Board and was inducted into the first class of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre Hall of Fame in 2001.The agents of Woods Bros Realty started

a scholarship in his name in 1994 at the University of Nebraska.

Woods endowed this scholarship to provide for the education of our youth.

In 2004 he was presented with an Award of Merit by Hixon-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, and he received in 2010 a Mayor’s Arts Award– the Halcyon Allsman Benefactor of the Arts Award–for his significant financial contributions to the arts in Lincoln. Gov. Mike Johanns in 2004 awarded Woods with a Nebraska Admiralship. In 2009, the Woods family received the Distinguished NEBRASKAlander Award for their prominent role in the business, community and cultural development in Lincoln and the state of Nebraska.

A world traveler, Woods has traveled throughout the Middle East, Africa, France and England, and he is also an avid Big Red fan.

Woods enjoyed field training, guiding his beloved late Labrador Retriever, Howland’s Calypso “Skye,” to Field Champion honors. He also enjoyed spending time at his Lake Superior home on Madeline Island.

Woods remained active in real estate and land development beyond his retirement through the completion of the Rolling Hills development and Rolling Hills Ridge, built in the Woods Bros tradition of Woodsshire and Sheridan Boulevard.

Woods passed away Monday, July 26, 2010, at the age of 86.

PACE WITH HIS DOG, SKYE

telephone

river control

patriot truck

In 1904, Frank H. Woods founded The Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Company. LT&T installed the first automatic dial system.

Today, Lincoln is home to the Frank H. Woods Telephone Museum at 2047 M Street.

Bridge building and river control work on the Missouri-Mississippi and the Gulf Coast were handled by Woods Bros Construction Co. The Woods Bros company was also the runner-up to build the Panama Canal.

After World War I, the horse was out and the automobile was in. “The Patriot” truck, named after Gen. John J. Pershing (center) was built by Mark Woods (right) and his brother George. Today, a “Patriot Truck” can be found in the Museum of Nebraska History.

The Woods Family met each Sunday on Col. and Mrs. Woods’ porch.

Shown above are: Top Row left to right: Frank Woods, Col. F.M. Woods, Albert Woods, Mark Woods, Mrs. George (Rachel) Woods.

2nd Row: Pace Woods, Jr., Pace Woods, Sr., Mrs. Mark (Clarke) Woods, Mrs. F.M. (Eliza) Woods, Mrs. Helen Woods Haecker, George Haecker, Mrs. Frank (Nelle) Woods, Arch Haecker.

3rd Row: Thomas Woods, Henry Woods, Frank Woods, Jr., Albert Faulkner.

4th Row: Thomas C. Woods, Jr., Eugenia Faulkner, Marilynn Anne Woods.

5th Row: Clark Woods Faulkner, Mark W. Woods, Shirley Woods.

The Woods Brothers Companies Building, next to the original Lincoln Telephone Building, at 132 South 13th Street, was designed after the Morgan Guaranty Trust Building in New York City.

It now holds an historical designation.

Woods Bros Realty Marketing@WoodsBros.com www.WoodsBros.com Articles by Matt Harvey and F. Pace Woods, II (as noted) © Woods Bros Realty All rights reserved Design by Erick Ragas © StockInDesign All rights reserved © Cover Design , by Erick Ragas © Paper Back Design, by Erick Ragas Distributed under license Creative Commons First Edition, February 2015 Circulation of 300 copies Printed in Lincoln, Nebraska

The LAB of InDesign Templates