Cumberland County, Maine - Charles B. Woodman
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Biography
Charles B. Woodman
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page 444


Charles B. Woodman, of Westbrook, Alderman for Ward 3 and the leading druggist
of the city, was born in West brook, July 6, 1841. He is the eldest son of
Benjamin J. and Charlotte F. (Babb) Woodman. His first ancestor in this country
came from England in the latter part of the seventeenth century and settled in
Massachusetts; and there the family was well and favorably known for
generations, producing active and hardy citizens. Samuel Woodman, the
grandfather of our subject, was a native of Buxton, Me. He was a cooper and
worked at his trade for many years.

His son, Benjamin J. Woodman, was born in Portland, Me. He learned the
shoemaker's trade and worked at it in early manhood, and eventually settled on a
farm in Westbrook, where he is now living, a hale and active man of seventy-six
years. His wife, who is a native of Westbrook, celebrated her seventy-third
birthday on June 29, 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin J. Woodman are among the oldest
living members of the Methodist Episcopal church in Westbrook, their names
having been entered on its rolls over fifty years ago. Six children have
brightened the years of their wedded life, namely: Charles B., the subject of
this sketch; Paulina E.; Benjamin F.; Clara F.; Mary (deceased); and Lottie M.

Charles B. Woodman received his education in the common schools of his native
town and Gorham Academy. He was for ten years employed in the steward's
department of different steamboats, three years of that time being spent on
government transports during the war. April 16, 1869, he purchased an interest
in a grocery business, in company with E. H. Sturgis; and the firm of Sturgis &
Woodman conducted a thriving trade until May, 1872. Mr. Woodman then bought his
partner's share in the business, and gradually sold out his stock of groceries,
at the same time investing largely in drugs. In 1882 he located at his present
place of business, improving and embellishing an old building until it looked
like new. He now has one of the handsomest and most reliable drug stores in the
city. In business in Westbrook nearly twenty-seven years, Mr. Woodman holds the
respect of all who know him. There are but three men in the city whose business
record antedates his, and there is none who bears a higher reputation.

Mr. Woodman was married in 1863 in Waterville, Me., to Miss Clyde Spear, a
native of Waterville, daughter of Zaccheus and Rebecca (Parker) Spear. Six
children have blessed their union, two of whom-Philip Everett and Alice Louise-
have passed away. The others are located as follows: Charles Harold, a
registered pharmacist, is clerk in a drug store in Boston; Guy Perley is in his
father's store in Westbrook; George M. is a student in the Maine Medical School,
Brunswick, Me.; and Benjamin J., a Westbrook High School boy, is with his
parents.

Mr. Woodman has taken an active part in public affairs as a member of the
Republican party. Before Westbrook became a city, he was for years a member of
the town Republican Committee, of which he was Chairman thirteen years. He was
Postmaster four years, during Harrison's administration, and was five years
consecutively Town Clerk and Treasurer. In 1885 and 1887 he represented
Westbrook in the State legislature, serving on the Insane Hospital Committee and
the Committee on Banks and Banking, and is a member of the Board of Aldermen of
Westbrook at the present time. In political circles he is very popular, and has
the confidence of all his constituents. Mr. Woodman is a member of Temple Lodge,
No. 86, A. F. & A. M., of Westbrook; a member of Cummings Encampment,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having filled all the chairs in the Order;
Westbrook Lodge, Knights of Pythias, in which Order also he has passed all the
chairs. Mr. and Mrs. Woodman attend the Methodist church.