The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 90

ERNEST WOODCOCK.

Ernest Woodcock, who has been prominently identified with land development in
the Yakima valley and is now well known as a leading fruit grower and
capitalist of the city of Yakima, was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts,
October 23, 1871, a son of Fenn B. and Frances (Taylor) Woodcock, who in 1876
removed westward from New England to Forest Grove, Oregon. They lived on Puget
Sound for a year and in 1878 came to the Yakima valley, locating seven miles
west of the city of Yakima, the journey being made by wagon. The father
purchased land the following year and a brother of Ernest Woodcock took up a
homestead adjoining that place two years later. The father continued to devote
his attention to agricultural interests upon his claim to the time of his
demise, which occurred in 1897, making a specialty through that period of
dairying and the cattle business.

Ernest Woodcock was but five years of age at the time of the removal to the
northwest and in the public schools of this region he pursued his early
education, which was supplemented by a course in Whitman College, from which he
was graduated with the class of 1895. He afterward attended Columbia College for
a year and then returned to Washington. He was married in 1896 to Miss Mary
Hunt, of Walla Walla, after which he conducted Eeles Academy at Colville,
Washington, for a year. His wife died that year and Mr. Woodcock returned home
after the death of his father and conducted the ranch, also teaching in the
Woodcock Academy at Ahtanum, a school which had been established by his father.
He afterward became principal of the academy and was thus closely and actively
identified with educational interests for seven years. On the expiration of
that period he turned his attention to the land business in connection with
Charles H. Hinman and organized the Yakima Realty & Investment Company, which is
still in existence and which his been one of the potent forces in the
development and improvement of this section of the state. They planted six
hundred acres to fruit, after which they sold some of the tract and kept the
remainder. Mr. Woodcock has since engaged in land development work and has
developed a large acreage for various purposes. The firm established the town of
Ahtanum and has conducted business under the name of the Ahtanum Lumber &
Produce Company for a time.

In 1896 Mr. Woodcock was married to Miss Mary Hunt, of Walla Walla, who passed
away in March, 1897, and in 1900 he wedded Etha Henderson, who was a graduate of
Woodcock Academy and for one year was a student at Whitman College. Her father
was James Henderson, of Yakima. By his first marriage Mr. Woodcock had a son,
Marion, now twenty-one years of age and manager of the Ahtanum Lumber & Produce
Company. He is a graduate of the high school of North Yakima.

Fraternally Ernest Woodcock is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of
Elks and in politics he is a progressive republican. His religious faith is
indicated by his membership in the Congregational church of Ahtanum, which held
its forty-fifth anniversary on the 29th of April, 1918. His has indeed been an
active and useful life, characterized by laudable ambition and actuated by high
and honorable purposes, and the worth of his work is acknowledged by all who
know aught of his career.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.