Bio Sketch by B. Bradford (2G granddaughter) ~ updated March 25,2024

Parents: Greenberry "GB" Woody and Marguerite Grace Green

Wife: Samantha Caroline Naillon (d/o Elijah Washington Naillon and Harriett Brown/Moore)

Jonathan Woody was born and raised in the Grassy Fork area of Cocke Co., Tennessee. He met his wife, Samantha Caroline Naillon, there as she was also from Cocke Co. living nearby in Naillontown (present day Hartford area) on the Pigeon River. Additionally, Samantha's half-sister, Rosia Moore, was living with Jonathan's family as noted in the 1870 Cocke Co. census and eventually Rosia became the long-term companion of Jonathan's father, Greenberry, and they had 5 children together. The relationship between Rosia and Greenberry caused much strife with the Woody family when Rosia became pregnant by Greenberry while living in their home. Green and Rosia's child is listed in the 1870 census. The Woody family split up after having 9 children together and Jonathan's mother, Marguerite Grace Green-Woody, left Greenberry in the early 1870's with 5 of her children (Wiley, Tillman, James, Ellender and Sarah Jane) and moved down to Dyer Twp., Saline Co., Arkansas to start a new life. Jonathan remained in Cocke Co. and married Samantha Naillon about 1876 in Cocke Co., TN (no marriage record found). The marriage date is based on the birth of their first child Sarah Margaret Woody. The family remained in the Grassy Fork until abt. 1893, after which time, Jonathan and family, along with daughter, Sarah M. and husband, Nathan Dempsey Harris, moved over to Walland, Blount Co., TN. They had eight children together, 7 of whom were born in Cocke Co., but their youngest, Pearl, was born in Walland, Blount Co. The family was enumerated in the 1900 Blount Co. Census renting a house and Jonathan working as a "day laborer." Sometime around 1909, Jonathan, Samantha and most of their children moved out to Utah along with Sarah's mother, and most of her Naillon siblings who converted to Latter Day Saints. LDS records show that Jonanthan and Samantha were Baptized into the LDS faith on the same day, December 10, 1893, in Walland, Blount Co., Tennessee and it is this record which proves they were living in this area at this time. LDS missionaries encouraged Jonathan and Samantha to move to Utah. Besides their faith, another driving force to move out to Utah was for Samantha to be with her aged parents and siblings who also moved to Utah (her father never made it and died while in route in Memphis and buried there) and for Jonathan to secure work. Labor jobs were plentiful in the Strawberry Valley area where land was being homesteaded through a Federal Program and there was a need to build water dikes and bridges to irrigate and farm in the valley.

LDS CONVERSION: Elder Joseph "Joe" Cross Orme served as an Eastern Tennessee Missionary. He came to know the Woody family very well and confirmed Jonathan Woody into the LDS faith on 10 December 1893, in Walland, Blount Co., Tennessee. He helped influence Jonathan and Samantha Caroline to move out to Utah and later to Idaho. Joe's brother, Lafayette, wrote the following in a memoire about his brother's "southern friend". Although Jonathan's name was not specifically mentioned in the article, undoubtably it was about Jonathan Woody and family who moved to Utah in 1909 and by 1920 was living in Twin Falls, Idaho":

"One of his Tennessee converts came to Utah, and later moved to Twin Falls, Idaho. This man had a large family, some active, others inactive in the Church, and the man himself became very indifferent and told Joe, when he called on him, that he was not interested in church work anymore. Joe stopped with him all night, recalled incidents in "The South," etc. Next morning at day break to up and helped the man pile hay, and talked as they worked, by so doing he found out the man's bishop had offended him. So Joe gets word to the bishop secretly of what was the matter, and asked the bishop to try and fix it up. About a year later, Joe met his southern friend again and he said, "Brother Orme, I am so glad to see you. A few days after you were here at my home, the bishop called and asked my forgiveness, and got me going to meetings again. I thought of my conversion, of the purpose of my emigrating to the West; of how I had laid down on the job, and then I decided to get busy, so I converted my son-in-law, my daughter-in-law, and only last week we made a bus load of 32 of my family, went to the temple and had us all sealed and connected up, husbands and wives, parents and children, and we are all happy in knowing we've done the right thing." 1

 1.SOURCE: "Joseph Cross Came" by Lafayette Orme. Pg. 4.  A memoire written by Lafayette Orme (1872-1956) about his older brother, Elder Joseph "Joe" Cross Orme (1860-1933) who served in the Southern States Mission from 1893-1895 in the Eastern Tennessee Conference. It mentions about Jonathan Woody and family who came to Idaho. https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/117449945 

Jonathan and Samantha and her mother Harriett, settled in Myton, Utah for a time living near some of Samantha's siblings, who secured homestead deeds. They were noted in the 1910 Census, Myton, Utah which stated they had 8 children and 4 alive. Sometime before 1920, Jonathan and Samantha moved to Twin Falls, Idaho along with daughter, Pearl Woody and her husband Robert Taylor Naillon and were noted in the 1920 Census. Samantha's brother, Aaron M. Naillon and family, also lived in Bingham Co., Idaho. Samantha and Jon's son, James Russell Woody, remained in Myton, UT working as a laborer for "odd jobs". Jon and Samantha did not stay long in Idaho and moved to the Oregon coast living in the logging country of Eddyville. Jonathan was a hard worker all his life and died in 1927 due to "over exertion and organic heart disease" as explained in his death certificate. He is buried at the Eddyville Cemetery which was near their home. Widow Samantha moved in with her son Elijah (single) in Rose Lodge, Oregon near the coast. Next door was her other son, James Russell Woody, and his family. Samantha became ill and was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Astoria, Oregon for therapy. She died in the hospital due to chronic myocarditis and senility. She is buried at the Taft Pioneer Cemetery over looking the Pacific Ocean.

Jonathan and Samantha were not wealthy people and always struggled to make ends meet working odd jobs to support their family. But they were rich in knowledge through their travels seeing so many different parts of the United States and its diverse topography and people from the Appalachians to the Pacific coast; crossing the great Mississippi River to the Great Salt Lake Basin to finally settle in the moss covered giant conifers in Oregon. ~~bbpytel 2019 (2G grand-daughter)