REV LE ROY WOODS, a minister widely known to our readers, died in this place on Friday morning, May 2, 1879, of congestion and apoplexy of the lungs. On the day preceding his death he complained of slight indisposition, but no serious apprehensions were entertained until late in the night, when the attack which proved fatal came with such ungovernable violence as to do its work before the rising of the sun, despite all that medical skill could do.

Seldom indeed are we called to chronicle a death more sudden or unexpected, and seldom one that causes more regret at home and abroad. Having served the public in various relations, for fifty years a minister of the gospel, and highly endowed with those social qualities that win the confidence and affections of men, Mr. Woods was widely and favorably known, not only throughout the bounds of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but to the community at large.

The deceased was born near Pulaski, Giles county, Tennessee, and there, when about eighteen years of age, made a profession of religion and united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Being gifted as a speaker and possessed of a desire to do good to his fellow men, he sought the ministry as his life work, entering it when he was about twenty years of age and quitting only when the Master summoned him from toil to the reward. Though nearly seventy years of age, he retained his mental vigor in a remarkable degree, and gave outward appearance of much physical strength and elasticity, having performed much pulpit and pastoral work in the last three months. In his pulpit on the Sunday preceding his death, with accustomed vigor for work, his evening discourse was as suitable a conclusion of his half a century of ministerial service, as if it had been prepared for that special purpose, the theme being, To die is gain. On Wednesday evening he spoke clearly, tenderly, and impressively to his people in the weekly prayer-meeting, and then turned away to lay down the armor and take the crown.

Being one of a little band of gifted and zealous ministers who planted the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Western Pennsylvania, Mr. Woods stood in no ordinary relation to the denomination. In 1831 came Rev. John Morgan and Rev. A. M. Bryan, in 1832 came Rev. L. R. Woods and Rev. Mr. Sparks; in a short time afterward came Rev. Milton Bird and Rev. S. M. Alston. These six men are entitled to be considered the pioneers who prepared the way for the establishment of the Pennsylvania Synod, and, as such, deserve to be held in special remembrance by the Church for which they lived and labored so faithfully and successfully. All now rest from labor.

For about nine years Mr. Woods preached to the congregation in Carmichaels and the one in this place. Moving subsequently to the West, it was after the lapse of about forty years that he was recalled to this field of his early labors here, amid a few survivors of those who waited on his early ministrations, and amid many new friends won by his faithful ministerial work and his affable, social intercourse, to finish his life work and pass to the reward awaiting the faithful.

In 1833 Mr. Woods married Miss Louisa Lindley, daughter of Rev. Dr. Jacob Lindley, then of Beverly, Ohio, who survives the death of her husband, and in whom he ever found a helpful and sympathizing companion--a companion to whom he is said never to have spoken an unkind word. Several children, all grown, survive the death of the father, among whom are Dr. D. L. Woods, of Streator, Illinois, Mrs. Stranathan, of Zanesville, Ohio, Mrs. Robbins, of McKeesport, and Miss Jennie Woods, who will be remembered among the graduates of Waynesburg College.

Viewed in almost any respect, Rev. Le Roy Woods was no ordinary man. To fair intellectual endowment he added a good heart, life-long and unswerving devotion to principle, while a self-possessed manner and a fine personal appearance made him an object of more than ordinary attention in any circle. The friend of education, the patriot, the legislator, the earnest temperance advocate, the fearless, yet courteous, minister of the gospel of peace, the husband and father--in all the varied relations of life he was a man who exhibited much that was worthy of praise and of limitation. But this long life has an end. He rests from his labors, and his works do follow him.

Servant of God full blest!
  Whose labors all are o'er;
Whose spirit now has perfect rest,
  And life forevermore.

Independent.

Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, May 22, 1879, page 4]