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Dr. Ira R. Woodward. Payette, Idaho, is proud to claim as one of its citizens such a man as Ira Richard Woodward, M. D., who is not only a physician and surgeon of unusual excellence, but a leader in all matters of public interest, civic, social or along economic lines. Dr. Woodward, in connection with his brother, Dr. J. C. Woodward, has been one of the strongest factors in placing the medical profession of this part of the country upon a high plane of merit. He has attained a wide popularity through his own personality, and his professional attainments have won him a reputation that is far reaching.
Israel Woodward, the father of Dr. Woodward, was a native of New York and a contractor and builder by occupation. In the late fifties he came to Colorado, by the overland route. He settled in Blackhawk in that state, where he was engaged in contract work for some time. He later removed to the city of Denver, and here he did a great deal toward the upbuilding of that county, and became a well known and highly respected resident.
He married Miss Jennie Bell in Illinois in 1863. Three children were born of this union. Burton, born 1868, died 1871; Jesse Charles, born in Aurora, Illinois, December 2, 1871; Ira Richard, born in West DePere, Wisconsin, on May 17, 1874. Israel Woodward died in Denver, Colorado, in 1902 at the age of sixty-nine years. Mrs. Jennie Woodward now lives in Payette, Idaho, with her two remaining sons.
Ira Richard Woodward received his early education in the public schools of Denver, Colorado. He was graduated in time from the East Denver high school and then entered the University of Denver, where he took the course in medicine, and from which he graduated in 1897. He first began the practice of his profession in Mercur, Utah, remaining there for two years. In 1899 he came to Idaho, and located in the town which has since been his home, and is now the oldest practitioner in this city, in point of length of service.
Dr. I. R. Woodward is a past master of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the South Idaho District Medical Society and of the Idaho State Medical Society. He is an ex-president of the Idaho State Board of Medical Examiners, president of the Payette Valley Building and Loan Association, secretary and treasurer of the Peoples Irrigation Company. He is now serving his city as president of the city council.
In Boise, Idaho, on December 4, 1907, he married Miss Anna Josephine Hastings, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Hastings, and a graduate of St. Marks Hospital Training School of Salt Lake City. Two children have been born of this union: Jean Elizabeth Woodward on the 19th of December, 1910, and Ira Richard Woodward, Jr., on August 31, 1912.
Jesse Charles Woodward graduated from the University of Colorado in 1900. In 1904 he was married to Miss Elizabeth Margaret Morgan, and on October 29, 1910, a son, Jesse Charles Woodward., Jr., was born. Dr. J. C. Woodward is an ex-vice-president of the Idaho State Medical Society, and an ex-president of the South Idaho District Medical Society, a member of the American Medical Association, a member of the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America and a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He has taken post-graduate work in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital and the Cornell University Medical College.
In 1904 the two brothers entered into a partnership with each other and their practice became so large and the necessity for a hospital so apparent that a few years later they built the substantial structure which now houses their modern and up-to-date private hospital, where medical and surgical treatment of every description can be had.
They are the local surgeons for the Oregon Short Line Railroad, chief surgeons for the Payette Valley Railroad, local surgeons for the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company, Idaho-Oregon Light and Power Company, and the Michigan-Idaho Lumber Company. In addition to their hospital building, they are the owners of considerable valuable real estate and a fine modern office building in which their own offices are located.