Research finds Black inventor Granville T. Woods has stronger ties to Columbus

The noted Black inventor Granville T. Woods was born in Columbus before the Civil War. He rose to prominence later in the 19th century for patents for a telegraph system that enabled conductors on trains to communicate with station, and for third-rail technology (think subway trains powered by the electrified third rail next to the tracks).

He was known as the "Black Edison;" he won a patent lawsuit filed by Thomas Edison. And the New York Times published an obituary of him in 2019, as part of a project to honor notable Black people who did not receive obituaries when they died.

For years, people have worked to create a museum honoring Woods along with pilot and business executive Eddie Rickenbacker in the Driving Park neighborhood. Now, research has discovered some things about Woods that change what people thought they knew about him.

For one, he was born in 1850 or 1851, not 1856, said Aaron O'Donovan, special collections supervisor at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. And O'Donovan said that Woods lived in Columbus for a longer period of time than what was believed, starting a company here that foreshadowed his later inventions.

"He was in Columbus until 1881-1882. He was here for quite a while," O'Donovan said.

O'Donovan did the research along with help from librarian Cindy Lindsey and local historian Doreen Uhas Sauer, who is working with a group of high-school students who are part of an AmeriCorps internship project called the Creators, Originators and Innovators of Tomorrow Workforce Initiative.

They studied census records, marriage and divorce records, city directories, and newspaper clippings, including some from The Dispatch.

"You're not looking for dirt. You're looking for reality," Uhas Sauer said.

The group recently released its findings at the Rickenbacker Woods Foundation in Driving Park.

Woods died in New York City in 1910, and biographical materials have long listed his birth year as 1856.

But O'Donovan said that census records indicate Woods was likely born five to six years earlier. An 1860 census record shows him as 10 years old and living with his parents in Knox County.

Other records, including those in city directories, show that Woods lived in Columbus longer than most people thought before he moved to Cincinnati and New York.

O'Donovan said research showed that Woods' mother, Martha Woods, started appearing again in Columbus city directories in 1866. They lived on East Mulberry Street, which is now Lafayette Street, which runs in between and parallel to Long and Spring streets Downtown. An 1871 directory showed Granville living on his own at another East Mulberry Street address.

He worked as a porter and a waiter, then in 1872 he started work at the Hayes Carriage Co. In 1873 he is listed as a sexton at the Second Presbyterian Church, now Central Presbyterian Church on South 3rd Street Downtown.

He was not in Columbus city directories in 1875 and 1876 but was listed again in 1877-1881 living at various Columbus addresses. He was listed as a machinist at a Mount Vernon Avenue address, and also listed as working at the at the Columbus Buggy Works.

But his last entry in 1881 said he worked at his own business in Columbus, the Granville Woods Company, described as an electrotype and stereotype foundry before heading to Cincinnati.

"He didn't leave here until he was 30 years old," Uhas Sauer said.

Why is that important?

"Cincinnati likes to claim him," O'Donovan said.

Betsy Hedler, the Ohio History Service Corps program director for the Ohio History Connection, said she can see it being important for people here that Woods spent more of his life here than they knew.

"When you have as notable an inventor as Granville Woods, who lived where you lived, I can see that as being inspiring," she said.

Michael Aaron, president and executive director of the Rickenbacker Woods Foundation, said he always wondered why people couldn't find much about Woods' time in Columbus.

"It was always about Cincinnati. What did he do here? It anchors him here even more so," Aaron said.

There also are some unusual things researchers saw.

For one, Woods used an alias. A Cincinnati Post article from 1891 on his divorce said he used the name G. Taylor Silvey when he was married in Newport, Kentucky.

Also, Woods told people he was born in Australia, but that wasn't true.

"That's what he told people, maybe to sound more interesting," O'Donovan said. Woods was born in Columbus, he said.

The Times 2019 obituary said biographers believe Woods did that to get respect and distance himself from America's history of slavery.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Noted Black inventor Granville T. Woods' roots in Columbus run deep