Benjamin Woodworth

[1] Woodworth had become friends General William Hull, who had recently moved his family to Massachusetts from Connecticut.

Thomas Jefferson had appointed Hull Governor of the Northwest Territory and was in need of skilled workers to take with him, in which Woodworth was one of the carpenters he chose to move to Detroit with him.

He needed to return to Washington to lobby President Jefferson directly for assistance; this also included finding investors to charter the first bank in Detroit.

[4] The men returned from their eastern trip on June 7, 1806, and began construction of the first Governor's Mansion and First Bank of Detroit.

[6] After constructing the bank and mansion, Woodworth himself built his own residence at the corner of Randolph and Woodbridge Streets in 1807.

[21] Woodworth played a key role in the abolition of the death penalty in Michigan, after being the hangman in the last execution performed in the state.

The crowd was moved, embarrassed that they had made entertainment out the incident, but the Governor refused clemency and Simmons was hanged.

[22][23] Woodworth's appointment as Sheriff ended soon after the execution, being compensated by the state and relieved the next year following an election in which he did not participate.

After he had already lost many of his children in their youth, his grown son Samuel was killed in a boiler explosion while operating the ferry General Vance, which he owned.