He travelled with his uncle Archibald Woods to the Ohio River Valley in 1798.
[1] Woods worked for Ebenezer Zane at Fort Henry, now Wheeling, West Virginia, and acquired land in Belmont County Northwest Territory, where he settled.
[2] Woods was elected to the Convention to write a constitution for the proposed state of Ohio in 1802 as a Democratic-Republican who was “pledged to support statehood and the principles of Jefferson”.
[2] At the convention, he voted to oppose civil rights for black people.
Woods built his home in Bridgeport near the ferry and operated an inn there.