He served in a number of government posts in the Kohala district including a term in the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom,[2] and eventually became part owner of several sugarcane plantations in Hawaii and cattle ranches.

He tried to convert some of the land into a sugarcane plantation, but his attempts to divert the nearby Kehna Ditch irrigation canal to his dry lands on the leeward side of Kohala Mountain were thwarted.

[13] A small cottage built for the Woods family is preserved as a museum in the Manua Lani resort.

By 1928, after a dispute with neighboring ranchers and politically powerful Lincoln Loy McCandless, he was forced to sell Kahuā to Ronald von Holt and Atherton Richards, whose families still own it and offer historic tours.

[15] In 1928, he married Princess Elizabeth Kahanu, the widow of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole who had been delegate to US Congress from the Territory of Hawaii.