Cyrus Woodman
| Cyrus Woodman | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
June 2, 1814 Buxton, Maine |
| Died | March 30, 1889 (aged 74) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Known for | Wisconsin land speculator |
Cyrus Woodman (June 2, 1814 – March 30, 1889) was a lawyer, businessman and land speculator whose business affairs were influential in the State of Wisconsin. He was native of Buxton, Maine, and a graduate of Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School. He was a charter member of the Wisconsin Historical Society and an associate and close friend of the Wisconsin politician Cadwallader C. Washburn. In semi-retirement after 1864 he lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Woodman was born in Buxton, Maine, on June 2, 1814, the oldest of five children of Joseph Woodman and Susanna Coffin Woodman. His father was a farmer and one-time member of the legislature in Massachusetts before Maine became an independent state. Cyrus attended Bowdoin College, graduating in 1836, and received his law degree from Harvard in 1838.
In 1840 Woodman went to Illinois as an employee of the Boston Land Company. Within six months his immediate superior resigned, and he was named agent of the company, a position he held until the company dissolved in 1843. In 1844 he moved to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where the federal land office for that territory was located, and entered into a partnership with Cadwallader Washburn. Within a few short years, the partners amassed immense land holdings throughout the state. In 1847 they bought the Helena shot tower, originally built by Daniel Whitney. In 1852 Washburn was called upon by the Governor Leonard J. Farwell to formulate the new Wisconsin banking laws, and with the inside knowledge thus gained, Woodman and Washburn formed the Mineral Point Bank. In association with the Holloway Bank of Maine, they issued $47,000 worth of bank notes which became a major form of circulating currency on the upper Mississippi. When Washburn was elected to Congress in 1854, the partners amicably dissolved the partnership, closed the bank, and paid off all the outstanding notes. It was a fortuitous time to do so because in 1857 a major financial crisis wrecked many similar banks.
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