Woodman, C. W. (Cony Warren), 1864-1948

Labor leader and publisher and editor of THE UNION BANNER, Fort Worth, Texas; representative of the American Federation of Labor; Commissioner of Labor Statistics for the State of Texas; charter member of the Texas State Federation of Labor; assistant director of the Farm Labor Division and later manager of the National Reemployment Service of the U.S. Department of Labor (Southwest region); and Fort Worth panel member of the National Labor Relations Board.

Labor leader and publisher and editor of The Union Banner, Fort Worth, Texas; representative of the American Federation of Labor; Commissioner of Labor Statistics for the State of Texas; charter member of the Texas State Federation of Labor; assistant director of the Farm Labor Division and later manager of the National Reemployment Service of the U.S. Department of Labor (Southwest region); and Fort Worth panel member of the National Labor Relations Board.

C.W. Woodman was born in Wilton, Maine, on July 15, 1864, while the Civil War was still raging. After the War, his family moved to Mississippi, where his parents died in a yellow fever epidemic soon after arriving. Returning to Maine, he lived with relatives until he was sixteen, when he entered a three-year printers' apprenticeship program; he finished the program in two and a half years. He then returned to Mississippi, where he married his first wife. He took her to Winnemac, Indiana, where he worked as a printer. Later, in Francisville, Indiana, he published the New Era from 1888 to 1890. After he moved to San Antonio, Texas, he owned and edited the San Antonio Dispatch from 1898 until about 1903. He then bought the Fort Worth Union Banner about 1904 and served as its editor until 1947.

Woodman was a close friend of Samuel Gompers, the founder of the American Federation of Labor. Woodman was appointed Commissioner of Labor for the State of Texas on February 5, 1915 by Governor James E. Ferguson, and he served two terms. He was also district director of federal employment under Woodrow Wilson. Widowed during the First World War, Woodman remarried.

When he died on October 22, 1948, Woodman was the last surviving charter member of the Texas State Federation of Labor.

See clippings in 163-1 for more details on C.W. Woodman's life.