Lyman Woodard - The Entrepreneur

In 1866, when the country was beginning to recover from the Civil War, many young men ventured far and wide to seek fame and fortune. Lyman Elnathan Woodward*, a 32-year-old builder from Dansville, New York, was one of these men. Having heard of the abundance of Michigan hardwood timber and the most crucial element, water power, he boarded a train to a Owosso with $10,000 in his pocket that he had saved from building framed houses.

As fate would happened, the White brothers were selling their water power planing mill on the banks of the Shiawassee River. A millrace diverted the water from the river along the same path that South Water Street uses today. After purchasing the mill for $3,500 with his brother Warren Woodward as his partner, Lyman return to New York to marry his fiancée Emma Weidman.

*Soon after 1866, Lyman dropped the middle "w" in his last name to become Woodard. His brother Warren and his descendants kept the original spelling.