Frederick Wells Woodbridge
Frederick Wells Woodbridge, Ravenna, was born at Manchester, Conn., in 1824. His father, who had been wealthy, lost his all in the financial panic of 1837, and came to Ohio with his son in 1839, In 1841 the boy began to clerk for Clapp & Spellman, at Akron, and soon after for Zenas Kent, of Ravenna, wbo had noticed his character and ability. With characteristic unselfishness, young Woodbridge gave his father his wages to help him buy a farm, denying himself many comforts for that purpose. Too poor to venture into society, he was yet too rich in self-respect and principle to indulge in bad habits. He went into business for himself in 1846. Mr. Woodbridge's head, heart and life all testify that the clock of his fortune struck twelve in 1847, when he married Mary A. Brayton, of Ravenna. He engaged in business soon after with his father-in-law; removed to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853, where with others he built the Cleveland Powder Mills, which he operated successfully for several years, when he again entered a mercantile life and prosecuted an extensive business in connection with the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company. He returned to Ravenna in 1873, where he still lives, engaged in the manufacture of glass. He is emphatically a Christian business man, enterprising, energetic, sagacious, successful, and of invulnerable integrity. He is domestic in his tastes, and more than beautiful in his home life. A patient and dutiful son, a kind and wise father, a genial friend, the idol of his children, the king of his wife's affection, as she is the queen of his heart. He is as tenderly devoted as the most ardent young lover, aiding her enthusiastically in all her reform work. — Rev. A. M. Hills.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885