James Frank Woods was a major landowner during the Kingdom of Hawaii who was related to royalty and many civil leaders.
Background
His father was James Woods, who was born in Liverpool, England in 1845, and came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1860 to work for Janion & Green (later the "Big Five" firm Theo H Davies & Company), which had been based in England. In 1866 his father moved to the cattle-ranching area known as Waimea where he worked to import improved cattle breeds to replace the wild cattle that had previously roamed the island of Hawaiʻi.
Career
He served in a number of government posts in the Kohala district including a term in the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and eventually became part owner of several sugarcane plantations in Hawaii and cattle ranches. On March 22. James Frank Woods was born June 27, 1872, and generally went by the name Frank Woods. He had seven siblings, five sisters two brothers.
When his father died in December 1883, the Kohala and Puʻuhue ranches passed to brothers Samuel Parker Woods (1877–1937) and Palmer Parker Woods (1872–1923).
In 1895 Woods bought Kahuā ranch from John Maguire, at about 3,000 feet (910 m) elevation at 20°7′22″North 155°47′12″West. He also leased much of the surrounding land and started his own cattle business. 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.
He leased the Mākua Valley (on the western coast of Oʻahu island, 21°31′51″North 158°13′30″West) to fatten his cattle on their way to the market in Honolulu. The land is now the Mākua Military Reservation.
He was the first vice-chairman of the board of supervisors for Hawaii County when it was organized.
Woods entertained Jack London and Charmian London when they visited. A small cottage built for the Woods family is preserved as a museum in the Manua Lani resort. Eva died December 3, 1922.
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.
He died in June 1930 and was buried in Oahu Cemetery.