William Henry Woods was born on August 5, 1881 in Orange County, North Carolina. Woods and his family relocated to Durham when he was just a child. He went on to engage in the construction industry and was among Durham's first licensed contractors. He retired from that business in 1944. During World War I, Woods served with the home guard. In July 1920, as a sergeant in the Durham Machine Gun Company, Woods helped put down a lynch mob in Alamance County. He died in Durham on May 28, 1957.