Son of John Woolley and Rachel Dilworth

Married Maria Lucy Dewey, Jan 1846, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois

Children - William Dewey Woolley, Harriet Arabell Woolley, Frank Albert Woolley, Ashbel Dewey Woolley, Marion Dewey Woolley, Vilate Annebelle Woolley, John Dewey Woolley

Married Caroline Patience Harrar, 25 Jan 1857, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children - Franklin Woolley, Lorenzo Harrar Woolley, Laura Virginia Woolley, Taylor Harrar Woolley, Alberoni Harrar Woolley

Married Annie Lazenbury Davis, 18 Jun 1864, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

History - John removed to Ohio in 1833 and subsequently to Commerce, Hancock, Illinois, where he was baptized by Elder Almon W. Babbitt Oct. 7, 1840. At the April conference held in Nauvoo in 1842 he was ordained an Elder and went on a mission to Kentucky, Tennessee and other States; he returned to Nauvoo in 1843. In April of that year he was ordained a Seventy, and became a member of the 4th quorum.

By the counsel of Heber C. Kimball he started June 15, 1843, on another mission, this time going to the Eastern States. He labored principally in Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and returned to Nauvoo in November, 1844.

During the winter of 1844-45 he worked on the Nauvoo Temple. Jan. 9, 1846, he married Maria L. Dewey, and subsequently he married two other wives. At the time of the general exodus from Nauvoo in 1846, he came west and arrived in Great Salt Lake valley in the fall of 1847, in Geo B. Wallace's fifty.

In 1848 Elder Woolley built the first house in the Ninth Ward, Salt Lake City, on the spot where the family residence still stands. For a number of years he was engaged in the lumber business, being the owner of a saw mill in Little Cottonwood canyon.

June 3, 1856, he was ordained a High Priest and set apart to act as first counselor to Bishop Seth Taft of the Ninth Ward, and in October following he was appointed Bro. Taft's successor in the Bishopric, being ordained a Bishop Oct. 21, 1856. This office he magnified until the time of his death, which occurred in Salt Lake City Aug. 18, 1864, as a result of an accident which occurred two days previous in Cottonwoood canyon.

While he, in company with several of his workmen, were examining a bridge at the foot of one of the "run ways," near his mill, some of the men on the mountain above rolled a large log on the "slide" which came down with alarming velocity to the place where he was standing, and striking a pile of loose rocks at the base of the slide, and scattered them in every direction with great force, one of which struck the Bishop on the side of the neck and face, prostrating him to the earth in a state of insensibility. He never again regained consciousness.

Bishop Woolley was a prompt and energetic man in all his official doings. His mind was richly stored with the "good things of the kingdom." He was brilliant in thought and quick to perceive the revelations and whisperings of the spirit. At his death he left three wives and nine children.