In June 1870, a group of men left Session Settlement (later called Bountiful) seeking a locality for a new settlement. They traveled north and entered the Bear Lake Valley. They continued over the divide to a new settlement formed by a company from Paris, Idaho. Bishop Randolph Stewart was in charge and the settlement was later named Randolph. The men were told of a stream of water about 10 miles south that would make a good settlement. After arriving they were more than pleased. They saw the broad valley and green grasses and willows. They made ponds in the streams causing them to overflow, which helped keep the valley green. There was mountain trout in the streams and elk and deer herds in abundance. The Native Americans were friendly and Chief Washakie was the leader at that time.
In May 1871, the town site was surveyed by Joseph C. Rich. His survey permitted the location of homes to follow a systematic pattern and a name was sought for the new settlement. It was decided to give it the name of Woodruff, in honor of Wilford Woodruff who made frequent trips to Randolph to visit relatives.
In December 1930, Woodruff received its first power lines and also its first power outage as everyone wanted to use the electricity. It wasn’t until December 4, 1933 that Woodruff was granted petition by the Rich County Commission to become incorporated.
from Woodruff Town website
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