It’s no surprise when young children adopt the sports and attitudes of their parents. In Black Diamond during the first third of the 20th century, boxing was likely the second most popular sport eclipsed only by baseball, though soccer was especially favored by immigrants from Europe. Boxing embodied the values of strength and discipline that were critical components for the hard work and perseverance experienced by coal miners, loggers, and their wives in the hardscrabble towns of East King County.
Jimmy and Harry Woods, the 9-year-old twins seen in this 1933 photo, were trained in boxing from an early age. Their first newspaper notice came at age seven when they were called the Black Diamond midgets and featured in an exhibition match, “for the ladies” according to a March 18, 1932 notice in the Seattle Star. Earlier that year, Jimmy and Harry, both second-grade students saw their photo on page 15 of the Feb. 24, 1932, Seattle Post-Intelligencer after having “appeared at several clubs and impressed boxing enthusiasts with their knowledge of the sport.”
The boys’ parents, Martha and John ‘Jack’ Woods were born in Lancashire, England in the early 1890s. Woods was a miner who immigrated to the U.S. via Ellis Island in 1914 and then went to work for the Roslyn Fuel Company. He enlisted in the army in 1917 and upon discharge in 1919 returned to England where he married Martha Smith. John returned to Kittitas County where he was naturalized as an American citizen in 1924. Meanwhile, Martha gave birth to their first son, Fred in 1921, and followed John to the U.S. in 1923. John Woods died in 1952, after which his widow, Martha married Edward Chilcott, himself a widower and Black Diamond coal miner.
James (Jimmy) and Harry Woods were born in the coal mining town of Roslyn on July 16, 1924. Sometime later the family moved to Michigan where their father gained employment as a machinist in an auto factory. By 1932, the Woods family lived in Black Diamond, then later Renton. It isn’t known how long Jimmy and Harry continued to box.
Both James and Harry enlisted in the Navy during the early 1940s and served throughout World War II. Harry re-enlisted for the Korea War and later became an auto mechanic at a service garage. James found employment as a butcher in a grocery store where he worked his entire career. James Wood passed away in Tukwila in 1986, while Harry lived in Black Diamond until 1991 when he too breathed his last.
Over the years, boxing has experienced a notable decline in popularity. The sport was once broadcast weekly on TV and radio. However, the phenomenal growth of football, basketball, soccer, and hockey have reduced boxing’s market and appeal. Mixed martial arts have further diluted its audience. Today conventional boxing is a faded shadow of its former self drowning among a multitude of sports broadcasts that better resonate with today’s audiences.
This photo comes courtesy of the Black Diamond Historical Society with genealogical information and newspaper citations about the Woods family provided by Donna Brathovde, a Ravensdale historian. Photo enhancements were provided by Boomer Burnham, a Tahoma High School photography teacher whose business website is: BoomersPhotography.com
