Luke Wodard was born near what is now Fountain City, Wayne County, Indiana, March 12, 1932, the youngest child of Cader and Rachael (Outland) Woodard, Orthodox Friends from North Carolina who had settled there in 1826. He was educated in local Quaker schools and for a brief time was a teacher. In 1853 he married Elvira Townsend (1836-1930), a Friend born near Centerville in Wayne County. Two of her diaries are included in the collection. After his marriage he farmed near Fountain City. In 1862 Luke Woodard was recorded a minister in Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends and began to travel extensively. When the revival movement developed among American Friends in the 1870s, he became one of its leaders. He often claimed to have been the first Quaker pastor, serving at Fountain City in 1874 and moving from there to Toronto, Canada; Glen Falls and Poplar Ridge, New York; Kokomo, Richmond, Spiceland, and Muncie, Indiana; and Oskaloosa, Iowa. In 1895 and 1896 he spent 16 months visiting Friends meetings in the British Isles. Woodard's support of innovations like revivalism, music, and pastors made him a controversial figure among Friends. In the 1880s, his support for toleration of water baptism in Quaker meetings almost cost him his standing as a minister. He defended his beliefs in a series of books, pamphlets, and articles, beginning with The Morning Star! A Treatise on the Nature, Offices, and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1875. After 1900 he became an outspoken opponent of modernism among Friends and supporter of the encipient fundamentalist movement. He died at Fountain City January 9, 1925.

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