Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-Theodore Wood
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
THEODORE L. WOOD. This gentleman is
recognized as one of the most active and
enterprising men of Morganville, with whose
interests he has been closely identified since its
organization as a town. Possessed of more than
ordinary intelligence, he has always recognized the
value of an education as one of the best elements
in the foundation of the social fabric, and has uniformly
given his aid and influence to the enterprises
best calculated to promote the welfare of the
people, socially, morally and financially. He has
been a successful man through life, accumulating
a fair share of this world's goods. He took up his
abode in Clay County in the early part of 1885 and
on the first day of July, that year, opened the first
bank of Morganville, which he has since successfully
conducted and which has become an indispensable
institution to the farmers and business
men of this region. He was one of the signers of
the petition for the incorporation of the city and
was a member of its first Council.
The subject of this sketch was born in Hancock
County, Ohio, Jan. 14, 1846, where he spent his childhood
and youth and acquired his education mostly
in the schools of Findlay, that county. His life
was spent in a comparatively uneventful manner
until the fall of 1864, when he entered the Union
army as a member of Company H, 192d Ohio Infantry,
and served as a private until the close of
the war, mostly in Virginia. Upon receiving his
honorable discharge he returned to his native
county, remaining there until 1868. That year he
emigrated to Illinois and occupied himself as a
teacher, and also in farming, two years. At the expiration
of this time he returned to Findlay, Ohio,
where he prosecuted farming for four years and
then engaged in mercantile pursuits about six years.
His next removal was to Clay County, Kan.
While a resident of Illinois, Mr. Wood was married
at Sullivan, that State, in 1869, to Miss Rose
E., daughter of Philemon and Rosanna Spicer.
The young people commenced their wedded life in
Hancock County, Ohio, and in due time became
the parents of three children�Wyatt E., Charles
M. and Theodore M. Mrs. Wood is a very estimable
lady and a member in good standing of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Wood, politically,
affiliates with the Republican party and is connected
with George B. McClellan Post, G. A. R.,
of Morganville. He belongs to Morganville Lodge,
No. 322, I. O. O. F., and Hume Encampment at
Clay Center, also Clay Center Lodge, I. O. O. F.
He has a neat and tasteful home and occupies no
secondary position, either in social or business
circles.
The parents of Mr. Wood were Samuel H., a native
of Licking County, Ohio, and Minerva (Davis)
Wood, who was born in Owensville, Ky. The latter
was reared to womanhood and married in her native
town, soon after which she and her husband
located in Hancock County, Ohio. They now
make their home in Weston, Wood County, that
State. Richard Wood, the paternal grandfather of
our subject, was a native of Virginia, whence he
emigrated to Licking County, Ohio, and settled
among its earliest pioneers. He hewed out a home
from the wilderness, gathering about himself and
family all the comforts of life, but later removed
to Hancock County, where he spent his last days.
Mr. Wood since his residence in Morganville,
has taken an active part in the enterprises of public
interest. He assisted in raising funds for the erection
of the large brick school building which is
looked upon with pardonable pride by the citizens,
and he was also active in the building up of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. The prosperity of
any town is due to its enterprising and liberal minded
men, and the history of Morganville could
not be properly written without mentioning the
name of Theodore L. Wood.