Alfred Wood

As printed in 1908

ALFRED WOOD, a leading citizen of Northfield Township, Summit County, Ohio, who owns a farm of fifty-six acres, about thirty of which are under cultivation, was born October 23, 1842, at Independence, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and is a son of Benjamin and Charlotte (Belden) Wood.

Benjamin Wood Avas born in 1816 on the Strand, London, England, where he attended boarding school until fourteen years of age, and at the age of twenty-one years came to America. He had learned the tailor's trade in his native land, but did not follow it to any extent, after a short residence at Cleveland settling on a farm in Independence. From 1862 until 1900 he was connected with the firm of Benjamin Stair and Son, at Cleveland, and became a man of some means, making three trips to his native country. Mr. Wood was possessed of scholarly attainments, and was elected to a number of township offices, including that of trustee. His death occurred in August., 1905. Mr. Wood was married to Charlotte Belden, -who-se ancestry dates Vjack to colonial days, and they had three children: Norman, who died November 18, 1907; Alfred, subject of this sketch, and Martha, who is the widow of John R. Richardson, of Cleveland. Benjamin Wood was reared in the faith of the Episcopal Church, Init there being no churches in Independence when he located there, he became a Presbyterian, and paid nearly half of the co.st of erecting there the church of that denomination.

Alfred Wood received a common school education in Independence, and in youth secured employment with the firm of Benjamin Stair & Son, at Cleveland, for whom he worked for a year and a half. At the end of this time he rented a farm at St. Mary's, Canada, where he remained for five years, and then located at Akron, being employed in the Buckeye shops for sixteen years. Subsequently he became foreman of the Lamson and Session shops at Cleveland, but in 1893 purchased the Charles Vders farm, a tract of fifty-six acres in lot 65, about thirty acres of which Mr. Wood ha?

under cultivation. He keeps about eight head of cattle, is largely interested in bee culture, and raises blooded. horses. His principal crops are oats, wheat, hay and corn, and he has a fine orchard of apple, each, pear and plum trees.

Mr. Wood has given much attention to horticulture and was one of the charter members of the Summit County Horticultural Society. He has been very active in scientific work, being associated with Prof. Claypole of Buchtel College, his studies embracing all the natural sciences. On one occasion he read a paper before the Scientific Society of Buchtel College, setting forth the theory that the Cuyahoga River has always flowed north as at present, the accepted theory at that time (Newberry's), being that in prehistoric times the river flowed south. Mr. Wood's paper aroused wide discussion, but his theory was finally accepted, and was incorporated in the reports of the State Department of Geology. Fraternally, Mr. Wood is connected with Hesperion Lodge No. 281, Knights of Pythias, of Cleveland, and he was a charter member of Etolia Lodge No. 24, Knights of Pythias, of Akron, of which he was secretary and treasurer.

Mr. AVood was married to Sarah J. Johns, who is the daughter of James Johns, and to this union there were born six children: Mary, who is the wife of F. H. Fanning, of Cleveland: Charlotte, who is a well-known artist of Cleveland; Norman B., who lives at Pititsburg, Pennsylvania; Robert J., William H. and Amelia B., who reside in Cleveland. The family is connected with the Episcopal Church.

The Johns family, which is an old one of Hatherly, Devonshire, England, was founded in America by the parents of Mrs. Wood, who came to Canada when she was a child of three years, in 1843. James Johns, Mrs. Wood's father, was a machinist by trade, an occupation which he followed at Darlington, Ontario, until 1860, and then for a few years at Cleveland, Ohio. Later he removed to Independence, where he carried on farming for two years, but he subsequently sold his farm and returned to his trade at Cleveland. Thence he went to Stratford, Ontario, in which place he established a machine shop. His death occurred in 1893, when he was in his eighty-ninth year; his wife, Mary (Bourne) James, died in 1891, when eighty-two years old. Mrs. Wood was the seventh of a family of sixteen children.

As printed in Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens (1908). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.