Bourdett Wood
Mrs. Bourdett Wood |
BOURDETT WOOD,
the eldest son of Jasper and Elizabeth (Boylston) Wood,
was born at Manlius Square, New York, on the 19th day of
February, 1803. The Woods are of English origin.
Four brothers came to this country about two centuries ago,
three of them settling in Massachusetts, and one of them in
Virginia. Aaron, the grandfather of the subject of
this sketch, with three brothers, had emigrated to the State of
New York a short time preaching the revolutionary struggle, and
had settled on the German flats just above Schenectady.
All four of the brothers were soldiers in the revolutionary war,
and took part in the memorable battle of Monmouth.
Aaron Wood was the father of seven children, as follows:
Thaddeus, Benjamin, Jasper, Rebecca, Dorathea, Aaron and
Homer. Thaddeus was a lawyer of distinction and
ability. He was, in his time, not only the recognized
leader of the bar in Onondaga county, where he resided, but was
esteemed as one of the best lawyers of the State. He was
an active participant in the war of 1812, and, by reason of
meritorious service, was elevated to the rank of brigadier
general in 1818, and to the rank of major general in 1820.
Jasper Wood, the father of Bourdett, was born in
the year in which th1e war for Independence was declared, 1776,
at Lenox, Massachusetts, where he lived until fourteen years of
age, when he went to New York State in the service of a Mr.
White, the founder of Whitestown, near Utica, that State.
Here he continued to reside for eight or ten years, and then
removed to Manlius Square where he remained until 1815, the date
of his removal to the far west. After a temporary stay at
Erie, Pennsylvania, of one year's duration, he came on with his
family to Huron county, and settled at Bloomingville. Here
he purchased a large tract of land, consisting of about one
thousand eight hundred acre for which he paid about two thousand
dollars. Soon after this, the Government lands in the
adjoining county of Sandusky came into market, and were sold to
purchasers at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.
This reduced the value of Mr. Wood's lands so as to
render them comparatively worthless. He died in 1821.
He was a man of rather superior education and abilities; was a
good surveyor, and could speak the Iroquois language with
considerable fluency. His wife's name was Elizabeth
Boylston, whom he married May 3, 1802. The
Boylstons were also English people, and were among the first
settlers of Boston. They gave their name to many places
connected with the early history of that metropolis, such as
Boylston Common, Boylston Square, etc. Boylston Bank,
Boylston street - places that are still thus designated.
The Boylstons were a very intelligent and well-to-do
class of people, and many representatives of the family are now
living in Massachusetts, all occupying honorable stations in
life.
Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Wood were the parents of six
children: Bourdette, Adaline, Julianne, Juliette,
Worthington and Aramenta. Mrs. Wood died in
1834.
Bourdette received his given name from the
Bourdette family, of Fort Lee, New Jersey.
At the age of sixteen he was bound for a term of four
years to Judge Timothy Baker, of Norwalk, Ohio.
After an expiration of two yeas, his father having died, through
the kindly efforts in his behalf, made by Mrs. Baker, he
was released from this service. The maintenance of his
father's family chiefly devolved upon him, and he was brought in
close contact with the utmost severity of labor.
Mr. Wood has been a successful man. To
trace his career and bring to light the discovery of how he
accomplished so much in the direction of getting on in the
world, is an interesting undertaking. His father died when
Bourdette was a young man eighteen years of age, and not
only left him no inheritance, but placed him in a position where
he must, by the labor of his own hands and the employment of his
own wits, provide, not for himself alone, but for others
dependent upon him for the necessaries of life. Could the
young man, the day after his father's death, have had his future
career in life disclosed to him; could he have seen himself
standing on the verge of that career, penniless and seemingly
powerless, and then have followed his course through a term of
fifty or nearly sixty years, to behold himself the possessor of
hundreds of thousands of dollars of this world's goods, he would
undoubtedly have disbelieved the revelation. Yet this is
what he has accomplished. The acquisition of great weath
furnishes in itself no marvel, for many men become possessors of
it. Some inherit it; some have it thrust upon them by kind
fortune or good luck; and some obtain it by a systematic course
of robbery, in which knavery, extortion, and theft, in its
various forms, have their part to play.
After leaving the service of Mr. Baker, Mr. Wood's
first employment was in working for Charles F. Drake, of
Bloomingville, for two months, for a barrel of salt and a side
of sole leather, each of which was equivalent to about three
dollars and fifty cents, and would buy a good two year old
steer. The following summer he raised five or six acres of
corn. This he was persuaded to apply in the payment of a
colt, which Mr. Caldwell had obtained at a cost of
eleven dollars, and for which Mr. Wood was
influenced to give twenty-five dollars. About one half
this money he got together by putting up four tons of bay for
Mr. Caldwell, at one dollar and fifty cents per ton,
and by chopping twenty-five cords of wood at twenty-five cents
per cord. In piling this wood he showed himself to be a
novice, for he made but about fifteen cords of it, the wood
being put up very closely. Eben Dennis, who
was present when it was measured, and who took a friendly
interest in the boy, said to Bourdett, slyly: "You are a
little fool to pile wood in that way; now you go ahead and chop
more, and by and by, when the old man Caldwell is not
around, I'll come and show you how to cord wood." He did
so, readily extending the pile so as to include the requisite
twenty-five cords. In process of time he got his colt paid
for, and was by and by enabled to buy an old horse, and then
exchanged his colt and horse for a yoke of oxen, thus providing
himself with a team. In 1823, at the age of twenty, he
raised a fair crop of corn, and then went sailing. He
sailed to Sault St. Marie, and acted in the capacity of cook.
The mate had laid in a barrel of whisky to supply the soldiers
in garrison at St. Mary's, and Bourdett was promised half
they could make if he would draw the whisky for those who
purchased it.
He had the good fortune to obtain quite a nice little
sum of money in his sailing operations. This money he
invested in calves. In 1825, he worked in the Bloomingville
brick yard for Dr. Strong. In 1836, he returned to Manluis, New
York, and was employed in making water lines for the Oswego
canal, the building of which had at that time just been
commenced. In 1837, he bought fifty-seven acres of land
for two hundred and fifty dollars, a part of the old Wood
homestead in Oxford, now owned by his son Thomas.
On this purchase he was enabled to pay sixty dollars. In
1839, he carried the mail from Sandusky to Bucyrus, receiving
four dollars and fifty cents per trip.
On the first day of January, 1839, he was married to
Miss Rhoda Harrington, daughter of Mr.
Seth Harrington. Industrious and frugal, Mrs.
Wood furnished valuable assistance to her husband in his
efforts to get a start in life. He soon found himself the
possessor of surplus funds, which he generously loaned to his
neighbors upon application. Finally, old man Coggswell
said to him: "Charge for the use of your money. It is no
use to keep a cow unless you milk her." Adopting this sage
advice, he began to loan money in small sums, and the accruing
interest soon began to tell in his favor. About the year
1840, he began to buy and sell stock. He and Uncle
Nat. Chapman associated themselves together in the
business of buying horses and sheep, for cash, in Holmes and
Tuscarawas counties, bringing them to Huron and Erie counties,
and selling them on credit to responsible farmers, and in 1844,
he and Mr. Chairman began the purchase of western
lands. About this time they secured fifteen hundred acres
of the Wyandott reservation, and in 1853 they bought
twenty-three hundred acres in Iowa, mostly in Tama county.
He began the purchase of lauds also in Erie county, buying and
selling, and always reaping a gain.
In 1846, he removed to Bellevue with his family, and
from this time forward made money-lending the leading specialty
of his business. In 1871 he associated himself with
Abishai Woodward and E. J. Sheffield in the
banking business, under the firm name of Wood,
Woodward & Co., and when the bank was reorganized as a stock
company, Mr. Wood was
made president of the institution - a position he still retains.
Mr. and Mrs. Wood are the parents of the
following children:
1. Jasper, born Nov. 15, 1839. He is a
resident of Bureau county, Illinois, and a very successful
farmer and stock raiser.
2. Emeline Adelia, born May 6, 1831. She
is the wife of Peter G. Sharp, and resides near Stockton,
California.
3. Richard Boylston, born Dec. 3, 1833,
was killed at the battle of Tunnel Hill, Georgia, Feb.
35, 1864. He was captain of a company of cavalry soldiers,
and a gallant soldier, a brave and efficient officer.
4. Henry Bourdett, born July 35, 1834,
died April, 1873.
5. Elizabeth Malvina, born Mar. 19, 1836.
She is the wife of Adam Burgett, a wholesale boot
and shoe merchant of Toledo, Ohio.
6. Benjamin Lester, born June 31, 1838.
7. Florella Sophia, born Sept. 7, 1840,
died May 14, 1866, of consumption. She was a young lady of
much attractiveness and superior mental qualities.
8. Thomas Corwin, born Apr. 37, 1843.
He resides in Bellevue.
9. Susan C., born Aug. 7, 1844. She became
the wife of W. W. Williams Apr. 9, 1868, and died of
consumption Nov. 5, 1873. In the western home in which she
lived during her wedded life, she won many friends, by whom her
memory is cherished with pleasing recollections.
10. Julia Louisa, born Feb. 28, 1847.
She is the wife of James B. Wood, of Bellevue, Ohio,
whose home she renders blessed.
On the first day of January last, the relatives and
friends of Mr. and Mrs. Wood assembled at their residence
in Bellevue, and celebrated with them their
golden wedding. The occasion was one of the pleasantest,
to all participants, that ever took place within that quiet
village.
Mr. Wood is now in his seventy-seventh
year, but possesses as much vitality as the average man of
fifty. He has hardly ever known a sick day, and the
prospect that a dozen years or more may yet be added to his days
is not discouraging. Physically, so sound and
well-preserved, he is no less so mentally. He attends to
all the details of his extensive business, and, though his
memory is becoming treacherous, his judgment is as unerring, his
discernment as acute, his reasoning faculties as sound, as they
ever have been.
Mr. Wood is a man of clearly-defined
traits of character and mental characteristics. In manner,
often abrupt and blunt, he nevertheless possesses a kindliness
of heart that is rarely found beneath so rough an exterior.
No man in need, whom he believes to be deserving, has ever
appealed to him in vain. Schooled in the methods of
money-lending, and having become naturally cautious and careful
as to his securities, he has loaned money to hundreds of people,
who had no security to offer him, and toward whom he has stood
wholly in the light of their benefactor. The number of
persons who will accord to him the praise of being thus their
friend in need, assisting them to get started in life, is by no
means small. He has, in this way, lost thousands of
dollars, sometimes without benefiting those he designed to help,
but oftener bestowing a benefit that has aided those struggling
with adversity to regain their feet, and at last to reach a sure
and safe foundation. Perhaps it is only just to say that
no other man in this community, had he double the amount of
means, would take half the risks thus incurred by Mr.
Wood.
On his seventieth birthday he gave to each of his eight
children the neat little sum of ten thousand dollars.
Mr. Wood was for a number of years a
justice of the peace, a position he tilled with much credit, no
decision of his having ever been reversed by a superior court.
He generally votes with the republican party, but has little
confidence in men who gain power, believing that as a general
rule politicians are chiefly concerned in feathering well their
own nests, and that the best of them make the well being of the
people, whose interests they should faithfully serve, a
secondary object. Had he his way he would revolutionize
the methods of conducting affairs, and so simplify governmental
and punitory matters as to greatly curtail expenses and lessen
crime.
He is not a member of any church, but Mrs. Wood
has been for many years a faithful and consistent member of the
Protestant Episcopal church. The two daughters that died,
were, and the three daughters that still live, are communicants
of the same church.
Source: 1808 History of the Firelands comprising Huron and
Erie Counties, Ohio - Publ. 1879 - Page 412 |
