JOHN J. WOOD

FROM: The History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin, and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887).  P. 754-755.

          John J. Wood, farmer, of Dahlgren Township, was born in Meigs County, Ohio, June 10, 1840, the third of eleven children--four deceased--of Caleb and Anne C. (McDowell) Wood. The father, English in origin, was born in the same county in 1800.  The mother, Scotch and German in ancestry, was born in 1809, in Gallia County, Ohio. They were married in Meigs, County, where the mother's parents had settled in 1824 ; the father was a farmer, and both died in that county in 18714 and 1881, the latter the date of the mother's death. With a limited education, our subject when nineteen began a roving career by first making for Pike's Peak.  He finally came to Hamilton County, and in July, 1861, enlisted in Company G, Fortieth Illinois Infantry, at Leovilla, was at Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge., and with Sherman to the sea. He received four wounds: one in the mouth, at Jackson, Miss.; the left thigh and knee at Missionary Ridge, and in the lower right leg in Grizzleville, Ga.  He was honorably discharged at Louisville, in August 1865. He then began farming in Hamilton County, and in January, 1868, married, and after a year's visit in Ohio, settled on his present farm in Section 18, Township 4 south, Range 5 east. His wife, Catherine, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Oglesby) Burton, was born January 8, 1845, in this county. Their eight children are John T., Sarah C., Emma T., William P., Edward E., Jennie D., Carrie L. and Lewis C. A boy and girl are also deceased. Although hindered much in life by sickness, our subject has succeeded in owning a finely cultivated farm of 100 acres, nearly all improved. He has been locally prominent as a Republican, casting his first vote for Grant, and has held the office of school director for sixteen years, and justice for eight years. He is an Odd Fellow, Dahlgren Lodge, in which he has filled all the chairs, a member of the encampment at McLeansboro, and of the F. M. B. A., Moore's Prairie Lodge. He and his wife are Christians, but have no church near of which to be members.