John Wood, Jr.

Biographical Summary:

"...John Wood (1813-1890) was born 2 March 1813 in Newcastle Township, Coshocton County, Ohio. Named after his father, he was the sixth child and fourth son of John Wood (1776) and Susannah Shrimplin. The records of his father's ancestry are vague and difficult to find. They owned property in Wellsburg, Brooke County, West Virginia from 1798 to 1805, and records show the property was sold in 1804. In 1806 the family lived in Clinton Township, Fairfield County, Ohio. In 1808, the area was then named Union Township, Knox County, Ohio. When Coshocton County was formed three years later in 1811, their farm was placed under the jurisdiction of Newcastle Township, Coshocton County, Ohio. While they lived at this location, their son, John was born in 1813.

Susannah Shrimplin, John's (1813) mother, was born about 1782 in Londonderry Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the fourth child and first daughter of John and Mary Shrimplin. Her family came from Ormesby, Norfolk County, England. John and Susannah were married about 1800. Although the exact date is not known, their marriage was estimated from their first acquaintance in 1798 or 1799 and the birth of their first child. They were married in Independence, Hopewell Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, where Susannah's step-nephew was minister of a frontier church.

In the 1808 U.S. Census, the Wood family was recorded as residents of Union Township, Knox County, Ohio. In the 1820 census, twelve years later, they were counted as residents of Newcastle Township, Coshocton County, Ohio. Their youngest son James was born in Newcastle Township in 1824. This is the latest documented record we have of John (1776) as a resident of the state of Ohio.

Sometime after 1824, the family moved from Coshocton County to Pierson Township, Vigo County, Indiana. The elder John Wood (1776) family was in the 1830 census but probably were not property owners at the time. John Wood (1813) and his brother William moved to Tazewell County, Illinois in 1833 where they jointly purchased eighty acres of land. Then each of the brothers later purchased forty more acres in 1836. That same year, their father, John (1776), also purchased forty acres of land in Tazewell County.

On 4 September 1836 John Wood (1813) married Jane Mathews in Pekin, Tazewell County, Illinois. They subsequently became the parents of two children, Henry and Mary. Six years later, on 16 June 1842, Jane died from a Staphlococcus infection, a severe epidemic rampant that year. The two children, Henry and Mary, died in Tazewell County at about the same time, probably from the same virulent infection. At the time of this tragedy, Jane's husband, John (1813), his brothers Abraham and Levi, and sister Charlotte were in Grant County, Wisconsin cutting timber to power Mississippi River steamboats Here they escaped the infection that took the lives of John's family in Illinois. The reason for their absence was to earn funds to purchase new property in Wisconsin.

Between 1836 and 1844 the Wood family came in contact with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. John (1776) and his son, Levi, joined the church sometime between 1840 and 1842. All records of this event have been lost. However, many years later in 1885, John (1813) ackknowledged their membership in Logan Temple records. In addition to this fragment of information, an unsigned missionary journal reported that two Elders organized a branch of the Church at Pekin, Illinois, (referred to as a branch presidency), and baptized more than forty people. They did not give dates nor did they record the names of those called or baptized. The Wood family members were probably numbered among those new converts.

After John (1813) lost his family in the 1842 epidemic, he sold his property in Tazewell County and moved to Grant County, Wisconsin with his brother Abraham about three years later in 1845. His brother Levi followed at a later time. John (1813) returned briefly to Tazewell County to complete the sale of his property. After his mother, Susannah, died about 1839, his father, John Wood (1776) married Elizabeth Simpson 9 March 1844 at Pekin, Illinois. Five months after this marriage, John (1776) died (8 August 1844) in Tazewell County from the same continuing Staphlococcus epidemic that had taken the lives of his son's wife and children two years earlier.

After his move to Wisconsin, in Jamestown Township, Grant County, Wisconsin, John Wood (1813) met and married Naomi Chase Lane, a widow with three small daughters, 27 December 1849. One year later, on 28 December 1850 a daughter, Jane, was born. This baby died eleven months later in November 1851.

Both John (1813) and Naomi had heard of Mormonism and met with Elders in Jamestown, but neither was ready to accept it at the time. However, they joined a company of Mormon pioneers in the emigration to Salt Lake City in 1853. They identified themselves as California pioneers. According to Naomi, they reasoned that if it did not work out in Utah with the Mormons, they could go on to California.

Naomi described little of the trek across the Great Plains in her journal. Although their trip was initially delayed for two weeks because of an inflammation in John's eyes, they arrived in Salt Lake on 23 July 1853. California must have lost it's appeal, for three months later, on 21 October 1853 both John (1813) and Naomi were baptized into the Church in City Creek on the northeast corner of the Temple block in Salt Lake City.

Their lives for the next ten or fifteen years is well documented in Naomi's journal. In 1856 each received endowments in the Salt Lake Endowment House. Naomi was sealed to John and then stood as proxy for him to be sealed to his first wife, Jane Mathews. Naomi was also sealed to her first husband, Hyrum Mead Lane on the same date.

Their son John, born 25 February 1858, was born under the Covenant and as such remains sealed to his father through the Priesthood. According to church policy, the rights of the covenant belong to the child born in the covenant, not to the parents of the child. This is important because on 22 August 1866 Naomi and John were divorced and their sealing cancelled. Nearly a century later, on 16 September 1964 in the Salt Lake Temple, all six of the children were sealed to Hyrum Mead Lane. This included the three children of Hyrum Mead Lane: Alnora Naomi Lane (1843), Delia (1845), and Maria Meady (1847), and the three children of John Wood (1813): Jane (1850), Emma (1853), and John (1858). However, it has since been determined that the sealing of John (1858) to Hyrum Mead Lane on that date was invalid.

John Wood (1813) obtained a grant of 160 acres of land in Richville, Morgan County, Utah under the Homestead Act. The deed to his property was signed by Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States. John (1813) remained active in the Church in Richville until his death.

One story of John (1813) was recorded in 'Western Trails,' the story of the younger John Wood (1858). John (1813) in his old age had a stiff leg as a result of an old injury. "With a kind, lovable disposition he very seldom got out of patience, but one day as the good hearted old man was trying to drive a calf into a pen, the one place it could not see was the door. After a number of escapes, John's anger began to rise. As the calf ran past him, he grabbed it by the tail. The calf pulled and John pulled but the bovine had the better end of the argument. In order to save himself further embarrassment and to turn defeat into victory, John kicked at the head of the calf with his stiff leg. That member, not being in good control, was aimed too high and to his great chagrin, swung clear of the head, over the back and to the opposite side of the struggling calf. The kick completely turned him around with the calf's tail between the old man's legs and both pulling with all their might. Up to this time he had been only aware of his objective but now he saw the situation of his watching audience bursting with hilarious laughter, the anger turned to utter embarrassment. Needless to say, the calf won the day."

On Christmas Day, 25 December 1867, John (1813) married Elizabeth Gower Clark, whose first husband, Daniel Clark, had died while crossing the plains. Elizabeth's three orphaned grandchildren lived with them from 1872 until Elizabeth's death ten years later. After she died in 1882 her sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Emeline Crouch, kept house for John (1813). The younger John (1858) at age eighteen came from the Bear Lake area to take care of the farm and his aging father. John (1858) did not believe there were eligible young women to marry in Richville. When he mentioned this to his Father, his Father replied, "Why not marry Emeline." Seven years later, in 1889, he married Emeline. John (1858) later told his grandchildren, in jest, that he married his own sister. In one sense he did, because they had lived as brother and sister in the same household from about 1883 to 1889.

The elder John Wood (1813) died of pneumonia in Richville on 21 March 1890 at the age of 77 after a long and productive life. He is buried in Richville, Morgan County, Utah. Brigham Young had told him years before to write down the history of his ancestors. He did not do as he was told and many years of research have gone into rectifying his neglect.

Joel Ricks knew John (1813) and said of him, "He was a true Southern gentleman." This was meant as the highest of compliments..."

SOURCE: Compiled from genealogical research, 'Western Trails' and 'The Autobiography of Naomi Chase Lane.'