AARON WOOD was born in Guilford County, N. C., July 21, 1815, and is the eldest of the ten children born to Drury and Rodah (Shaw) Wood, both natives of Maryland. Drury Wood was a soldier in the war of 1812 ; lie was a farmer and was married in Guilford County, where he resided until 1831, when he moved to Washington County, this State, and in the spring of 1832 to Tippecanoe County, where he bought 160 acres of wild land, which he improved, but sold in 1848, when be came to Princeton Township and bought a farm on which he ended his earthly career November 10, 1856, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Aaron Wood, at the age of sixteen, began working out by the month ; in 1840, he went to Benton County and farmed on shares until the spring of 1846, when he came to Princeton Township and opened a general store; in 1847, he moved to Oxford, Benton County, and kept store until 1852, then kept store in Pine Village, Warren County, one year. returned to Princeton Township and engaged in farming and store-keeping until December, 1854, when he sold his farm and moved his store to Reynolds. In the fall of 1861, he enlisted in Company C, Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of his term of service, December., 1864. He took part in the battles of New Madrid, Riddle's Point, Fort Pillow, Memphis, St. Charles, Port Gibson, Champion Hill and Vicksburg. On his return to Reynolds, he re-embarked in mercantile trade, and is now dealing in groceries and hardware. He is a Democrat, and since 1865 has been Justice of the Peace, which office he also held four years before the war; he also was Postmaster four years before and one year after the war. His first wife (Margaret Sherry) bore him three children and died in the spring of 1852 ; in January, 1853, he married Mahala Hooker, who also bore him three children and died in 1858; in April, 1865, he married Nancy Paterson, who has borne him five children.
**The Following Contributed by Mike Woods
Aaron Wood
Monticello Herald
Obituary, January 24, 1889 (73 yrs. Old)
Pg. 5 Col. 4
Aaron Wood, the venerable Justice of the Peace at Reynolds, died on the 23rd inst. and was buried with Masonic honors on Friday, Rev. W. B. Slutz preaching a funeral discourse in the Methodist Church at that place. The deceased was a native of North Carolina, whence he first moved to Ohio, thence to Tippecanoe County, this state, and afterward to Reynolds, where he has resided for the last 36 years. For 26 years of this time he held the office of Justice of the Peace. He was a member of the 46 Regiment Ind. Vols. and served his country gallantly during the war. He leaves a wife and five children, most of them grown. His funeral was attended by a large concourse of friends and neighbors who have known him for years.
James R. Wood
History of White County, Pg. 515
An old settler of White County, James R. Wood was born in North Carolina, July 3, 1829. His father located in West Point Township in 1846. In 1856 Mr. Wood purchased and located on a farm just south of Wolcott, where he remained the rest of his life. He was married on April 14, 1857, to Esther Thomas. To them were born three children, only one of whom, Erasmus M., is still living. His widow and one grandson, Garey, are also still living, all residents of Wolcott. Mr. Wood was a member of company K, 12th Indiana Cavalry. He was next to youngest of ten children. His youngest sister and the only surviving member of the family is Emily J. Johnson, whose husband, Jeremiah J. Johnson, was killed at Jackson, Mississippi, and she is now in the hospital at the State Soldiers’ Home at Lafayette. He died November 14, 1902.
Emily J. Wood (Johnson)
History of White County, Page 466
Emily J. Johnson
One of the human links connecting Monticello with the days of the revolution was broken in the death of Mrs. Johnson, which occurred July 17, 1915, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. P. Simons, in Monticello. Her father Drewry Wood, was born in North Carolina, September 27, 1785, and her Mother, Rhoda (Shaw) Wood, was born March 1, 1792, They were married August 21, 1814, and came to White County, locating West of Wolcott in 1846. Here her Father Drewry Wood died in 1856, but the mother lived on till 1878. Emily J. Wood was born in Tippecanoe County Indiana, June 13, 1832. She was married to Jeremiah B. Johnson, September 16, 1854. He was wounded at the Battle of Jackson, Mississippi July 10, 1863 and died July 19. She remained a war widow the rest of her life. Her only son, Edgar A. Johnson, died in 1904. She left surviving two daughters Mrs. Rhoda DeForest of Chicago, and Mrs. Sallie E. Simons of Monticello.
Drury Wood, born 1785-died 1856
History of White County, Page 283
Land Entries 1847-51
Probably at the time (1853) these two well known residents settled in West Point Township its entire fifty four square miles could not show twenty five families. Many of those who came during the period previous to the early 50s were single young men, some of them speculating and others prospecting for future homes. Those who entered lands from 1845 to1852 were as follows: In 1847-John Nyce, Sarah Adams, Samuel P. Edmonson, Sarah J. Halstead and Walter Mc Farland, in section 4 and Isaac S. Vinson in section 12; in 1848- Isaac M. Cantwell in section 9 and Nicholas Van Pelt and Samuel McFeer in section 10; in 1849- John Herron in section 2, Drury Wood in section 5; Grant Wynkoop and James Wynkoop in sections 6 and 7; Peter B. Kennedy in section 7; Henry Britton in section 12, and Marquia Higson in section 22; Eli Meyers in section 12, in 1850. In 1851- James A. Stroud, in section 6, and Daniel Davis, in section 23.
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