My Wood Family
My Wood Grandparents My Wood Great Grandparents Family Bible John Wood Sr's Will
This is the line of my father Clifford R Wood (1910-1967)and his father, and my namesake, Walter George Wood (1874-1959).
See historical Wood Family Photos
I believe my oldest known ancestor in this line is John Wood Sr born circa 1734/1740 and lived on his farm in Derry Twp., Mifflin Co., PA. John's. friend and neighbor at various times was Nathaniel (Nathan) Manning and his wife Jane lived in Beaver and Penn's Townships, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Prior to Nathan's residence in 1785 Pennsylvania it is believed he was a native of New Jersey and had resided in Sussex County. An article on the Mannings from the [History of] Clermont County, Ohio 1880 is available. (Note that there is more than one book with this or a similar title.)
John's children were Mary, John Jr., Jeriah, Catherine, Joseph, Anna, David (Sr.), Jean, Elizabeth and Martha. Nathan's children were Mary, Elisha, John, Richard and Joshua. Five of the Wood children, Jeriah, Catherine, Jean, Elizabeth and Martha married into the Manning family. (Not much is known about Mary Wood who died before John Wood's estate was settled in 1804.)
During the American Revolution, David Wood Sr. served as a private in the 7th Virginia Regiment. An inscription memorializing his service is chiseled into a creek stone monument that stands in the private David Wood burial ground on Turkey Foot Road, Washington Township, Clermont County, Ohio.
John Wood Sr. died in January 1799. From his Last Will and probate records we can judge from his varied Inventory of possessions probated after his death just how self-sufficient his household was in the production of not only food and shelter, but in hide tanning for boots and shoes, harness, saddles, and straps, as well as in linen and woolen cloth-making: starting with flax seed and sheep on the hoof and proceeding through every process to the looming of home spun fabrics. Bee hives for honey. Cows for milk and butter. Oxen for plowing. Barrels for sweet cider. Meat tubs for sausage making. Pots for pickling. A clue to a less primitive frontier heritage may be seen in the Delft china plate and the tole ware dish sold at the estate sale (Vendue) and also by the "assortment of books, which were not put into the sale by the Executors. Very possibly Executor John Wood, Jr., a future Associate Justice of the Clermont County (OH) Court of Common Pleas, kept his father's treasured books.
I have had Y-DNA analysis performed for myself and using those matches, I created an Ancestry Wood YDNA tree for my matches ancestors along with other WOOD(s) who originated in eastern PA or NJ in the 1700s. However at this time, the father of my John Wood Sr has not been identified. If anyone has more information on this family please contact me.
See a Descendancy Chart for John Wood Sr.
John's and Nathan's children migrated westward from Pennsylvania. A significant part of the migration route west was likely down the Ohio River. Some of them initially settled in Mason Co. Kentucky around 1792/3. We also know that a group of them left Kentucky iabout 1795, crossing the Ohio River to established a settlement known as Manning (or Wood-Manning) Station in present day Clermont Co. Ohio just east of Cincinnati. This settlement is documented in the book HISTORY OF CLERMONT COUNTY, OHIO 1880; Washington Township; P. 362 - 366.
About the same time (fall of 1795) John, David, and Jeriah Wood and Elisha and John Manning, brothers-in-law of the former (the Woods), with their families, came from Kentucky, and after some difficulty succeeded in reaching a fine spring about a mile from the cabin of William Buchanan, where they determined to locate temporarily. After the pioneer manner in Kentucky, they erected a stockade of heavy timber around their buildings and a small clearing for protection against possible attack by the Indians, who had not yet entirely left the country. This was known to the settlers as Manning's Station and later, from the owner, as Miller's Station.
The station was never attacked, but it gave the occupants and the people in that part of the county a sense of security which they could not have felt without its existence. It is related that the station was a general resort for the incoming settlers, and that Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone sometimes sojourned there. On many occasions William Buchanan would take his family and cattle to the stockade and abide there until the presence of Indians was no longer reported by the scouts.
For the first few years the Woods and Mannings occupied themselves in clearing up the land around the station, and some time before 1800 were rewarded for their labors by Nathaniel Massey, the agent of the owner of the Buckner survey, who gave them title-bonds for lands in neighboring surveys, on which they afterwards made their homes. The station and the surrounding improvements became the property of Martin Miller, and the timbers used in the construction of the stockade walls were early removed and used for other purposes.
John Wood, the eldest of the brothers that came to Manning's Station, was one of the early associate judges, and while attending court at Williamsburg fell ill dying the next day after he was brought to his home north of Neville. He had five sons and two daughters, Joseph, who married Mary Hodge and died in Tate sixty years ago; Absalom, the husband of the widow Buchanan; William removed to Illinois, as did also John and David; one of the daughters married David Jones, and the other Peter Collins, of Highland County.
David Wood, Sr. R.S. laid out a family cemetery prior to 1807 with ample ground for 300 graves, it was set off from his house and grounds, barns and fields by a stone wall, which once enclosed all four sides. The original entrance gate opened into a lane on the south side of the cemetery, which led to the house and barns. He and his wife Louisa (Smith) Wood, and her mother Elizabeth (?) Smith, together with at least five of their fourteen children are buried in the large private David Wood Cemetery, which lies to the north of his whitewashed two story brick house.
One of David Wood Sr.'s sons, David Jr., was a doctor and lived in Washington Twp., Clermont County, OH. In 1840 he married Mary Day daughter of Joseph B. Day and Deborah Lambert of Feesburg, Brown County, OH. Dr. David Wood owned a farm of 73 acres, 56 rods on Indian Creek in Washington Twp., from which he may have received a small income. He and his family lived in a house in the village of Point Isabel on a half-acre lot, where he also owned a frame office building and lot. His will demonstrated his high regard for education: he was emphatic that all his children should receive an education sufficient to become school teachers. Dr. David Wood died the first half of 1854 and was buried in the Wood Cemetery his father established. It has been noted that the year of death for Dr. Wood on his tombstone is erroneously carved as 1846, the death year of his father, David Wood, Sr.
Dr. David Wood's son George Absalom WOOD and his wife Lucy Ann TURNER are my great-grandparents. Their children were Frank, Mary, Walter George Wood (my grandfather) and Carl. I have extensive information on this family. I had met Uncle Carl when I was young but did not know that he had studied our family history. Early in my research I located the Family Bible given to George and Lucy by her parents, Ezekiel E Turner and (wife) Charlotte W Thomson. I also found a second cousin who had commissioned a professional genealogist, Clare McVickar Ward to prepare a report on this family and much of her material, plus photos of two houses they lived in, a church they attended and other information on George's and Lucy's family.
Continued on Family of My Great Grandparents George A and Lucy Turner Wood
Family Group Sheets are available for many of these WOOD, MANNING and other families originating in Clermont Co. Ohio.
For more information on the Manning Families see this article from the History of Clermont Co. Ohio, 1880
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