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Kinyon Digital Library

History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

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Joel C. Wood.

Joel C. Wood has passed the seventy-eighth milestone on life's journey and now in the evening of his days is living retired in Greenfield, having a pleasant home surrounded by two acres of land.  The care of his place occupies his attention and thus his days are quietly and pleasantly passed.

On the 22d of May, 1837, he was born, his native state being Ohio.  His parents were Asa and Lucina (Clemmons) Wood, the former a native of New York and the latter of the Buckeye state, to which Asa Wood removed in early life.  He always engaged in farming and carried on agricultural pursuits in Ohio until 1840, when he removed to Ogle county, Illinois, where he purchased land which he continued to cultivate until death ended his labors in 1895.  His widow survived him for only one week.

Joel C. Wood was reared in Ogle county and is indebted to its public-school system for the educational privileges which he enjoyed.  In 1856 he went to California, spending three years upon the Pacific coast, and on his return to the middle west he established his home in Tama county, Iowa, where he had previously purchased land.  After a year, however, he removed to Benton county, where he spent one year and then returned to Tama county.  On the 15th of July, 1862, he offered his services to the government as a defender of the Union cause and joined the boys in blue of Company F, Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry, with which he served until honorably discharged June 29, 1865.  On one occasion he sustained a bullet wound and he still has a piece of shell imbedded in his hand.  After the war he returned to Tama county but after a brief period disposed of his property there and went to Taylor county, Iowa, where he purchased eighty acres of land, cultivating that tract for about two years.  On selling out there he removed to Blair, Nebraska, but later returned to Tama county, Iowa, and in 1894 removed to Carroll county, this state.  In 1899 he came to Adair county but subsequently spent two years in Missouri and at the end of that time returned to this county, where he purchased his present place of two acres in Greenfield and retired from active life.

On the 26th of October, 1865, Mr. Wood was united in marriage to Miss Hannah E. Jack, a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Dunham) Jack, natives of Pennsylvania and New Jersey respectively.  They became pioneer settlers of Tama county, Iowa, establishing their home within its borders when the work of development and improvement seemed scarcely begun there.  The father devoted his remaining days to the cultivation of a farm, upon which he passed away in 1883, while his wife died in 1881.  Mr. and Mrs. Wood became the parents of ten children, as follows:  Asa, who is a resident of Warsaw, Missouri;   Joseph C., living in Bridgewater, this county;  Mary L., at home;  Joshua, who resides in Dexter, Iowa;  Dudley, of Eureka township, this county;  Theo, living near Bridgewater, this county;  Garfield, who follows farming in Harrison county, Iowa;  John, an agriculturist of Cass county;  Emmett, living in Greenfield, Iowa;  and Hannah E., who is the wife of Clarence Rivenburgh, a farmer of Summerset township.  The wife and mother of this family passed away September 25, 1901, leaving behind her many warm friends.

In religious faith Mr. Wood is a representative of the Society of Friends, while his political belief is that of the republican party.  He has ever been interested in affairs relating to the best interests of the community and for thirteen years he served as school director in his district.  Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, having joined the order in 1866, and he is also identified with the Grand Army of the Republic.  He is now serving as a commissioner of the Soldiers Relief Fund and he takes the deepest interest in his old army comrades.  In matters of citizenship he has ever been as true and loyal as when he followed the old flag on southern battlefields and aided in the military movements which resulted in planting the nation's starry banner in the capital of the southern Confederacy.  Patriotism has always been one of his strong characteristics and his interest in the welfare and progress of his community is deep and sincere.

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