Santa Cruz-El Dorado-Nevada County CA Archives Biographies.....Wood, James 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 27, 2007, 12:23 pm

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll, Editor (1893)

JAMES WOOD is one of the early settlers of the Pajaro valley. He came direct
from the town of Monmouth, Illinois, crossing the plains with teams. He made the
trip in company with a party of emigrants and their route lay through Salt Lake,
and Carson Canon. The company was made up of about 160 persons, who were under
the direction of Captain Clapp. Typhoid fever and malaria, known in those days
as mountain cholera, affected this party, of whom forty-seven died, and were
buried along the route. The company had organized at Council Bluffs, where
parties were usually formed, some as small as four or five teams of oxen. Here
it was that our party had their first glimpse of the "red men," but as they
belonged to the friendly Pawnee tribe, the company experienced no trouble from
them, nor could they complain of any of the savages along the entire route.

  Upon arrival in California Mr. Wood spent his first winter at Placerville, but
in February went to the Feather river mines and spent six weeks. Here he was
compelled to pay $300 for a bag of flour, and all other provisions were
proportionately high, and his mining tools were very expensive. The bed of the
Feather river at that time showed rich deposits of gold, but very few had time
to stop to secure it, although it was in sight. They were bound for richer fields.

  Mr. Wood went to Grass valley, and arrived there with a lame mule and
twenty-five cents in cash as the extent of his worldly possessions. At this
place he received $10 per day for his work, and soon opened and operated a
miners' hotel. In 1853 he located in Pajaro valley, where there were but two
houses, one of which, an old adobe, is now occupied by William Spiegles, a
pioneer of Monterey county.

  Mr. Wood purchased 300 acres of land in this valley, in 1855, and he now has a
fine home of twenty-six acres at Pajaro Station.

  Mr. Wood married, in 1884, Elizabeth (Gruewell) Taylor, a widow of William C.
Taylor, deceased. She is a native of Indiana, and was born at Boonsville. She is
a daughter of Jonathan Gruewell. Mr. Wood and his wife have three children:
James L., born July 6, 1885; Hazel, born April 19, 1887; and one born April 12,
1891.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."-Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.

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