Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Wood, John H. December 4, 1816 - August 4, 1892
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr orr@hawaii.com October 8, 2009, 2:28 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by The Honolulu Star Bulletin, Territory of Hawaii 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

JOHN H. WOOD, Pioneer Merchant and Planter. A passenger to Hawaii in 1846 on 
the same historic vessel, the brig “Henry,” which carried as his fellow 
passengers, E. L. Lee, later a famous chief justice of Hawaii and chancellor 
of the kingdom, and Charles R. Bishop, one of the great early builders of 
Hawaii, John H. Wood also was destined to take his place among the noted 
pioneers who aided in the development of the islands.
  Soon after reaching Honolulu, Mr. Wood erected the first brick building in 
the city, on the site of the present Henry Waterhouse Trust Co., Ltd., and 
opened a shoe store, where he was in business for twenty years. In 1849, upon 
the discovery of gold in California, he formed a company with six others and 
his brother, Oral Wood, who had accompanied him to Hawaii three years before, 
and they went to California and mined for a brief period. He then returned to 
his former home in Massachusetts via Panama, married Sarah Hardy, daughter of 
Temple Hardy of Salem, Mass., purchased a large stock of goods and came back 
to the islands with his bride and a cousin, the late Jacob Hardy, for some 
years a district judge on the Island of Kauai. Mr. Wood arrived in Honolulu 
for the second time in May, 1850.
  A year later, Mr. Wood purchased a house lot, 200 feet square, on Nuuanu 
Street and sent to Boston for a sectional house, which was the Wood family’s 
home for decades. For thirty years he was the owner of that large tract of 
land in Nuuanu Valley, now known as the Dowsett Tract, and in 1863 took charge 
of his sugar plantation there, two and a half miles from the Honolulu of that 
day, the first plantation on this side of the Pali and one of the first on the 
Island of Oahu. There he continued the cultivation of sugar cane and the 
manufacture of sugar until 1871, when he converted the property into a stock 
and dairy farm.
  Mr. Wood held several government commissions under the Monarchy. His counsel 
was sought in affairs of state, and he was a deep student of scientific 
subjects, besides being intensely interested in the importation and 
cultivation of rare trees and shrubs.
  Born in Littleton, Mass., Dec. 4, 1816, Mr. Wood was the son of Carshena and 
Tryphena (Lawrence) Wood. With his brother-in-law, B. W. Priest, he learned 
the trade of a shoemaker and continued in that business until he left for 
Hawaii. Mr. Wood and his first wife had two daughters, Florence, who later 
became the wife of Pierre Jones, an instructor at Punahou and St. Alban’s 
Schools and a descendant of a Russian princess; and Stella May, now Mrs. 
Albert F. Dixon, widow of the late Captain Dixon, U.S.N. Mrs. Jones resides in 
Honolulu and is custodian of the Queen Emma Home. She was a lifelong friend of 
the late queen and among her cherished possessions today are ninety-two 
letters written to her by Queen Emma, and photographs and autographs of 
various members of the Hawaiian royal house. Mrs. Jones is the mother of Miss 
Maude Jones, librarian in the Honolulu Public Library; Mrs. Nathan L. Coleman 
of Hollywood, Calif., and George Douglas Jones, head of the Lawn-Vac Co. of 
Sacramento, Calif., and inventor of the electric vacuum lawn mower. Mrs. Jones 
has one granddaughter, Miss Marie Malulani Lyon, who resides with her mother, 
Mrs. Nathan L. Coleman, at Hollywood. The first Mrs. John H. Wood, mother of 
Mrs. Jones, died in 1860. Mr. Wood later re-married. He died in Honolulu on 
Aug. 4, 1892.


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