BIOGRAPHY: Wood, Alonzo Pelham
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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	ALONZO PELHAM WOOD was born in the town of Little Compton, Rhode Island, in the 
month of August., 1817.  At about the age of twelve he began working in a newspaper office (in the 
neighboring village of Fall River, Massachusetts), and with the exception of some time afterwards spent 
in school, continued to be so employed until he reached his majority. Subsequently to this he spent some 
time (principally in the capacity of a working printer) at different points in the middle and south western 
states, occasionally during the time, contributing articles for the press, and during most of one year was 
employed in reading elementary law works with a view to ultimately entering the legal profession.

	In 1841-'42, while residing in Cincinnati, Ohio, he became a participant in an active and 
somewhat excited political discussion, then being carried on in that city between the Whig and 
Democratic parties, involving more particularly the doctrine of protection to domestic industry.  Mr. 
Wood espoused the Whig side of the controversy, and championed the policy of protection, against the 
assault of some of the most noted free traders of that period and locality (among others, Elwood Fisher), 
who were making strenuous efforts to implant their doctrines in the minds of the people of Cincinnati.

	Early in 1841, Mr. Wood was invited to become the editor of the Iowa Standard, a Whig 
newspaper recently established at Iowa City, then the seat of government of the Territory of Iowa.  This 
invitation he accepted, and continued to occupy the position for about four years, being also, a portion 
of the time, the owner of the establishment.  But the Whig party being steadily in a minority, both in the 
immediate locality of publication and in the territory at large, The Standard failed to receive sufficient 
support to protect it against pecuniary difficulties, and in 1845 Mr. Wood began to contemplate a 
change of location.  He finally determined on removing to Dubuque, the wealthiest, and at the same 
time the most intensely Democratic town in the territory, and where a Whig paper had but recently been 
discontinued from lack of support.  This purpose was carried into effect in the Fall of 1846, and the 
Dubuque Tribune established.  Friends, both personal and political, were free in expressing the opinion 
that the enterprise would prove unsuccessful.  It was, however, steadily persisted in, although 
encountering many difficulties, one of which was the establishing of a rival sheet, that its independent 
course provoked into existence in 1848.  This rivalry was protracted through a period of about two 
years, when the opposition paper became absorbed in the Tribune, which from that time held undisputed 
position as the leading Whig journal of Northern Iowa.  In 1854, on account of impaired health, brought 
about by excessive application to business, Mr. Wood relinquished the management of the Tribune, to 
other hands.     

After retiring from the newspaper business, Mr. Wood became somewhat largely engaged in 
real estate operations; but these were brought to a sudden and disastrous close by the great panic of 
1857.

During several months of 1857, Mr. Wood was the editor and publisher of the Dubuque 
Republican, a daily and weekly paper, devoted especially to the advocacy of the present Constitution of 
the State of Iowa, which was voted upon and adopted in the Fall of that year.  Soon after the close of the 
canvass, the Republican was discontinued, its subscription list being transferred to The Tribune.

For some time after this second retiracy from editorial life, Mr. Wood entertained the purpose of 
writing a history of Iowa, as a territory and state, but was eventually let to relinquish this plan in favor 
of a history of the part taken by the state in the war of the Rebellion.  With the latter object in view, he 
began accumulating data a considerable time in advance of the close of the war, and continued for about 
two years after that event – the process proving much more tedious than was anticipated in the 
beginning.  It ultimately became Mr. Wood's determination, however, to make the Iowa work a 
stepping stone to a general history of the war, and for this reason a much grater degree of care was 
exercised in gathering acts from every portion of the war field, and investigating the details of 
movements and battles, while the actors in them were still accessible to be consulted, than would have 
been justified for a state history alone. Work was closed on the Iowa history in the Spring of 1875, and 
it now passing through the press.  When its publication shall have been completed, the labor of 
amplifying its mater into a national history will be begun.