Lake-Vigo County IN Archives Biographies.....Wood, Thomas J. 1844 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 3, 2007, 10:18 pm Author: T. H. Ball (1904) THOMAS J. WOOD. Thomas J. Wood, man of affairs at Crown Point, a leader in the Democratic party, and one of the most prominent lawyers in northwestern Indiana, has a career of unusual interest from whatever point of view it is beheld. In his early years he made his own way and paid from his own earnings for his educational advantages. When he entered the political field it was as a man of principles and definite convictions, and it is universally true that the man who stands for something is certain to have many loyal adherents and sincere admirers. For a number of years Mr. Wood has wielded a large influence in public and party affairs, as many offices of honor and trust held by him would indicate, and his work has assumed national importance since Indiana has become one of the "doubtful" states in national elections. Mr. Wood is a man of the highest integrity, and prosecutes both private and public affairs with an eye to the highest welfare of the community and state. Mr. Wood was born in Athens county, Ohio, September 30, 1844, being a son of Darius C. and Diana S. (Carter) Wood. His mother was a descendant of the great Carter family of Massachusetts. His father was a school teacher and farmer. This branch of the Wood family settled in America before the Revolutionary war, being of English and Welsh extraction. Their first home was at Litchfield, Connecticut, and later descendants of the family moved to Rochester, New York, and to the state of Michigan and to Ohio. Governor Wood of Ohio was of the family, as also was President Millard Fillmore. Many of Mr. Wood's relatives were soldiers and officers in the war for American independence, and some of his direct ancestors fell in the battles of Bunker Hill and Yorktown. When Thomas J. Wood was seven years old his father brought the family out to Indiana and settled on a farm near Terre Haute. The son lived at this place until he was twenty-two years old, spending much of his time in working on the farm. For two winters he attended the high school in Terre Haute, having gained his elementary education in the common schools of Vigo county. After his high school course he taught school for two years, and then took up the study of law in the office of Judge William Mack at Terre Haute. He later went to the Ann Arbor Law School, from which he graduated at the head of his class in 1868. For this literary and professional education he paid by his own efforts, either at manual labor or in teaching school. In his youth he formed excellent habits of industry and personal morality, and these staying principles have remained with him ever since. After he graduated at Ann Arbor he settled at Lowell in this county and began active practice of the law. He remained there only a short time, and in 1870 moved to Crown Point, where he has since carried on his extensive legal business, practicing in all the county, state and federal courts. He has been retained in many important cases, and in the course of his professional career he has handled nearly four thousand court causes. He is considered a safe and reliable counselor, and is one of the strongest advocates in this part of the state, being especially successful in jury trials. Mr. Wood's career in public life began soon after he entered upon the active work of his profession. He was elected to the offices of clerk and treasurer of Crown Point; was elected and held the office of state's attorney for two terms of two years each, from 1872 to 1876, and made a fine record in convicting criminals of all classes, from misdemeanors to murder. In 1876 he was elected state senator for Lake and Porter counties, and during his four years in that office was identified with much important legislation, and he stood among the pre-eminent debaters on the floor of the senate and was a leader on the Democratic side. His alertness to the true interests of both the country and his party is illustrated by an incident during his senatorial career. At a time when many of the Democratic senators were absent from the hall the Republicans took advantage of the occasion to call up some purely partisan legislation, hoping to get it through by whirlwind work before their opponents could rally their forces. Mr. Wood at once leaped into the breach by taking the floor and launching into a long-winded speech with a vehement arraignment of the Republican side, which he continued until the messengers could bring from various parts of the city the absentee Democratic members, thus restoring the normal equilibrium and saving the day for the party. While in the senate Mr. Wood pushed through much legislation affecting land titles all over the state. In 1882 he was elected to the forty-eighth Congress, representing for two years the old Colfax district. In this strong Republican district he was defeated for re-election, but by less than three hundred votes. It is said that he was defeated by Democratic votes in Valparaiso and Chesterton, one thousand dollars having been the price paid to withdraw enough venal Democrats from his support in order to accomplish his defeat. Previous to the last Democratic national convention Mr. Wood was a much talked of favorite for the presidential candidacy. He had friends at St. Louis from fifteen states, and had the Alton B. Parker movement failed on the first ballot Mr. Wood's name would have been placed before the convention and he would have received thirty-nine votes on the next ballot. Mr. Wood has been a prominent Mason for thirty years, being a Master and a Royal Arch Mason. He has been an Odd Fellow for twenty-five years. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Crown Point for sixteen years, and is a trustee and a member of the official board and active in church work, having filled the pulpit many times. May 11, 1871, Mr. Wood married Miss Mary E. Pelton, of Crown Point. Her mother, Eliza Pettibone, is the widow of the late Dr. Harvey Pettibone. Her father, Hiram S. Pelton, was a prominent business man in Lake county, a successful merchant, and a fine man and much beloved by the people, having been one of the first county commissioners. For his time he left quite a large estate. Mary E. Pelton was a relative of John W. Pelton, a nephew of Hon. Samuel J. Tilden, who was elected president of the United States by the people. Mr. and Mrs. Wood had seven children, but through the ravages of diphtheria lost five of them within six weeks. Mrs. Wood is a woman of splendid character and capabilities, motherly and kind-hearted, and one of the women who make great wives. Mr. Wood is personally a genial gentleman, wholly without deceit, straightforward, honest and earnest in all social relations. He is forceful in character, hates shams and puts truth and honesty above all other virtues, and is highly respected by all people of his community and acquaintance. He is himself above the low level of light amusements, many of which he holds as tending to the moral degeneracy of the race, but at the same time he is broad-minded and liberal in his outlook on life, is optimistic of the future, has no jealousy of others and is not willing to cast others aside in his own race for the best of the world's possessions, and, withal, looks constantly on the sunny side of life and wants to see men made better and happier. But most prominent of all his characteristics is his firm and unflinching devotion to what he sincerely believes to be right, and when the moral right and wrong are arrayed there is no doubt what side he will take. His own career has wrought out in him a sturdy independence and he feels thoroughly able to take care of himself on any proposition, and from this ability of self-control and direction of his energies into the channels which he chooses he is also able to give intelligent and valuable aid to causes and principles lying outside his own personal relations. He has pride in good moral society, believes in the beneficence of church influences for the betterment of the world, and his life has worked out for the general good and advancement of his fellow citizens. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/bios/wood650gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 9.0 Kb