Biography of Norman P. Wood This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography, including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1898. Page 367 Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved. NORMAN P. WOOD, editor and publisher of the Gary Interstate Paper, a weekly newspaper, was born in Thetford, Vermont, July 4, 1844, a son of Moses and Ruth Wood, both natives of Vermont, the former born January 30, 1800, and died June 30, 1874; and the mother born January 16, 1806, and died in 1882. At the age of ten years, Norman moved with his parents to Sauk county, Wisconsin, and there attended the district school and spent three months in the academy at Milton, leaving that institution to enlist, February 9, 1865, at Milton, in Company D, Forty-ninth Infantry of Wisconsin, and in April went with the command to Rolla, Missouri, and later to St. Louis and did guard duty there. He was discharged at St. Louis and returned to Madison, Wisconsin, and farmed for a time in Sauk county. November 26, 1868, Mr. Wood was united in marriage to Miss Rose H. Young, a native of Utica, New York, born September 23, 1859, of English parents. After his marriage our subject devoted his attention to farming in Wisconsin until he moved to Gary, South Dakota, in 1879. He located a homestead at Willoughby, and was appointed postmaster at that place. Later, on account of ill health, he went to Canby and began his apprenticeship in the printer's trade, at the same time operating a hotel at that place. Here he spent a little more than a year and then moved to Gary and published the "Interstate Paper" about six months. During the following six months he was employed by the "Advocate" at Clear Lake for six months, and then returned to Gary and, in partnership with his son, Henry Kent, leased the "Interstate Paper," the son owning an equal share, and continued thus in business until the death of the son, May 6, 1897, since which time our subject has conducted the newspaper enterprise alone. Mr. and Mrs. Wood are the parents of a family of three children, two of whom are still living, viz: Lillie M., born March 12, 1872; Henry Kent, born November 25, 1873, and died May 6, 1897; and Alma E. F., born May 5, 1878. The entire family are members of the Methodist church, and Mr. Wood is a member of the Masonic order and of the Grand Army of the Republic. Politically he is a Republican.