Wood Genealogy of Bluehill, Maine

On the lot practically, and less than 150 feet from the Clay house, stands the schoolhouse of the district, built in 1834-5 by Simeon P. Wood, by contract, in which the writer attended winter school under the teachings of C. C. Long, Fred A. Darling and others.

Across the road from the schoolhouse is the cellar over which it is said the house of Joseph Wood stood which he built, when he removed from the island at the Fore Falls. In that house it is supposed that Col. Rufus Putnam, the founder of Ohio, later was entertained in the year 1785, when he came to this place from surveying Black and White islands in Eggemoggin Reach, ceded to the Penobscot Indians by the Massachusetts general court.

He brought with him unburnt coffee berries, which he asked Mrs. Wood, as tradition relates, to make into coffee. She had never before seen coffee, and he gave her no instructions. She put the berries into a kettle with water and hung it over the fire to cook, every little while looking to see if they grew soft. In despair she served them at meal time, saying to Col. Putnam, “I have cooked that coffee a long time, but cannot make it grow soft, and I am afraid you won’t like it.” What reply the Colonel made, “Tradition sayeth not,” or whether he “liked it” as a joke, the record is silent.

The people of the place drew up a petition to the general court and entrusted it to Col. Putnam to present, praying to be relieved of heavy taxes occasioned by the Revolutionary war which they were not able to pay, and the petition proved successful. Col. Putnam effected the first white settlement in what is now the great state of Ohio, at Marietta, on April 7, 1788, by people mostly led by him from Essex county, Massachusetts, twenty-two years after the settlement was made at the island here at the Fore Falls.

Capt. Joseph Wood’s lot probably included what was afterwards the Sinclair lot, as there are found in the town records certain allusions to Capt. Wood’s point, distinctly from the point at the Tide Mills. And in the boyhood of the writer a cellar was to be seen opposite the Sinclair house where once had stood a house.

The place opposite the schoolhouse, after Capt. Wood had removed from it, must have been occupied by his son Israel, as on the land were apple trees bearing the names of “Joe Tree”, “Hannah Tree,” “Lois Tree,” etc., named for the children of Israel; they still bore those names within the memory of the writer, whose father later owned the property.

Israel Wood Family Genealogy

Israel Wood was born in Beverly, Oct. 27, 1744, and came with his father’s family to the town in 1763. He married Phebe Holt, daughter of Nicholas Holt, Sept. 24, 1768; she was born Feb. 9, 1752; died Feb. 12, 1831; he died Nov. 13, 1800. Their children were:

1. Phebe Wood, born April 22, 1770; married Phineas Pillsbury, Oct. 21, 1788.
2. Anne Wood, born April 8, 1772; died Dec. 19, 1776.
3. Lois Wood, born Feb. 6, 1775; married Ezra Parker Dec. 27, 1791. She died Dec. 31, 1861, aged nearly eighty-seven years. Ezra Parker was born July 15, 1767, supposed at Andover, Mass., and died July 14, 1818, aged fifty-one years. They had one child:
   1. Kimball Parker, born April. 22, 1792; died Jan. 31, 1820.
4. Anne Wood, born Dec. 24, 1776. The Annie Wood place was a little farther beyond the James Clough place, upon the east side of the road, which the writer well remembers, though gone from its foundation for more than sixty years. When and by whom it was built the writer does not pretend to know. Annie Wood was born near the Tide Mills, Dec. 24, 1776; was a tailor, never married, and resided in the old house above mentioned with her niece, Sally Savage, until her death by consumption in 1841. She did tailoring in the family of the writer’s father for many years prior to her death, and it was interesting to hear her and the writer’s father, who had been friends and acquaintances from childhood, talk over the affairs of the early families of the town. They both had good memories and thoroughly understood the subjects upon which they conversed.
5. Ruth Wood, born Nov. 5, 1779; married James Savage March 7, 1811.
6. Israel Wood, born July 20, 1782; married 1st Joanna Parker; 2nd Betsey Briggs Hatch. See further.
   
7. Joseph Wood, born April 1, 1785; married 1st Hannah Johnson; 2nd Joanna Hinckley.
8. Hannah Wood, born Jan. 27, 1788; married Capt. Isaac Perry, of Orland, Nov. 25, 1815.
9. Samuel Holt Wood, born July 19, 1791; died May 2, 1826.

When the old house opposite the schoolhouse was taken down, there is no evidence at hand to determine.

Samuel Wood Family Genealogy

Samuel Wood was the son of Joseph 2nd and grandson of Joseph the first settler. His mother was Eleanor Carter, and he was born Dec, 31, 1776, and married Fanny Colburn Nov. 6, 1805; she was born Oct. 26, 1782; died March 27, 1851; he died August 6, 1842. Children were:

1. Simeon Parker Wood, born August 2, 1807; married Lucy H. Powers. See further.
   
2. Fanny Wood, born Aug. 2, 1809; married Timothy Colburn.
3. Samuel Wood, born June 12, 1811; Beyond the hill, Samuel Wood, brother of Simeon P., built a house and barn about 1833 in which he lived a bachelor’s life until 1837, when he sold out and went to Monmouth, Illinois, where he settled, married; had children; became mayor of the place and a man of means and influence, and where he died at a good age.
4. Lydia Parker Wood, born March 8, 1814.
5. Mary Jane Wood, born April 5, 1816; married Leonard Clough.
6. Robert Parker Wood, born Jan 1, 1819; died Oct. 31, 1838.
7. Betsey Paters Wood, born Sept. 30, 1821; married March 2, 1839.
8. Almira Ellis Wood, born June 15, 1824; married J. Q. A. Butler.

Capt. Samuel Wood, the head of this family, was a farmer and a highly respected man, whom the writer well remembers. His son Robert and the writer were as fast friends as boys of different ages could possibly be. They fished for trout, gunned for partridges and played games together.

The Wood farm on the westerly side of the road extended from the line of the Sinclair farm to the Clough farm, near Bragdon’s brook, except one acre belonging to Israel Wood, 2d, and extended beyond the hill a considerable distance.

Simeon Parker Wood Family Genealogy

All of the family have left town or died years ago, and the place, after the death of Simeon P., passed into other hands. The farm and pastures occupied both sides of the main road and extended over the hill, including more than a hundred acres. Before the death of his father, Simeon Parker Wood married Lucy H. Powers, Dec. 25, 1839, and brought her to the old homestead to reside. After his father’s and mother’s deaths he pulled down the old house and built the one now standing on the old site. In his earlier days he was a land surveyor, but after marriage carried on the farm.

He was a kindly man, fond of boys, and the boys of the neighborhood were fond of him. At one time he kept a shop in the old house, and among other things he sold were Malaga cask raisins at six cents per pound. The boys bought raisins of him which, as was common, had a good share of stems among them. They said to him, “Mr. Wood, what do you ask per pound for raisins with the stems taken out?” “The same price,” said he. A boy said, “I’ll take a pound.” Mr. Wood proceeded to weigh them in the usual manner, after which he picked out the stems. Then he said to the purchaser, “Don’t you think I ought to take toll for picking out the stems?” upon which he took some, ate them and handed over the rest, which all thought was a good joke.

Another time he went fishing for haddock off the Falls in a boat by himself, and the writer and his two brothers went in another boat and anchored near him. Mr. Wood had poor luck; the boys good luck. They all landed and the boys threw out and counted their fish, which numbered thirty-nine. Mr. Wood stood by watching eagerly the count, with his single haddock in his hand. When the boys threw down their last fish and said “thirty-nine” he threw his one on to the pile in triumph and shouted “forty.” “We have not done bad, have we boys?” The boys appreciated the joke and said, “Mr. Wood, take as many of the fish as you want,” and he took them.

The family of Simeon P. Wood and Lucy Haskell (Powers) consisted of the following children:

1. Samuel Albert Wood, born Sept. 28, 1840; died Feb. 6, 1863.
2. Mary Jane Wood, born May 9, 1844; married in New York.
3. Alma Frances Wood, born Sept. 28, 1849; married.
4. Clara Amanda Wood, born Nov. 14, 1851.
5. Sarah Wood, born August 27, 1856; died July 6, 1858.
6. Almira Etta Wood, born Nov.’21, 1859.

Mrs. Lucy H. Wood, died Jan. 31,1869; Simeon P. Wood, Jan. 19, 1878.

Johnson Wood Family Genealogy

The Johnson Wood Place is the next to claim attention and a description. The house was built by Johnson Wood sometime between 1830 and 1835. Mr. Wood was the son of Robert Haskell and Mary (Coggins) Wood, and was born July 26, 1790; his father having been the son of Joseph Wood, the first settler of the town.

Johnson Wood married Hannah F. Peters, Jan. 24, 1827, daughter of Jeremiah and Sally Peters. She was born Nov. 19, 1806, and died Nov. 5, 1870. He died Aug. 31, 1861, aged seventy-one years. The names and births of their children were as follows:

1. Harriet Augusta Wood, born Nov. 26, 1827; died Nov. 30, 1857.
2. Maria Flint Wood, born Sept. 12, 1829.
3. Reuben Dodge Wood, born March 31, 1832; married Nancy A. Carleton.
4. Sarah Peters Wood, born April 17, 1836; married Henry F. Peters.
5. Emeline S. Wood, born April 23, 1838; married Charles Connell Clough.
6. Abby S. Wood, born Nov. 28, 1840.
7. Haskell J. Wood, born Feb. 8, 1844.
8. Henry H. Wood, born Aug. 6, 1846.
9. Clara A. Wood, born Oct. 14, 1849.

Johnson Wood was a mason and bricklayer, a worthy, industrious and upright man. Since his death the place has remained in possession of of his children.

Israel Wood Jr. Family Genealogy

Israel Wood was son of Israel and grandson of Joseph the first settler. He was born July 20, 1782; married Joanim Parker, daughter of Peter and Phebe (Marble) Parker, May 2, 1808, born May 6, 1794; died March 4, 1820. They had two children:

1. Edwin Wood.
2. Israel Wood.

Mr. Wood married for a second wife Betsey Briggs Hatch, of Nobleborough, Sept. 3, 1822, by whom he had children as follows:

1. Lois Parker Wood, born June 11, 1824; married Charles Trueworgy, and moved to Ellsworth,
2. Joan Elizabeth Wood, born Sept. 11, 1826.

Israel Wood died in 1831, and his widow married for a second husband Benjamin Herrick.