Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/630

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WOOD
WOOD

(14th ed., Philadelphia, 1883 et seq.). He has also published " Researches upon American Hemp," for which a special prize was awarded by the Ameri- can philosophical society ; " Thermic Fever, or Sun- stroke " (Philadelphia, 1872), for which he received the Boylston prize from Harvard university in 1872 ; " Treatise on Materia Medica and Therapeu- tics" (1875; 7th ed., 1888); " Brain- Work and Over- Work" (1879); and "Nervous Diseases and their Diagnosis" (1886).


WOOD, Isaac, physician, b. in Clinton, Dutchess co., N. Y„ 21 Aug., 1793 ; d. in Norwalk, Conn., 25 March, 1868. In 1803 his father removed to New York city, establishing there a book-store and Eublishing-house. Isaac studied medicine with »r. Valentine Seaman, spent the years 1814— '16 in the New York hospital, and in 1816 received his diploma from the medical department of Queen's (now Rutgers) college, N. J. He was one of the physicians of the New York dispensary till 1825, and resident physician of Bellevue hospital from 1826 till 1833, when he resigned. In 1832-'3, dur- ing the prevalence of cholera in New York, he kept his post, and was attacked by the disease, from whose effects he did not fully recover for five years. Dr. Wood was an active member of the Society for the reformation of juvenile delinquents, of which his father and elder brother were the principal founders. He was for twenty-five vears one of the most active managers of the New York institution for the blind, one of the founders and subse- quently president of the Society for the relief of the widows and orphans of physicians, and a founder and twice president of the New York academy of medicine. For many years he was president of the Bellevue hospital medical board, and he was connected with other institutions and societies, including the Sanitary commission dur- ing the civil war. He had a high reputation as an ophthalmic surgeon.


WOOD, James, governor of Virginia, b. in 1750 ; d. at Olney, near Richmond, Va., 16 July, 1813. His father. Col. James Wood, was the founder of Winchester, Va., and clerk of Frederick county. In 1774 the son was commissioned by Lord Dunmore a captain of Virginia troops, and. in 1775 he was elected to the house of burgesses from Frederick county. In July of that vear he went on a mis- sion from the state of Virginia to the western Indians, accompanied by a single companion, to invite them to a treaty at Fort Pitt. The courage that he displayed on this mission won the admira- tion of the savages, and he accomplished his ob- ject. The house of burgesses, of which he was a member in 1776, appointed him on 12 Nov., 1776, a colonel in the Virginia line, commanding the 8th regiment. He served with gallantry during the early part of the Revolutionary war. When Bur- goyne s captured army was quartered at Charlottes- ville, Va., in 1778, Col. Wood was appointed to the command of that post. In 1781 he was made super- intendent of all the prisoners of war in Virginia, and in 1783 the governor of the state commis- sioned him a brigadier-general of state troops. He was also for several years a member of the Virginia council, and by seniority in that body the lieu- tenant-governor of the state. In 1789 he was one of the presidential electors for Virginia when the vote of that state was cast for George Washing- ton. He was elected governor of Virginia, 1 Dec, 1796, serving until 1 Dec, 1799, when he was suc- ceeded by James Monroe. Wood county (now in West Virginia) was named in honor of his public services, which covered a period of more than twenty-five years. Gov. Wood was the vice-presi- dent in 1797, and in 1801 president, of the Socie- ty for promoting the abolition of slavery in Vir- ginia. He became a member of the Virginia branch of the Society of the Cincinnati, 9 Oct., 1784, was elected vice-president of the same, 4 Dec.,1789, and became president, 17 Jan., 1802, serving in this office until his death in 1813. — His wife, Jean Moncure, b. in Virginia in 1754 ; d. in 1823, mar- ried Gov. Wood in 1775. She was the daughter of the Rev. John Moncure, a clergyman of the Church of England in Virginia, and a native of the parish of Kinoff, Scotland. She was possessed of much poetic ability, Christian zeal, and loveliness of character. The later years of her life were spent in deeds of Christian benevolence. She was active in organizing the Female humane association of Richmond, which was incorporated in 1811, and was its first president. Many examples of her po- etic talent occurred in the publications of her day, and the most elegant verses from her pen were published in a volume entitled " Flowers and Weeds of the Old Dominion " (1859).


WOOD, James, educator, b. in Greenfield, Ul- ster co., N. Y., 12 July, 1799 ; d. in Hightstown, Mercer co., N. J., 7 April, 1867. He was graduated at Union college in 1822, and studied at Princeton theological seminary. He preached at Wilkesbarre and Kingston, Pa., in 1825-'6, and, after being or- dained in the latter year, he held the joint pastor- ate of Amsterdam and Veddersburg, N. Y., from 1826 till 1834. The next five years he served as an agent of the board of education of the Presby- terian church, and he was professor in the Theo- logical seminary of the northwest from 1839 till 1851. while that institution was located at Hanover and New Albany, Ind. The following three years he was again an agent of the board of education, and in 1854-'9 he was its associate secretary. In 1859 he became president of Hanover college, Ind., and held the office until 1866, when he resigned to become principal of the Van Rensselaer institute at Hightstown, N. J., a school for the education of the children of missionaries. Dr. Wood took high rank among the clergymen of his denomination. His sound judgment, amiable temper, extensive learning, and great energy made his influence widely felt. In an able work, entitled " Old and New Theology" (1855), he gave the fullest ex- hibition of the reasons that led to the disruption of the Presbyterian church, and its division into Old and New School, that has ever been published. He received the degree of D. D. from Marion col- lege, Mo., in 1841. In 1864 he was moderator of the general assembly. He is also the author of "A Treatise on Baptism" (1850); "Call to the Sacred Office" (Philadelphia, 1857); "The Best Lesson and Best Time " ; " The Gospel Fountain " (1859) ; and " Grace and Glory " (1860).


WOOD, James Frederic, archbishop, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 27 April, 1813 ; d. there, 20 June, 1883. His father, an Englishman who had settled in this country, carried on the business of an importer. The child was sent in his eighth year to his English relatives in Gloucester, where for five years he attended the free-school of St. Mary de Crypt. In his fifteenth year he left Philadelphia for Cincinnati, where he had been appointed clerk in a branch of the U. S. bank, and in 1833 he became teller in the Franklin bank of that city, and in 1836 its cashier. He was received into the Roman Catholic church in April, 1836, by Archbishop Purcell, and a few months later resigned his post in the bank and went to Rome to study for the priesthood. In the College of the propaganda, where he remained nearly seven years,