Alpheus Bowan Putnam Wood

WOOD, ROBERTS, HUBBELL, PATTERSON, ALEXANDER, FAIRBURN, CURKEET

Posted By: Judith V. Wood (email)
Date: 10/23/2002 at 17:52:21

FROM THE BOOK OF PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA, CEDAR TOWNSHIP, PUB. 1904:

WOOD Alpheus Bowan Putnam (b. June 20, 1824, d. Fonda, Oct. 8, 1887) was a native of Batavia, N. Y. His father died when he was a child, leaving a family of three sons of whom he was the oldest. One of his brothers in his boyhood left home and no trace of him was afterward discovered. The other one enlisted in the civil war and held the position of captain at the time he was killed on the field at Yorktown.

Alpheus worked for his board and clothing among the farmers of the neighborhood until he was able to command wages, and then entered a factory in Massachusetts. The next year he went to Michigan, found employment in a store and remained three years. He enjoyed the advantages of the public school only for a few months, but became well informed by reading the best books and papers his opportunities afforded. At twenty-one he found his way into a law office at Toulon, Ill., and two years later he was admitted to the bar. In 1849, in company with a number of others, he went by the pony express to California and, after a few months, passed to Oregon, where he located a claim several miles distant from any neighbor. When others arrived they founded a town which he names "Dallas," and it became the county seat of Polk county. Here he began the practice of law and by appointment filled the honorable positions of clerk of the senate, and judge of the probate court in that district of the territory of Oregon.

Returning to New York by way of the isthmus of Panama, on April 13, 1854, he married Cordelia Kysor, of Danville, and later that year moved to a farm in La Fayette county, Wis. In 1863, on account of a return of ill health, he moved with a family of seven children to Darlington, Wis., where he resumed the practice of law. he was mayor of this city several of the fourteen years of his residence in it. Becoming again affected with sciatic rheumatism, in March, 1878, he located on the SE 1/4 Sec. 28, Cedar township, Pocahontas county, Iowa, and resumed work on the farm. Later he opened an office in Fonda and resumed the practice of law.

When the independent district of Fonda was organized March 9, 1880, he was chosen one of the three members of the first school board and continued to serve in that capacity until the time of his decease, Oct. 8, 1887, a period of seven years. He was an ardent friend of the cause of education, and took a leading part in promoting the interests of the Fonda schools. The erection of the first brick school building and the high standard of excellence attained at the same time in the work of the schools were in a great measure due to his interest and influence.

He was chosen a trustee and treasurer of the Fonda Presbyterian church at the time of its organization in 1886, and rendered efficient service until the time of his death which occurred the day before the building was dedicated.

He looked upon the legal profession as one of the most noble that can occupy the attention of man, and endeavored to adorn it by a true and noble life. He was animated with an absorbing desire to be useful rather than to accumulate wealth, and always advised an amicable adjustment of difficulties as preferable to the uncerertainties of a lawsuit.

His family consisted of seven children, of whom Engenia, the firstborn, died in childhood at Fayette.

When A. P. B. Wood came to Fonda he purchased 2500 acres of land in Cedar, Sherman and Grant townships and all of it is till owned by different members of his family, except the farm on which he lived near Fonda.

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Children:

Eugene Swedenborg Wood, died as infant
Hannah Adele Wood m. William J. Curkeet
Lois Ann Wood m. Alexander Hubbell
Adelbert Sylvenus Wood m. Mary Josephine Alexander
Cora Estelle Wood m. Dr. Michael F. Patterson
Affa Wood d. at 18
Abram Grosvenor Wood m. 1)Emma Hull and 2)Jessie Irene Roberts