DR. and MRS. CHAS. S. WOOD

    Dr. and Mrs. Chas. S. Wood moved from Morgan Co., Ohio to Elliott, Iowa with their family in 1893. The Dr. continued his practice of Veterinary Surgeon until his health failed about ten years before he died in February 1914.

His life’s work began as a boy of 11 working with his father, who was the local veterinarian. One day a man came to the house to get the Doctor to go treat his valuable horse that was very sick. The Doctor was out on another call and no telling when he’d return. Chas. listened to the symptoms, said he worked with his father a lot, understood what was wrong and knew what to do and would go take care of it. The man was very reluctant to let a “kid” do a job this important, but as there was no alternative, finally consented. Chas. had to stand on a packing box to drench the horse but it recovered in good shape. So from then on, whenever the Doctor was unavailable he took care of the work that came in, and when old enough got his own license.

    Doctor and Mrs. Wood were parents of six children, all of whom have lived in, or near, Elliott at one time.

They were: John M. (Mike); Zacharih W. (Zack); Wm. C. (Clark); Joseph C. (Joe); Ruth Esther and Oscar O. The latter two were young, unmarried folks when coming to Elliott. Joe had just married Addie Hutton in June 1893 before coming to Elliott that fall.

    Zack and Clark had both become vets and worked at one time with their father in Elliott.

After Mike’s wife died in Ohio, he came to Iowa to live with Grandma and help care for her until her death in March 1921.

    At the death of Scott Wood, a grandson, the last of Dec. 1974, at age 84, the son and last member of the Clark and Etta Wood family, that leaves no relatives in Iowa to revive the memory of the Wood family as all the seven remaining grandchildren have moved to the western states. The oldest, Ethel (Wood) Benjamin, 92 as of this year, lives at Bellflower, Calif.