Volume 9 , Issue 51

Pioneer George W. Wood - Cherokee, OK

Here is another history of an Alfalfa County, Oklahoma pioneer that we found in the 1916 history book, A Standard History of Oklahoma, pg. 1396, Vol. 4, by Joseph B. Thoburn.

George W. Wood was a member of the representative real estate and loan firm of Wood Brothers, at Cherokee, Oklahoma. Wood was a prominent factor in connection with the civic and industrial development and upbuilding of Alfalfa county; influential in public affairs and progressove and liberal as a business man.

When George Wood was a young man of about 18 years he came with his parents to Oklahoma Territory at the time of the opening of the famous cherokee Strip, in 1893. Mr. Wood had the distinction of being one of the framers of the constitution of the State of Oklahoma, as a delegate from the Eighth District, which was then a portion of Woods county, but which is now Alfalfa county.

Wood was state agent for Oklahoma of the Central Life Insurance Company of Des Moines, Iowa, and was a member of the firm of Wood Brothers as a prominent figure in the real estate & loan business in Northern Oklahoma.

George William Wood was born on 23 December 1875, on the old homestead farm of his father in Owen county, Kentucky. When he was a a lad of 9 years the family moved to Kansas, in which state he was reared to adult age and received the advantages of the public schools.

George Wood was a son of John Wesley Wood and Eunice (Conn) Wood, both natives of the old Bluegrass State. John Wesley Wood was born in Owen County on 20 october 1845, and his parents, who were natives of Virginia, were early settlers in that part of Kentucky. John W. Wood devoted his entire active career to the basic industry of agriculture, through the medium of which he won definite prosperity after coming to the West. John was a gallant soldier in the Confederate service during the civil war, in which he was a private in the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, his service having covered a period of three years, during which he participated in many engagements, including a number of the important battles and campaigns marking the progress of the great conflict. In 1885 John removed with his family to Barber County, Kansas, where he purchased a farm in the vicinity of the village of Hazelton. John W. Wood continued his residence in the Sunflower State until 1893, when he took part in the opening of the cherokee Strip in Oklahoma and located a desirable tract of government land four miles distant from the present thriving little city of cherokee, the judicial center of Alfalfa county. John made improvements on his homestead until he sold it in 1902.

John was affiliated with the Mason Fraternity; a staunch supporter of the principles of the democratic party; and a birthright member of the Society of Friends. His wife was a woman of deep religious convictions, gentle, gracious personality died 9 march 1913. She was born i Kentucky in the year 1855 as a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Williams) Conn, natives of Virginia, and her marriage to John W. Wood was solemnized in the year 1873. John and Eunice Wood had five sons and three daughters:

George William Wood

leslie was a junior member of the firm of Wood Brothers, engaged in the real estate and loan business at Cherokee;

Claude B. was engaged in the successful practice of law at Fairview, Major County;

James A. was manager of the Pioneer Telephone company at Protection, Comanche county, Kansas;

Frederick S. was a civil engineer by profession and in 1916 was a resident of Berkeley, California;

Eugenia was employed as an expert stenographer at Cherokee, Oklahoma;

Cora was successful and popular teacher of music in Cherokee, Oklahoma;

Grace, the youngest of the children.

George W. Wood, in Barber County, Kansas was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and availed himself of the advantages of the well ordered public schools. He came with his father and family to Oklahoma Territory in 1893. As a youth he learned the printer's trade. In 1903 he became the founder of a weekly paper known as the Ingersoll Times, in the village of Ingersoll, now in Alfalfa county. George conducted the paper for one year, then in 1904 established the Watonga Herald, at Watonga, Oklahoma, the present judicial center of Blaine county.

In 1905, he came to Cherokee, Oklahoma and became the founder of the Democrat, of which weekly paper he continued editor and publisher one year, at the expiration of which he sold the plant and business. After which he became senior member of the firm of Wood Brothers, which was built up and controlled a large, important reat estate and loan business.

In 1906 when the call was made for a constitutional convention to frame a constitution for the new state, mr. Wood became a candidate for delegate from the 8th District, and was elected, on the Democratic ticket, by a majority of 192 votes over his republican opponent. he took an active part in the work and deliberation of the convention that framed the organic laws of Oklahoma, having been chairman of the committee on printing and a member of the committees on prohibition, county lines and legislation. George Wood was was specially influential in bringing about the erection f Alfalfa county, originally a part of Woods County, his having been the distinction of selecting the name of the new county and also effecting the establishing of the county seat at Cherokee.

George Wood was a stalwart in the camp of the Democratic party. He was essentially liberal and public-spirited as a citizen, and took a vital interest in all that pertains to the welfare of his home city and county. In 1916 George was still enrolled on the list of eligible bachelors in alfalfa County and here his circle of friends was limited only by that of his acquaintances.
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