HIRAM T. WOOD

Sacramento County

Biographies

HIRAM T. WOOD

HIRAM T. WOOD.--A progressive vineyardist residing one-fourth mile west of the Colony schoolhouse, where he has forty acres of about as desirable land as may be found anywhere in Sacramento County, is Hiram T. Wood, who was born in Buchanan County, Mo., on April 8, 1850, the son of William and Rebecca Ann (Barker) Wood, the former a native of Missouri and the latter of Kentucky. Grandfather James Marion Wood, who came from Virginia, was a real frontiersman; he lived to be past ninety-nine years old, and died in Oregon. When two years of age, Hiram T. Wood was brought by his parents, by way of the Salt Lake route, to Willamette, Ore., where his father bought a farm, engaged in general farming, and lived to be seventy-two years of age. He had a pack train, and at one time was very wealthy; but he was attacked by Indians, while journeying to Canyon City, and lost all that he had. Mrs. Wood, beloved by all who knew her, lived to the fine old age of eighty-five. The worthy couple had five children as follows: James Marion was the eldest; then came William Henry; the third-born died in infancy; Hiram T. is the subject of our narrative; and John is the youngest.

Hiram Wood grew up under pioneer conditions, on which account his subsequent progress is all the more creditable to him. He had to walk three miles to attend the nearest school, which was open only to those whose parents subscribed to defray the expenses; and when eighteen years of age, he set out to make his own way in the world, leasing farm land. In 1870 he went to Seattle, Wash., and the following year came into California for the first time. At this time, he spent two years in the Sonoma Valley; and upon his return to Seattle, he leased several hundred acres near that city. In 1880, he came to California to stay; and going into Sutter County, he first farmed on land about ten miles above Knight’s Landing. Later he moved into Yolo County, near Woodland, and then went over into Solano County; and from there he came to Sacramento County, where he farmed for a while. He then spent a short time in San Francisco. Returning from the Bay City to Sacramento County, he purchased a forty-acre ranch in the Don Ray Colony, just west of the Colony schoolhouse. These forty acres he developed into a Mission vineyard, improving the place greatly by the erection of buildings on the land. Mr. Wood has served his community as justice of the peace of Alabama Township, in Sacramento County. He has also been a trustee of the Colony school. In politics, he is a Democrat.

At Knight’s Landing, on November 10, 1881, Mr. Wood married Miss Mary A. Miller, a native of Fairfield, Solano County, and the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Barker) Miller. Her father came out to California in 1852, and he was in the same wagon-train, part of the way, while crossing the plains, in which William Wood, Hiram’s father, came. At the fork in the trail, William Wood went north into Oregon, and Thomas Miller came to California. Thomas Miller was a native of Virginia, while Mrs. Miller came from Lexington, Mo. He farmed in California, and died at the age of fifty-two; and she passed away in January, 1922, at the ripe old age of ninety. There were nine children in the Miller family, the eldest, Emily E., being now deceased. The next younger were William H. and Benjamin P., while John died as a boy. The younger children are Mary A., Sarah C., Alfaretta, Letha, and Thomas N. Mr. Miller was fond of the place at Rockville, Cal., where he settled, and there he died.

Five Children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wood. Mary Belle is Mrs. Perley K. Bradford, of Elk Grove; Myrtle Elizabeth is Mrs. Clarence Martin, of Elk Grove; Kathryn Rebecca is Mrs. Walter Martin, of Elk Grove; William Thomas is at Susanville; and Rilla May is Mrs. Ross Clark, of Westwood. Nine grandchildren brighten the family circle. Mrs. Bradford has three children, Muriel, James and John; Mrs. Myrtle Martin has a son, James Wood Martin; William has two daughters, Mary Evelyn and Rilla May; and Mrs. Clark has three sons, Thomas Charles, Ross P., and Billie.

Transcribed by Barbara Gaffney.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 358. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.