Santa Clara County
Biographies
URIAH WOOD
URIAH WOOD. More than fifty years have come and gone
since Mr. Wood became associated with the then frontier state of California.
When he crossed the plains he was a young man, full of ambition, courage and
perseverance, yet so destitute of capital that he was obliged to borrow from a
brother-in-law the means necessary to defray the expenses of the trip. Bravely
enduring the hardships of a pioneer existence, cheerfully accepting the
privations consequent to the environment, and persistently pushing his way
forward in the face of discouragement and occasional reverses, he has now
reached a position where, with an abundance of means and with the record of a
well-spent life, he wields the influence and commands the prestige born of
material success.
Many of the traits noticeable in the character of Mr.
Wood are his by inheritance from an honorable ancestry, of remote German
extraction, but long identified with the United States. His grandfather,
David Wood, who was a native of New York, suffered the terror of being
taken captive by the Indians when a boy, but made his escape and reached home
in safety. Some years afterwards, when he had grown to man’s estate, he became
a soldier in the Revolutionary war and fought for independence with a bravery
characteristic of his race. Uriah D., son of this Revolutionary veteran,
was born and reared in New York, and in early manhood engaged in lumbering in
the Allegheny mountains. While the Mississippi valley
was still an unknown region and its wealth of fertile soil unrealized, he took
his family from New York to Illinois in 1839, making the trip with horses
through Ohio and Indiana. In Chicago they stopped only long enough to visit a
drug store and purchase a remedy for ague, the prevailing disease of those
days. Arriving in Whiteside county, he settled near
Portland, where he took up land, turned the first furrow in the soil and (being
a carpenter) erected all of his buildings without aid. In 1841 he removed to
LaSalle county, where he devoted himself to
agricultural pursuits through the balance of his active life. In politics he
was a Whig, while in religion he upheld the doctrines of the Methodist
Episcopal church. At the time of his death he had
reached the age of eighty years. His wife, Anna (Cline) Wood, was
born in New York of Mohawk-Dutch ancestry, and died in Illinois. Of her
marriage eight children were born. One son, David, was a pioneer of 1849 in
California and continued to make this state his home until he died, at Gilroy,
about 1891.
While the family were living in
Cattaraugus county, N. Y., Uriah Wood was born
September 5, 1829. He was ten years of age when he accompanied his
parents to Illinois. In their new home schools were so uncommon that he had no
opportunity to study under teachers, yet by self-culture he acquired a fund of
information, of a different nature from that gained in text-books, but none the
less valuable. Possessed of a robust constitution, excellent health and unusual
capability, his services were eagerly sought by farmers. At the age of
seventeen he received $15 per month, this being the highest
wages paid any man in all that country. Half of his wages was given to his
father each month, and the remainder applied to the purchase of the necessities
of life. With four yoke of oxen and a breaking plow he turned the furrows in
many acres of primitive soil, his work being always carefully and successfully
done. His employer said that he was the best teamster in the entire
neighborhood. Sometimes he drove to Chicago with his father, hauling wheat to
the market, but he found little in that then swampy village to impress him
favorably. During the fall of 1850 he began to work for a man in Arkansas and
while with him made two trips to New Orleans on large flat boats, returning on
a steamer. On his return to Illinois he worked in a brickyard at Earlville, and
while there began to make preparations for a trip to the coast.
There were three young men in the party that started for
the west in 1852. Their ox teams were shipped to St. Joseph, Mo., where
they were taken out of the cars and hitched to wagons. However, the animals
were so stiff from being inactive that they could not be used, and were put in
a corral. A Missouri man, seeing the difficulty, suggested that the oxen be
started without whipping and used just a little each day, until they gradually
regained their normal condition. This advice was followed successfully. Soon
the emigrants had left all traces of civilization behind them. In company with
an expedition from Ray county, Mo., the Illinois boys
pursued the difficult journey over plains and mountains, across rivers and
through deserts, down the Humboldt river and on to Hangtown,
where they arrived in September of 1852. The journey was much less arduous for
them than for many emigrants, for the Indians did not molest them, nor were
they sufferers from lack of provisions.
After a short experience as a miner in Calaveras county
Mr. Wood went to Spanish Flats and in the fall of 1853 tried his luck on
the middle fork of the American river. In no place, however, did he meet with
the success he had anticipated. Learning that it was possible to
earn $50 per month on the ranches in the valley, he
decided to change his occupation, and went to Coloma, thence to Sacramento,
where he was paid $50 a month for driving a team. In the spring of 1854 he came
via San Jose to Gilroy, Santa Clara county, and buying
two yoke of oxen and a wagon, he engaged in teaming in the redwoods. Money
being scarce he accepted as payment horses and cattle. In this way he
accumulated one hundred head of cattle, which he sold, buying about the same
time eight hundred and forty-two head of sheep. For eighteen months he herded
his flock in the Pacheco mountains and then moved them
into Merced county, establishing a sheep ranch at Los Banos,
ten miles from his nearest neighbor. After investigating land in various parts
of the state and finding nothing better suited to his purpose than the land he
occupied, he bought the property. Each year his flock was almost doubled. At
first he was obliged to pump all the water needed by the flock, but after some
years the canal was built through his land. During the dry year (1863) he
managed to keep his flock almost intact, although many sheep-raisers suffered
heavy losses, but in 1864 he suffered heavy losses, losing over three thousand
sheep.
Adding to his original purchase year by year,
Mr. Wood finally acquired five thousand acres, the larger part of which
was good land. Much of this was rented to tenants, as many as fifteen operating
different parts of the ranch. When he first began to sell, he received $30 per
acre, but afterward was paid as much as $125 an acre. In 1898 he owned
thirty-five hundred acres of farm land in Merced county,
operated by two tenants, and principally under grain and hay. In addition he
owned the San Felipe ranch of two hundred and forty acres near Gilroy, Santa.
Clara county. All of his real estate is incorporated
under the title of the Uriah Wood Company, he being president and each of his
four sons a director in the organization. In 1885 he came to San Jose and
erected the beautiful residence where he now makes his home. Various
enterprises of this and other cities have engaged his attention and
co-operation, included among these being the Farmers’ Union, in which he is a
director, the Garden City Bank and the Bank of San Jose. He is also a
director of the Bank of Hollister, of which he was one of the founders, and the
same can be said of the San Benito County Savings Bank. He is also a
stockholder in the Salinas City Bank of Salinas, Cal. He is a member of the
Santa Clara County Pioneer Association, fraternally is identified with the Odd
Fellows and in politics gives his influence and vote to Republican candidates
and measures. During 1862 he returned to Illinois and in Earlville married
Miss Phoebe L. Smith, who was born in Ohio and grew to womanhood
in Illinois. They are the parents of four sons, Chester W., Walter H.,
Ralph W. and Louis E., all of whom are successful land-owners and
agriculturists, the last mentioned residing in San Jose.
Not withstanding the vicissitudes which have more than
once thrust discouragements upon him and notwithstanding the hardships incident
to pioneer existence, Mr. Wood retains the robust constitution of his
youth. With his erect carriage and fine physique he gives to a stranger the
impression of being in life’s prime, and subsequent companionship, exhibiting
the resourcefulness and activity of his mind, but deepens the first impression.
He belongs to that class of “young old” pioneers to whom the state owes a debt
of gratitude, men who gave the best that was within them to aid in the
development of the state and the expansion of her interests. It is to the patient,
persistent efforts of such as he that the prosperity
of the state may be attributed.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 18 February 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages
365-366. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie
Hassard.