Photo: Capt. Francis John Wood obituary in the April 20, 1909, Nashville Banner /
In a blog post a few weeks ago, I mentioned Capt. Francis John Wood (1839-1909), the grandson of my fourth-great-grandfather, Frances M. Wood (1777-1843), who would be my first cousin four times removed.
Oddly enough, he showed up for me again this week when I received a 54-page, spiral-bound booklet on Crockett County, Tennessee. It includes excerpts from excerpts from three vintage publications: the 1887 “History of Tennessee,” originally published by Goodspeed Publishing Co., “History of Our Wild West” by D. M. Kelsey, published in 1901, and “Counties of Tennessee” by Austin Foster, 1923. The Goodspeed section included a bio of Frances Wood.
I was glad to get the article because I was curious what happened to Francis after his father, William M. Wood (1811-1840), died when he was a small child and his mother, Marina Manning Wood (unknown-1858), died when he was 19.
The Goodspeed biography reads:
| Capt. Francis J. Wood was born January 27, 1839, in this county once Haywood, and is a son of William and Marina (Manning) Wood, both natives of North Carolina. The father was born in 1812, and died in 1841, in this State. The mother died in 1858. Our subject was the only child born to his parents, and was reared in the country merchandise business by his relatives. He continued in the merchandising business till the breaking out of the war, when he assisted in organizing Company G, of the Twenty-seventh Tennessee Infantry, and was elected first lieutenant of the same. At the re-organization at Corinth, Miss., he was elected captain, and served in that capacity till the close of the war. He was severely wounded in the leg at Atlanta, Ga., and, on account of disability, was appointed provost-marshal at Macon, Ga., where he was captured. He was paroled at the same place, and was presented a mule by the Federal officers, on which to ride home. For the mule he paid a ransom, viz.: the buttons off his uniform. When he reached Chattanooga, Tenn., the commander of the post would not recognize the parole and placed him in prison, but he was soon released. After returning home he engaged in the merchandise business at Laynesville, Tenn., and continued in that business almost exclusively till the date of the organization of the county (1872), when he was elected county court clerk of the same. At the end of six years he engaged in farming and in the merchandise business at this place. He was married, February 7, 1871, to Fannie R. Gregory, daughter of Richard and Jane Gregory. To this union were born six children: Ora M., Carrie, Jessie, Katie, Lela and Francis J. Our subject is a good citizen and a self-made man. He is a member of the Masonic order; is a chapter member, and is now Master of the same. He is a Democrat, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Mrs. Wood is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Wood presided over the last Democratic convention that was held in the Ninth Congressional District, September 8, 1886. |
The biography of Capt. Wood in the Goodspeed history ends in 1886, when he was 47.
In 1889, a reunion was held in Crockett County and Capt. Wood was a speaker as was Col. W. L. Duckworth.1
Col. William Lafayette Duckworth (1834-1915) was a West Tennessee Confederate cavalry officer who commanded the 7th Tennessee Cavalry, often called Duckworth’s 7th Tennessee Cavalry. The regiment included men from Haywood, Fayette, Tipton and Shelby counties.
The 15-year-old daughter of Capt. Wood and his wife, Frances R. “Fannie” Gregory Wood (1847-1896), Jessie, died in July 1891 after a two-week battle with typhoid fever. Her obituary in the Nashville Banner noted he was vice president of the Bank of Crockett at the time.
The couple went on to have one more child, a daughter named Patti Wood (1893-1895). She died in 1895 when she was 2.
Fannie died in 1896 and was buried in Belleview Cemetery in Bells, Tennessee. Her given name appears in cemetery records as Frances, though she went by Fannie. I assume she used Fannie to avoid the confusion of being part of a couple referred to as Francis and Frances Wood!
On Christmas Eve 1899, at 60 years old, Francis Wood married 39-year-old Susan Emma Smothers Wood (1860-1948). According to the 1900 census, the only child still living at home was 16-year-old Francis J. “Frank” Wood Jr. (1884-1917).
Frank later married Margaret Castellaw. She was a daughter of James W. Castellaw (1839-1918) and Rebecca Thomas Castellaw. James was a half brother of my second-great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Castellaw Jr. (1841-1879). Another of James and Rebecca’s sons, George Thomas “Sam” Castellaw (1874-1962), was the father of Olis Castellaw, who married my great-uncle Ovid Lovelace.
Capt. Wood and Emma had a daughter, Cora Maie “Maie” Wood Kerr, and pension records also indicate they had another child who died.
Headstone of Capt. Francis J. Wood
Capt. Francis J. Wood died in April 1909 at age 70 and, like his first wife, Fannie, was buried at Belleview Cemetery in Bells.
A quick online search returned Capt. Wood’s 1907 application for a Civil War pension and Emma Wood’s 1929 indigent widow’s pension application. Wood’s application was stamped “Rejected.” Emma’s was stamped “Accepted.”
A follow-up note on Wood’s application states he “failed to show that he is a pauper, or in indigent circumstances, on the contrary he is in affluence as compared to other old Soldiers and widows of old Soldiers in Tenn.”
His application includes a few additional facts about his war service in the answers he provided.
Question: In what battle or battles were you engaged, and, if not wounded, state what disabilities did you receive, if any?
Answer: I was wounded 22d of July 1864. was in Battles from 20th to 22, Peachtree Creek and others.
Question: What was the precise nature of your wound or disability, if any?
Answer: I was shot through the right thigh.
Question: How did you get out of the army, when and where?
Answer: Captured and paroled by Gen. Wilson at Macon Ga 20th April 1865.
His wife’s application, submitted 22 years after Wood’s was rejected, includes a letter of endorsement from a friend of Emma’s that offers a little insight into her life after her husband’s death.
CROCKETT CHANCERY COURT
J. C. W. NUNN, CLERK AND MASTER
J. D. DODSON, DEPUTY
ALAMO, TENN., Mch. 30th 1929
Prof. Claude J. Bell
Nashville, TN
Dear Friend: Am writing you to ask a favor of you for one of our mutual friends. Mrs. Emma Smothers Wood has filed an application for a Pension with the State Pension Board – Confederate, in your city. The application is No. 9338. Said Board will have a meeting in April – do not know the date of meeting. Now the thing I want to ask of you for her is to make it a point to go before this Board during its session and call attention to her application.
Two former Confederate Soldiers – Messrs. Wm. Grant and Thomas J. Evans signed her application, which makes it regular. Capt. Wood willed his property, the most of it at least, to his children, and his youngest daughter, Miss Maie, is now 21 years old so Mrs. Wood is really in need of the Pension. With kindest regards, and thanking you in advance for your interest in this matter, I am your friend,
J. C. W. Nunn
Emma Smothers Wood died Oct. 5, 1948, at age 87. Her obituary appeared in “The Crockett Times” on Thursday, Oct. 7, 1948.
| Mrs. Emma Smothers Woods Funeral services this Thursday a.m. at the Goosmann Funeral Home in Bells for Mrs. Emma Smothers Woods, who died Tuesday night at a Nursing Home in Memphis, where she had been for several weeks. Rev. J. P. Irion officiating. Burial was in Belleview Cemetery. She leaves her daughter, Mrs. Maie Woods Kerr of Olive Branch, Miss., with whom she had made her home for several years; two grandsons, Billy Woods Kerr and Robert Kerr; two stepdaughters, Mrs. John H. Harris and Mrs. C. J. Montgomery of Bells. |
Although this line is a few branches away from me in my family tree, hopefully it will help others in their ancestry research.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
- “50 Years Ago,” The Commercial Appeal, Oct. 7, 1839, 6. ↩︎
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