R257
Husband: Davis (Sandy) Miller Wood II
Father: James Archelius Wood [R256]
Mother: Sabina (Payne) Wood [R256]
Born: 3/25/1891 at Baldwin Station, Botetourt County Va.
Died: 10/24/1960, in Tacoma Wash.
Wife: Marie Christine (Bergstrom) Wood
Father: John Bergstrom
Mother: Margareta (Eklund) Bergstrom
Born: 5/20/1893, in Sundsvall, Sweden
Died: 3/13/1972, in Costa Mesa Cal.
Married: 12/31/1914, in Dupont Wash.
Children:
Davis Miller Wood III [R258], 2/5/1916-7/26/1994
William Payne Wood, b. 12/19/1917 in Hannibal Mo. Appears in
Fig. R256c. Lt. Col. Air Force, retired. Married Jane Sorenson (b.
4/28/1920, father John Sorenson) in Seattle Wa., 4/5/1942. Ch.
William (Bill) Payne Wood, Jr. (b. 6/9/1943, Mining Engineer, m.
Karen Miller, separated 1994, s. David Miller Wood, b. 1982),
Walter Joseph Wood (b. 10/9/1945, archeologist, m. 1st Kathleen
__, divorced, ch. Brian, Keith; m. 2nd, Sandy __, ch. Elizabeth
Ann, Stephanie), Wilma Jane Wood (b. 6/18/1947, m. Michael
Vogel, divorced, adopted dau. Leya Marie, b. 1980)
(1996) The names of Davis Miller Wood II and III are misleading, because Davis Miller Wood I was not Davis II’s father but his uncle. Below Davis Miller Wood III [S103] recounts his parents’ life.
“[Davis] was raised on [James Archelius Wood’s] farm and lived with a married sister [Alice Wood Givens] in Clifton Forge while going to High School. He attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Fig. R257a), graduating in 1911 as a Chemist. He worked for a company in Fernandino, Fl. which produced phosphate fertilizer until he joined the Dupont Company and was sent to Dupont, Wa. Here he met Marie Bergstrom. They were married on December 31, 1914 and left for Hannibal, Mo. the next day. Here he worked as a Process Control Chemist on the production of Nitroglycerine.
“Marie was the third daughter of ten children, born to John and Margareta Bergstrom. She was the last to be born in Sweden on May 20, 1893 and came to the United States via Canada as an infant. Their first home was in Ashland, Wisconsin where her father was employed by E. I. Dupont as a Millwright/Carpenter/Foreman. They moved to Dupont, Washington in 1906. She went to high school and continued through Business College in Tacoma.
“[In 1914] she met Davis (Sandy) Wood. Their courtship must have been hilarious! Sandy’s wheels were a 4 cylinder Indian motorcycle. Her perch on the rear of the seat was something less than secure since she used to say that she had sat down on every rock in the road between Dupont and American Lake, several times!
“[Their] two sons, Davis Miller III and William Payne were born in Hannibal (Fig. R257b). Life there was not without its trials. On one occasion Sandy had a sample can of nitroglycerine explode in his hands. But he was not otherwise injured. Marie used to talk about when she had three babies to care for, Davis Jr., Bill and Sandy with cocoon-like bandages on both hands! For the rest of his life he carried some souveniers, around several of his finger bones were tightly wrapped strips of tin from the can! Next he was diagnosed as having active tuberculosis so he left Dupont and returned to his boyhood home in Virginia to recover.
“After two years of recuperation he returned to the Northwest as a Process Control Chemist for the American Nitrogen Company which made ammonium nitrate fertilizer from the air. They went bankrupt about six months later and he returned to Tacoma, Wa. where he established the Wood Laboratory as a Consulting Chemist to industry in the Puget Sound Area. This was quite successful and he developed many products and processes still in use. Among them was the vacuum-pack tin used to preserve and protect Brown and Haleys’s “Almond Roca” [candy] in world wide distribution. Other products he developed included moisture resistant matches, glues for plywood and fertilizers from waste products of fish processing and meat packing industries.
“During the war he accepted the post of Chief Chemist at the Tacoma plant of the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. (PENWALT today). They produced Chlorine, Bleach, Caustic Soda, Hydrogen and other chemicals from sea salt. He retired from there in 1956.
“His boyhood on the farm made him appreciate the outdoors. He loved to hunt, fish, play golf, and loved to watch Baseball and Football on TV in later years. He died of a sudden and completely unexpected heart attack returning from a pleasant fall day in one of his favorite deer hunting areas. The Medical Examiner said that “There wasn’t a mark on him anywhere. He went out like someone turned off the switch!”
