R553
Husband: Edward Manning (Doc) Wood (Fig. R553a)
Father: Lewis E. Wood [R005]
Mother: Emma (Burger) Wood [R005]
Born: 7/10/1884 at “Wood home near Sitlington,” Bath County
Died: 9/15/1951. Buried in Horeb Baptist Church cemetery, Bath
County Va.
Wife: Nora Nellie (Wisely) Wood (Fig. R553a)
Father: William Wisely
Mother: Callie M. Wisely
Born: 1890, Gate City VA
Died: 1965, buried in Horeb Baptist Church cemetery
Married: 4/21/1911, at Nimrod Hall; J. A. Thomas, minister
Children (Fig. R553b)
Edward Manning Wood, Jr. m. Mary Virginia Pratt, no children,
deceased
Eva Lee Wood, 12/19/1913-12/27/1988, buried in Horeb Church
cemetery, m. 1st Bernard Goldstein (s. Michael Lee, b. 2/28/1937),
m. 2nd Albert O’Kane (ch. David Dean, b. 3/14/1942, m. 1st. Susan
Benner, m. 2nd Barbara Sandick; Nora Frances, b. 1/12/1948;
Theresa Diane, b. 3/24/1953)
Dorothy (Wood) Wulfers, b. 5/6/1917 [R603]
Kemp Wood’s [R550] 1951 diary contains the following entry.
“SEPTEMBER 18 DOC.
When a little boy we called him Doc. Reason? He was always doctoring the ducks and little chickens- putting splints on their broken legs, cutting up and dissecting frogs, etc. The title stuck through the years. He was buried today- in the little cemetery of Horeb Church. Ten of us are left. Who will be the next to go? Doc had a unique personality- indulged in fantastic dreams- spinner of yarns- made wildcat adventures and, often lost. He could ‘slick’ up a tree, liked a ‘wee’ bit of bacon, even when forbidden to eat it. He could climb the heights or drop into the pit, DOC, we miss you. Hope to see you, some day again.”
Daughter Dorothy comments on this paragraph: “Kemp Wood was right about his brother, Edward Manning. As his third and youngest child, I’m sad to say it’s true―that Doc was a dreamer. He would give a stranger anything. For example, during the big depression, he and his wife, Nora, were in the restaurant business. I can remember them saying there must have been a mark of some sort, that every hobo going through town knew where to find a free meal. For all the public generosity, I do not have happy memories of my father. He was almost just someone to be polite with. I can’t remember any affection.
“Uncles Millard, Cecil and Russell probably encouraged Doc to move to West Virginia. The picture the three brothers painted of the area was obviously an enticement for Doc to move his family―wife Nora, son Edward, and daughter Eva from Covington, Virginia to Parkersburg, West Virginia. (This was before my birth.)
“Doc and Nora opened a restaurant called ‘Mack’s Chop House’ (what a name!). Business was booming in the early days, as I understand the story, with lines of people waiting to come inside. They felt the need for a larger space, and moved to a restaurant adjoining the Blennerhassett Hotel [a grand, historic landmark, still in operation]. I was born during this period (May 6, 1917), and can remember a hired housekeeper who cared for we three children. When I was about six, mom and pop divorced, and mom took us kids to Huntington, West Virginia, where she ran a boarding house and remarried. I understand that Pop sold refrigerators and Bibles during this period. Mom’s marriage didn’t last. She and Doc remarried, returned to Parkersburg, and reopened the restaurant in the Blennerhassett Hotel. Incidentally, she always called him Manning.
“The depression, bank failures and Doc’s misplaced generosity ended with business failure. After many other endeavors, Doc and Nora opened a tavern where food and beer were served. This was successful, mostly due to Nora’s efforts.
“Probably Doc’s greatest accomplishment and source of satisfaction was building a one floor house in Parkersburg West Virginia, with two porches across the full front and back of the house. There was land enough for raising a couple of hogs each year, chickens, a cow and a large garden. He found pleasure in this until his death in 1951, while Nora continued running the tavern until her death in 1965.
“Nora and Doc’s son, Edward, worked for a while in the shipyards of Baltimore, then returned to Parkersburg where he married Mary Virginia Pratt, a school teacher. There were no children born of the marriage. They moved to Long Beach, California, where she took a teaching position and Edward worked at Douglas Aircraft. He was an engine problem troubleshooter. Upon retirement, they moved to Palo Verde, California, in the great Imperial Valley. Edward passed on in March 1992.
“Eva Lee, the second child, had two unsuccessful marriages. She had four children―a son from the first union, Michael Lee O’Kane, and a boy and two girls from the second. Their names are David Dean O’Kane, Nora Frances O’Kane Howell and Theresa Diane O’Kane Wallace. An interesting footnote: While Nora Wood eked out a living running a beer tavern, that business paid for the education of Eva’s two boys. Both of them graduated from Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.”
The third child was Dorothy. Her chronicle appears in [R603].
A few details, mostly from [S089]. Doc was a bookkeeper in Covington Va. at the time when he married Nora Wisely. In 1917 he and his brother Russell Wood [R556] jointly ran the Cottage Pool Room in Parkersburg (Fig. R553c). In 1918 he speaks of working in a gents’ furnishings store; then, with partners, he opened Mack’s Chop House. He speaks proudly, in a letter of 10/19/1919, of the success of this venture and of being able to buy out his partners except for his brother Mill [R551], who retained a 25% share of the business. In 1926 he and a partner ran a real estate firm in Parkersburg. Much of the correspondence from or about Doc in [S089] concerns the time his children spent at Nimrod while they were growing up; his daughter Dorothy describes that experience [R603].
