References and Endnotes
Sources and Notes
S001 Questionnaire (held by G. W. Wood, [R602]) filled out by W. B. Wood [R555] for C. A. Park of Chattanooga Tenn., who appears to have been compiling a genealogy.
S002 Bath County Marriage Bonds and Minister Returns, 1791-1853. Bath County Historical Society, Inc., 1978.
S003 Wood family Bible, held by Sarah Davis. A. J. Holman & Co., Philadelphia, 1890. Colored dedication page at the front: Presented to / Emma K. Wood [in blue pencil] / By / L. E. Wood [in red pencil]. Special forms for the family history, in color, appear between the Old and New Testaments.
S004 History of the Sitlington family, compiled by James Robert Sitlington Sterrett [R524]. About 1936 mimeographed copies were sold to interested parties in Bath County, including W. B. Wood, F. M. Wood, and the Bath County Historical Society. The compilation contains entries as late as 1936, although Sterrett died in 1914. The late entries focus on the family of Charles Miller Burger [R503], who settled in Washington state, so it seems likely they updated the document and circulated it in Bath County in the 1930s.
S005 Burger family Bible, held by Sarah Davis. American Family Bible Pub’g Co., Cincinnati Ohio, 1882. Family history on pages specially provided between the Old and New Testaments.
S006 Crawford family Bible (Fig. S006a). Held by Frances Apistolas; found by her in the upper Sunset Cottage store room, Nimrod Hall, evidently put there along with many other items when Mae Wood was disposing of Emma (Burger) Wood’s [R005] effects. A magnificent old book, on good paper. The binding is crudely covered with rawhide leather, probably put there by the Bible’s owner when the original binding began to deteriorate. “Edinburgh: printed by Mark and Charles Kerr, His Majesty’s Printers. MDCCXCIII.” Birthdates of the children of Nathan and Jean Crawford [R506] are written on a single blank page separating the Old and New Testaments. Glued inside the front and back covers, over the zigzag stitching holding the rawhide covering on, are handwritten sentimental poems. Inserted in the Bible is an envelope containing a lock of Catherine A. Burger’s [R500] dark brown hair, braided and tied in a 2” loop with a purple ribbon and mounted on a card. (Souvenirs of this type were often exchanged by relatives in the 1800s.)
S007 Information from Janis LaRue (1923-2002) [R360], Indian Hill Farm, Bath County; g-granddaughter of Elvira (Wood) Armentrout [R352]. Janis was an enormous help in compiling this record: she had a near-photographic memory of things she heard from relatives, long deceased, who lived in the late nineteenth century.
S008 Botetourt County Marriages, 1770-1853. Iberian Publ. Co., Athens Ga., 1987, and copies of Botetourt County marriage bonds furnished by [S077].
S009 Notes taken by my mother, from papers kept by W. B. Wood [R555]. Ultimate source unknown.
S010 James Gilliland will (3/1/1810), Botetourt County Courthouse.
S011 Lyman Chalkley (1974) Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia (extracted from the original court records of Augusta County 1745-1800). Vol. 2 (of 3), p. 496. Baltimore: Genealogical Publ. Co. Inc.
S012 Typewritten records of the Young family, provided by Connie Metheny, Bath County Historical Society.
S013 Delauter, Roger U. Jr. (1985) 18th Virginia Cavalry. H. E. Howard, Inc., Lynchburg Va. An appendix in this book gives a few lines to every individual in the regiment for whom records could be found. The entry under WOOD, FRANCIS MARION reads: “3rd Sgt., Co. B. b 1831? Resident of Bath Co., Va. enl. 12/3/62 at Camp Washington. Served previously in the Bath Grays. Captured 7/3/63 at Gettysburg, Pa. Sent to Ft. Delaware, Del. d. 10/2/63 at Ft. Delaware (cause of death not stated). bur. Finns Point National Cemetery, N.J.”
S014 Letter dated Nov. 18 1922 from H. R. McIlwaine, Librarian, Virginia State Library, Richmond, to Mrs. H. D. Everett, Charleston W.Va. Cites Vol. 11 of Confederate Records, p. 190. Photocopy held by G. W. Wood [R602]. In a letter from Mrs. Everett to W. B. Wood (also held by G. W. Wood), dated July 10 1968, she refers to Francis Marion Wood as “Granddad.”
S015 Ibid., citing Vol. 5, p. 569.
S016 Virginia in 1740: A Reconstructed Census. T.L.C. Genealogy, P.O. Box 403369, Miami Beach FL 33140, 1992.
S017 A series of papers, without attribution, formerly held by W. B. Wood [R555], now by G. W. Wood [R602]. Some of the information seems to be wrong, but most is very informative. From the content, some of the writing seems to be by Samuel Crawford Burger [R450], some by a child or children of his, and some by William Crawford Burger
[R500]. Also an ancient index card, held by G. W. Wood, on which William C. Burger (or his wife) calculated the age of six of his children when they married, to the day.
S018 Abstract of Botetourt County Court Records, cited by Connie Metheny, Bath County Historical Society.
S019 Microfilms of two Civil War record books, held by the National Archives, Washington DC:
Record of All Confederate Deaths in Captivity, filmed as Volume 5 to Microcopy 598, and Ft. Delaware Aux. Reg. No. 56, Register of Deaths from Apr. 2 1862 to July 5 1865 -- List of Deaths at Fort Delaware Hospital of Rebel Prisoners (p. 34), filmed as Volume 166 to Microcopy 598.
S020 Marriage Bonds, Prince Edward County Va.
S021 W.P.A. of Virginia Historical Inventory No. 106, White House, Bath County, research by R. G. Wood, 6/10/1936.
S022 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, vol. III (eds. R. Underwood and C. C. Buel), New York: The Century Company, 1884.
S023 E. B. Coddington (1968) The Gettysburg Campaign. New York: Scribner’s.
S024 Three rather poor photocopies of letters, two from Francis Marion Wood and one from William A. Hicklin, held by G. W. Wood [R602]. I don’t know who has the originals. They are accompanied by a modern letter to W. B. Wood [R555] dated 7/10/1968, from Mrs. H. D. (Sue) Everett of Charleston W.Va. (see [S014]), who acknowledges making the photocopies.
S025 J. W. Austin and R. H. R. Austin (1977) Related Families of Botetourt County, Virginia. Commonwealth Press, Inc., Roanoke Va. Much of the information in it about Katherine Burger [R500] does not square with the Burger family Bible [S005], which I give precedence.
S026 Original documents from the Burger side of the family in the 19th century, held by G. W. Wood [R602].
S027 History of Bath County, from Hardisty’s Historical & Geographical Encyclopedia Illustrated, Special Virginia Edition. H. H. Hardesty & Co., Publ., New York, 1884.
S028 Lillian C. Wood [R560], my mother.
S029 Prince Edward County DB6-59. Joseph Wood bought 100 acres of land from John Leigh, for £12. The deed refers to earlier deeds that describe the bounds of the land. Witnesses were Clales (?) Wade, Joseph Owen, and John Wood.
S030 Gwendolyn Wood of Mingo WV, wife of Archie Wood, g-grandson of Thomas E. Wood [R261]. See [R919].
S031 Sharon L. Wood of Huttonsville W.Va, wife of Roy E. Wood, g-g-g-grandson of John Carter Wood [R362].
S032 Erma [Wood] Baughman of Valley Head W.Va., g-granddaughter of Thomas E. Wood [R261].
S033 Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States taken in the Year 1790. Records of the State Enumerations: 1782 to 1785, Virginia. U. S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, 1908.
S034 Population Schedules of the Third Census of the United States, 1810. National Archives, Washington, 1958.
S035 Marriages of Prince Edward County, Virginia 1754-1810, C. L. Knorr, 1950.
S036 Frank Wood was one of fifteen prisoners who died at Fort Delaware on October 2 1863, which was a typical day for that period. The causes of death given are all diseases—typhoid fever, chronic diarrhea, “small pocks,” rheumatism, scurvy, “inflammation of the lungs,” anaemia [S019]. Frank was the 761st prisoner to die, of 2129 that eventually would (2436, according to the monument at Fort Delaware [R004]). A grand summing up of prisoner mortality in [S019] states that 15,653 died in Union prisons during the war. Fort Delaware was one of the two worst killers, being exceeded only by Camp Douglas, Illinois (2817 deaths).
Prisoners who died at Fort Delaware were taken east across the river to the New Jersey mainland and buried in Fort Mott, in what is now the Finn’s Point National Cemetery. According to [S019] the graves had head boards bearing the name, company and regiment of the deceased. However at some point these were removed, and the individual graves can no longer be located or identified. The Cemetery is easy to reach: just turn south on NJ Rte 49, between the end of the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the beginning of the New Jersey Turnpike, and drive about 7 miles, looking for signs that say “Finn’s Point National Cemetery.”
S037 The fact that Francis Marion Wood was named after the South Carolina “Swamp Fox” does not imply any family ties with that state or Gen. Marion’s forces in the Revolutionary War. Gen. Marion was a widely acclaimed hero in the South for decades after the war. As an example, among the 1,344 names of soldiers in Francis Marion Wood’s Civil War regiment listed by [S013] there are also Francis Marion Cunningham, Francis Marion Imboden, Francis M. Pownall, Francis Marion Pugh, and Francis M. Taylor. In scanning only 20-30 issues of the Fincastle Va. Herald of the Valley from the early 19th century I came upon an article of some length about Gen. Francis Marion, extolling his ability and heroism (9/11/1820).
S038 An exhaustive (84 pp.) genealogy of the Entsminger family compiled by R. M. Bell of Washington Pa. (1985). [S071] kindly furnished me a copy of this document.
S039 WPA of Virginia Historical Inventory No. 64, Bath County, Nimrod Hall, filed by R. G. Wood 6/23/36.
S040 “Frontier forts in Bath County,” in the Va. Mag. of History and Biography vol. 2, 1894-95, pp. 103-108.
S041 WPA of Virginia Historical Inventory No. 60, Bath County, Miss Mary Wood’s Home, filed by R. G. Wood 6/24/36.
S042 H. C. Bradshaw (1955) History of Prince Edward County. Dietz Press, Richmond.
S043 WPA of Virginia Historical Inventory No. 41, Bath County, William C. Burger Home, filed by R. G. Wood 2/24/37.
S044 WPA of Virginia Historical Inventory No. 54, Bath County, The Burger Home, filed by R. G. Wood 6/25/36.
S045 I checked the telephone books for Clifton Forge, Hot Springs, and Staunton/Stuarts Draft in 1990. There were 66 Woods listed, 81 Crawfords, only 1 Burger, and no Sitlingtons.
S046 Obituary for Edith W. Nelson from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, composed by Ned Poyser [R605].
S047 The CRAWFORD and BRATTON FAMILIES as related to the HOGSHEAD / HOGSETT FAMILY of Virginia, research notes compiled by Jean Thomson Gillett of Sacramento Cal.
S048 A History of Windy Cove Presbyterian Church, History Committee of the Windy Cove Presbyterian Church, 1976, 156 pp.
S049 Inscriptions on stones, new Windy Cove cemetery, near Millboro Springs, Bath County Va.
S050 WPA of Virginia Historical Inventory No. 67, Bath County, Old Stone House, filed by R. G. Wood 5/21/36.
S051 In addition to historic buildings, R. G. Wood described some of the old cemeteries in Bath County for the WPA. These include: No. 94, Sitlington Cemetery, between Wallawhatoola and Millboro Springs; No. 95, Old Crawford Cemetery; No. 101, Tom Sitlington Cemetery, at the Sitlington Stone House.
S052 Bath County Marriage Register, ~1861 forward.
S053 Births recorded at the Bath County Courthouse.
S054 Bath County birth records from the County Assessor’s records (card file, 1872 forward, held by the Bath County Historical Society).
S055 Bath County Marriage Register, before ~1861.
S056 County Assessor’s records of deaths in Bath County (card file held by the Bath County Historical Society).
S057 Record of deaths, Randolph County Courthouse, West Virginia.
S058 Will Book, Randolph County Courthouse, West Virginia.
S059 1850 Census of Bath County.
S060 WPA Report #98 of Alleghany County, 1937. Gilliland Tavern.
S061 The Bicentennial History of Bath County, Virginia. The Bath County Historical Society, 1991; Heritage House Publications, Marceline Mo.
S062 A Guide to Virginia Military Organizations 1861-1865, Lee A. Wallace, Jr., 1986, H. E. Howard, Inc., Lynchburg. 372 pp.
S063 Marriage Bonds and Ministers’ Returns of Charlotte County, Virginia, 1764-1815. Compiled and published by Catherine Lindsay Knorr, 1951.
S064 Today and Yesterday in the Heart of Virginia, a reprint of the edition of the Farmville Herald of March 29, 1935. Copyright 1935, Farmville Herald, 427 pp.
S065 From research notes on her family made by Lillian C. Wood [R560].
S066 These WPA photographs are from prints supplied by the Virginia State Library, Richmond Va. I saw the original negatives, and it showed how wrong I can be: I supposed the WPA photos of historic building were taken by professional photographers with 4x5” cameras, but in fact they were taken by the same local researcher who wrote the WPA reports, in the case of Bath County Russell G. Wood [R556], and they were taken with a folding pocket Kodak of the type everyone used in those days. Also, I had supposed the peculiar white flashes that are on the WPA photos were light reflections on glossy prints that had been copied to make a second generation of photos: but no, they are in the original negatives, and must have been caused by sunlight leaking through tiny holes in the worn bellows of R.G.W.’s camera.
S067 Inventory of headstones in the “Wood Family Cemetery” near Glen Wilton in Botetourt County History before 1900 through County Cemetery Records, Botetourt County American Bicentennial Commission, ~1970, 98 pp. The following Wood burials are listed:
William Edward Wood, 3/23/1858-8/18/1928, and wife, Mary Sue McKinney Wood, 12/9/1875-10/25/1958
Sarah Eleanor Reynolds Wood, 9/29/1823-8/7/1911, wife of Davis Morton Wood, 9/20/1819-11/9/1904
William Parks Wood, 1/14/1851-9/21/1925, and wife, Emma Fannie Harnsberger Wood, 9/21/1857-2/21/1819
Mary Virginia Wood, 8/20/1853-4/3/1858
Thomas Henry Wood, 9/25/1814-2/13/1879 C.S.A., and wife, Sarah Ann Anderson Wood 1845-1926
Samuel D. Wood, 9/15/1818-1/31/1897, and wife, Panthea A. Wood,
5/14/1818-11/15/1887
Thomas Wood/ born in Charlotte County, Va./ Jan. 5, 1780/ died/
March 25, 1849 (Fig. R022c)
Sarah Wood, born in Prince Edward County, Va., 12/11/1792-
11/8/1871
Three unmarked graves are believed to hold:
Sarah Elizabeth Wood, dau. of Davis M. and Sarah R. Wood, 1845-
1862
James Wood, b. in Charlotte Co., Va., 1790-Nov., 1846
Elizabeth Crenshaw Davis Wood, b. in Prince Edward Co., Va., died
Nov. 1846
S068 Land transactions by Joseph Wood recorded in the Charlotte County Deed Books:
DB 3-596, 2/6/1776, J.W. buys land from Caleb Baker
DB 4-155, 9/20 1779, J.W. buys land from Caleb Baker and wife
DB 4-163, 10/4/1779, J.W. sells land to Francis Coldwell
DB 4-23?, 4/10/1780, J.W. buys land from Francis Eppeson
DB 5-174, 3/6/1786, J.W. buys land from John Whitten(?)
DB 5-194, 6/26/1787, J.W. sells land to Thomas Read
DB 6-118, 7/5/1790, J.W. sells land to Josiah Legrande.
S069 T. S. Ailsworth, A. P. Keller, L. B. Nichols, B. R. Walker (1979) Charlotte County-- Rich Indeed, Charlotte County Board of Supervisors, Charlotte Co. Va.
S070 W.P.A. of Virginia Report No. 124 for Botetourt County, describing the “Wood Graveyard” SE of Glen Wilton.
S071 Information and photographs kindly supplied by Walter J. Reynolds, Rebecca Y. Entsminger’s grandson by her second marriage, and Henriette Hodge, of Edgewater, Florida. Henriette is an expert genealogical researcher who has worked heroically to bring back the story of the Entsminger/Reynolds line.
S072 Information supplied by H. E. (Ned) Poyser [R605], g-g-grandson of Edward Wood [R003].
S073 W.P.A. of Virginia Report No. 57 for Bath County, describing the J. G. Crizer home.
S074 Diaries (1942-1951) and papers of D. Kemper Wood [R550], held by his son, Charles W. Wood [R600].
S075 John M. Ashcraft (1988) 31st Virginia Infantry. Copyright H. E. Howard, Inc. 171 pp. John kindly supplied a copy of the photograph he took of the Regiment’s battle flag, Fig. R024a, which he took at the U.D.C. Memorial Building in Richmond.
S076 From an extensive interview, partly taped, with Emma Sue (Hepler) Snider (8/31/1903-1995) 9/1992, in the week of her 89th birthday. We also drove around and she took me to a number of places important to Burger history. The Bicentennial History of Bath County [S061] contains a colorful and informative account of the Heplers, written by Emma Sue.
Emma Sue retired from teaching in the Bath County public school system. She talked colorfully of her experience as a camp counselor at Camp Alleghany, West Virginia, in the 1950s, a time when Pres. Eisenhower's granddaughter was a camper there. By Emma Sue's account, the counselors at the camp lusted after the young Secret Service agents who were assigned there to protect the granddaughter. She did not say whether the sentiment was reciprocated.
S077 Patricia Ann Wood of Palo Alto Calif., g-g-g-granddaughter of James H. Wood [R253]. Patte has collected and shared a vast amount of information about the Wood line.
S078 List of heirs of James A. Wood [R256], Botetourt County WB6-237, furnished by [S077].
S079 Handwritten recollections and other memorabilia of Nora Lee (Wood) Neel of Gaps Mill W.Va., a g-granddaughter of James H. Wood [R253], which she passed on to Davis Miller Wood III [R257]. His daughter, Patricia Wood [S077], furnished them to me.
S080 From a search at the Botetourt County Courthouse commissioned by Patricia Wood [S077], beginning in 1975.
S081 Worrell’s “Early Marriages, Wills & Some Revolutionary War Records, Botetourt County, Va.,” via [S077].
S082 Records of the Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Salt Lake City Utah.
S083 Antonia Wood McCoy of Glen Wilton Va., g-g-granddaughter of James H. Wood [R253]. Antonia has provided a great deal of my information on the Woods of Botetourt County.
S084 R. D. Stoner (1962) A Seed-Bed of the Republic, Roanoke Historical Soc., Roanoke Va.
S085 L. P. Summers (1929) Annals of Southwest Virginia 1769-1800. Published by the author, Abingdon Va.
S086 Information from Samuel H. Wood [R372], sent to E. B. Wood (no relation) in a letter of 4/2/1930 and relayed by him to Gwendolin Wood [S030] in a letter of 5/7/1968.
S087 Hu Maxwell (1898) History of Randolph County, West Virginia. Acme Publ. Co., Morgantown, W. Va. (4th printing by McClaine Printing Co., Parsons W.Va, 1991.)
S088 U. S. National Archives, Washington DC: records (microfilmed and actual) of the military service of soldiers of the Confederacy.
S089 A collection of letters about 18” thick, part of Emma K. Wood’s personal effects that were stored in a trunk in the upper Sunset Cottage, Nimrod Hall. Most are letters written by Emma to her son Kemp [R550], who saved them and returned them to Nimrod about 1940. Others are letters received by Kemp, and by Emma, from other people. A few are from Lewis Wood to Kemp. They span the period 1900-1931, and provide a very detailed record of Nimrod and the Wood family in that time. I will be glad to provide a PDF file to interested family members.
S090 Black and white photographs that have accumulated at Nimrod over the years. Some are snapshots in an album, others are matted photographs taken by professional photographers. Unfortunately almost none are labelled.
S091 Edith Nelson’s [R558] album of black and white snapshots, now held by Sarah Davis. These were taken between 1907 and about 1920, mostly at Nimrod, much the same time span as the letters of [S089]. They portray the style and manner of Nimrod at that time, and show groups of the young people who came there, often with young Edith, Mattie, and Elsie. People in the pictures are identified in detail.
S092 Group photographs made at Nimrod on the occasion of the funeral of Mary Siddons [R552], the first of Lewis and Emma’s children to die, in July of 1944. From prints held by Sarah Davis [S149].
S093 Lewis Wood taught in a one-room schoolhouse. His Teacher’s Register for 1905-06 (held by Sarah Davis [S149]) has a page for each month. The page for March 1906 (for example) lists 27 pupils, ranging in age from 7 to 21. These included Edward Matheny [R359], 17, father of Janis LaRue [S007], and four other Mathenys; Robert Kloeber, 11, presumably a son of C. E. Kloeber of New York, at that time the owner of Nimrod Hall; Merritt, Berney, and Georgia Wood, three children of Lewis’s brother James O. Wood [R451]; and six of Lewis’s own children: John (7), Manning (21!), Cecil (14), Russell (16), Edith (11), and Mattie (9). Lewis had considerable personal motivation to teach the class.
S094 Jim Mann of White Sulphur Springs W.Va., who wrote the Mann, Porter, Simpson, and Sitlington entries for [S061].
S095 Oren F. Morton (~1917) Annals of Bath County Virginia. Reprinted in 1990 by Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore Md. 208 pp.
S096 Bertha (Wood) Allman of Phillipi W.Va., a g-granddaughter of Thomas E. Wood [R261].
S097 Shirley Wood of Sumerduck Va.
S098 War of 1812: War with Great Britain was declared in June of 1812 and lasted until spring of 1815, although a peace treaty ending the War had been signed in Europe in December 1814. 1814 was the crucial year of the War, because by then Britain had defeated Napoleon and was in a position to send large numbers of veteran troops to North America. The British planned a three-pronged offensive. Major campaigns would be launched in Canada and Louisiana, and a diversionary attack would be made up Chesapeake Bay. The latter was carried out in August of 1814 against very weak American resistance. The British won the battle of Bladensburg Md. (8/24/1814), then took Washington DC and burned most of the government buildings. President Madison had to flee to the countryside. After that the British turned on Baltimore but were repulsed by the American defense of Fort McHenry, the occasion when “The Star-Spangled Banner” was written. The British soldiers then reboarded their ships and retired to Jamaica.
In this War James Morton Wood [R251], Joseph Wood Jr. [R254], and Shepherd Gilliland [R303] all served in a company of Virginia Militia commanded at different times by Capt. John Pitzer and Capt. Joseph Johnson. Pitzer was a prominent citizen of Glen Wilton in Botetourt County; he owned tract R1 in Fig. R002c. The Company was mustered in August 1814, clearly in response to events that month in Washington and Baltimore, and sent to the Chesapeake. Probably by the time they got there the British had left. Pitzer’s men were discharged from service that winter in Norfolk Va. It seems unlikely they saw any military action.
S099 Iron industry in Alleghany and Botetourt Counties: An iron-mining and smelting industry flourished in this area between 1827 and 1925. A memory of it is left in the place-names, such as Iron Gate, Clifton Forge, and Longdale Furnace. Iron mining centered on the Rich Patch area. There were mines on both the Alleghany County side and the Botetourt County side of Rich Patch Mountain. These were real underground mines, not strip mines. The following geological description is from Lesure (1957).
“The ‘Oriskany’ ores which consist mainly of goethite, clay, and sand occur in the upper, sandy portion of the Licking Creek Limestone and the overlying Ridgeley Sandstone. The footwalls of the mines are cherty Licking Creek and the hanging walls consist of brecciated, ferruginous Ridgeley Sandstone. The ore bodies are tabular or lenticular; the larger ones extend about 0.5 mile along strike and generally range in thickness from 10 to 35 feet. The iron in these ores was probably derived from the weathering of pyrite in the overlying Millboro Shales and redeposited in the underlying sandy limestone and sandstone.
“About 10,000,000 tons of ore were removed from the Clifton Forge district between 1832 and 1925; drilling has indicated the presence of an additional 3,000,000 tons of potential reserves that are uneconomic at the present time. The main producers for which production figures are available were Rich Patch mines and Big Hill mine. Additionally, ‘Clinton’ iron ores, consisting of thin hematite beds in the Capacon Formation, have also been mined near Roaring Run Furnace and on Johnson and Porter Mountains; but these ores appear to have been of relatively little importance, although production or reserve data are not available.”
J. F. Lesure (1957) Geology of the Clifton Forge iron district, Virginia. Virginia Polytech. Inst. Bull. vol. 50, no. 7 (Eng. Expt. Sta. Ser. No. 118), 130 pp.
S100 Obituary of his parents, James and Elizabeth Wood, written by Davis Morton Wood [R255]. Held by [S083].
S101 Earl D. Balsley of Beavercreek Ohio, g-g-g-grandson of Joseph Wood (Jr.) [R254].
S102 Day Book maintained by Joseph Wood Jr. [R254]. Held by Maude Balsley, aunt of [S101].
S103 Davis Miller Wood III [R258] of Los Osos Calif., father of [S077]. I was privileged to “meet” Davis by mail and receive an enthusiastic letter full of information and photographs from him written on 7/6/1994, only 20 days before he died unexpectedly at age 78.
S104 1860 Census of Randolph County W.Va.
S105 Randolph County West Virginia History - Families (1991) Don Mills, Inc. and the Randolph County History Book Committee.
S106 Marriage Records of Randolph County W.Va.
S107 Walter and Eve Painter of Amelia Court House Va. Walter is a g-g-grandson of Tommie E. Wood [R261].
S108 Almost identical copies of these Civil War exploits of Tommie E. Wood were given to me by all my Randolph County cousins. I don’t know who first wrote it. I have reproduced the whole story, because it rings true and tells much about the times, the place, and the man.
S109 Lists painstakingly made by William Crawford Burger, in pencil on lined tablet paper, of the birth, marriage, and death dates of Crawfords and Burgers. Largely duplicates the records in family Bibles. The lists are accompanied by locks of the hair of W. C. Burger’s mother (Martha [Crawford] Burger [R505], brown streaked with gray) and his first wife (Catherine [Miller] Burger [R500], rich reddish brown). All are in a small envelope held by Sarah Wood Davis [S149].
S110 Extracts from early Virginia Land Patent Books. These are in a series of articles in Magazine of Virginia Genealogy (Virginia Genealogical Society, Richmond) between 1987 and 1993 (vols. 25-31).
S111 Wood vs. Rowland, records of the Bath County Circuit Court of Chancery, Drawer 48.
S112 Amanda Jane Wood’s application for a pension as widow of a veteran of the War of 1812, U. S. National Archives. Wid. Orig. 15308, Wid. Ctl. 23105.
S113 James Morton Wood’s application for a pension as a veteran of the War of 1812, U. S. National Archives. Sur. Orig. 18015, Sur. Ctl. 11591, Wid. Orig. 15629, Wid. Ctl. 22496.
S114 Glen F. Toalson, Jr. of Williamsburg Va., great-grandson of James Archeleus Wood.
S115 Records of the Bath County Circuit Court of Chancery, Drawer 29.
S116 J. M. Wood vs. E. Wood, records of the Bath County Circuit Court of Chancery, Drawer 19.
S117 Family history written for Arthur Morton Wood on his birth (8/23/1904) by his father, Davis Morton Wood [R255]. Source [S083], via [S077].
S118 Records of the Bath County Circuit Court of Chancery.
S119 C. W. Maxwell (1928) Tommy Woods—Scout. The West Virginia Review 5, 434-444.
S120 Inscriptions on gravestones in the Mingo W.Va. cemetery.
S121 Account of a visit to Mingo W.Va. by Calvin W. Price, Editor, in the Pocahontas Times (Marlinton), 9/8/32 [S030].
S122 Shepherd Gilliland’s application for a pension as a veteran of the War of 1812, U. S. National Archives. Sur. Orig. 29744, Sur. Ctl. 21456.
S123 1850 census of Randolph County W.Va.
S124 1870 census of Randolph County W.Va.
S125 Taped interview with Gwendolin Wood [S030], 8/7/95.
S126 1870 census of Bath County Va.
S127 Phyllis E. Daniels of Beverly W.Va, g-g.g-granddaughter of William H. Wilson [R377].
S128 Inscriptions on memorials in the Augustus Wood Cemetery, Mingo Flats W.Va., as recorded by [S030].
S129 Melinda Russell of Morgantown W.Va., g-g-g-granddaughter of Edward Wood [R003]. Melinda has helped my effort in many ways, including researching the legal record in the Randolph County Courthouse.
S130 W. H. Cobb (1921) Monument to and History of the Mingo Indians, publ. by the author, 32 pp. Reprinted 1974 by McClain Printing Co., Parsons W.Va. Kindly supplied by [S031].
S131 1850, 1870 censuses of Rockbridge County Va.
S132 1900 census of Alleghany County Va.
S133 Emma Tyree Hicklin of Millboro Va, g-g-granddaughter of Edward Wood [R003].
S134 1900 census of Bath County Va.
S135 Stan B. Cohen (1990) A Pictorial Guide to West Virginia’s Civil War Sites and Related Information, Pictorial Histories Publ. Co., Charleston W.Va., furnished by Melinda Russell [S129].
S136 Hunter Van Lear of Hilton Head S.C., g-g-grandson of Edward Wood [R003].
S137 Bath County Va. Land Book (an annual summary of all land holdings, for tax purposes).
S138 De Witt Clinton Wood of Harrisburg Pa., g-g-grandson of Thomas Wood [R252]. I wish I could have used all the material De Witt supplied.
S139 History of the Glen Wilton Presbyterian Church, a pamphlet contributed by [S138].
S140 The Woods Family, American Genealogical Research Institute, Arlington Va., 1973. This sounds like a more useful book than it is.
S141 L. C. Bell (1974) Sunlight on the Southside, Lists of Tithes, Lunenburg County, Virginia, 1748-1783. Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore Md.
S142 Dorothy (Wood) Wulfers of Washington W.Va., g-g-granddaughter of Edward Wood [R003].
S143 Louise Van Lear Curfman of Covington Ga., g-g-granddaughter of Edward Wood [R003].
S144 I still remember the smell of the power house. It was a faint but complex smell, a mixture of odors, each separable from the others: dust, bird droppings, axle grease, ozone from the electrical machinery, leather (the belt connecting turbine to generator), clear green pond water swirling under the floor, the hot sun on corrugated iron. So long ago.
S145 Information from Louise (Driscoll) Wood, Burger’s wife, near the end of her life.
S146 Aunt Ede was a tireless dominator of conversations. I once heard an uncle say to her, “Ede, when you die, your mouth is the last part of you that will stop moving!”
S147 “Aunt Ann” Flood was born a slave. She remembered her parents’ wedding, and described it to Janis LaRue [S007]. Slaves were not allowed to marry, but when the Civil War ended and slaves were freed her parents’ master had held a ceremony in his house in which those of his slaves who had been living together as man and wife were formally married. Everyone dressed for the occasion in the finest they had.
S148 None of the Nimrod sons was very enthusiastic about education, least of all college education, when there were so many other things you could be doing. Even Kemp [R550], who finished college, needed occasional boosts from home [S089] to stay on track. My father [R560] told me about being assigned Emerson’s Essays to read at VPI, and how it was the driest thing he had ever seen. He seemed downright indignant that such a boring book should even exist, let alone be required reading for him. (I shouldn’t be judgmental; I’ve never even looked at Emerson’s Essays.)
This must have been a bitter disappointment for their father, who took education very seriously. Lewis Wood managed to get quite a decent education from the Bath County public school system in the years after the Civil War, and later served as a teacher in the schools and as Superintendent of the school system [R005].
S149 Sarah (Wood) Davis of Bath County Va., g-g-granddaughter of Edward Wood [R003].
S150 Frankie (Wood) Apistolas of Springfield Va. and Nimrod Hall Va., g-g-granddaughter of Edward Wood [R003].
S151 Prof. Carl Agee, g-g-g-g-g-grandson of James Agee [R570]. Curiously enough Carl and I, 6th cousins, in 1996 were colleagues in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.
S152 The Agee Record, published ~1890 by Rev. James Wesley Agee (1838-1908) of St. Louis Mo.
S153 JoAnn Wood, granddaughter of Russell G. Wood [R556] and g-g-g-granddaughter of Edward Wood [R003].
S154 Gene Scott was a large, very powerful, very amiable black man who was the #1 farm laborer at Nimrod Hall during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s and maybe longer. I remember him well and fondly. His wife, Lucy, cooked at Nimrod. Their daughter, Ruth, still helps out at Nimrod.
S155 Charles W. Wood [R600], g-g-grandson of Edward Wood [R003].
S156 Original copies of the wills of Elizabeth Wood (1836) and Ann Wood (1843) (see [R002]) and Sarah Rowland [R277]. These were located by Antonia McCoy [S083] at the Botetourt County Va. Courthouse; I don’t know where they are recorded in the will books.
S157 Ruth Harrison (Wood) Raffensperger of Harrisburg Pa., g-g-granddaughter of Thomas Wood [R252].
S158 Memorial of the death of Elder [Joseph] Moore, written for the Mingo Flats W.Va. Presbyterian Church by George Beaty (see [R361], Fig. R362a); furnished by Gwendolyn Wood, [S030].
S159 Donald Adams of New Smyrna Beach Fla., grandson of Charles Francis and Clarinda Ann (Logan) Byron [see R275]. He cites a family Bible held by Aunt Ann Byron, which was probably Alexander Logan’s Bible.
S160 I was a kid and an airplane nut during WWII, and I remember about B-26s. They were fast, sleek medium bombers, shaped like a torpedo. They had a reputation for being hard to fly, unstable and unforgiving. They had rather small wings for their weight, which meant they took off and landed at higher speeds than other medium bombers. This in turn meant they needed longer runways. Archie and Gwendolyn Wood [see R272] probably helped build B-26s when they worked at the Martin plant in Baltimore during WWII.
S161 I only recorded dates for a few headstones in the Mingo cemetery, but they were in the oldest corner of it (i.e., the Moore section of the cemetery). The oldest stone I saw was that of Amanda Moore [R350], d. 1875. There are earlier dates, back to 1851, among the Logan burials, but those stones are of a uniform style that makes it look like they were all emplaced at the same time, presumably when Alexander Logan [R275] died in 1900.
S162 Gerald W. (Son) Wood [R602], g-g-grandson of Edward Wood [R003].
S163 Frank W. Van Lear, g-g-grandson of Edward Wood [R003].
S164 Murray Kempton (b. 1917) since 1942 has been a liberal journalist and columnist (currently for Newsday in New York), a moralist, and the author of many books. I am not enough of an intellectual to know about him, but cousin Melinda Russell [S129] sent me a page-long article on him from the 5/23/1994 Los Angeles Times.
S165 Joseph Shepherd Gilliland of Mt. Desert, Me. Joe has written a lengthy, entertaining, and very scholarly history of the Gillilands of Alleghany County, Va. and their forebears.
S166 Dennis F. Wood, Jr. of Cary, N.C.
S167 Virginia Military Institute archives.
S168 Battle of New Market: Union Major General Franz Sigel led a force of 6500 men up the Shenandoah valley in early May, 1864, intending to capture the town of Staunton and cut the Virginia Central Railroad, thus depriving General Lee's army and Richmond of one of their chief sources of supply. There were heavy rains, and Sigel's force got stretched out along fourteen miles of muddy roads. At New Market on May 15, 1864 his advance guard met some 5000 Confederates led by Major General John C. Breckenridge (who in 1860 had run against Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas for president of the U.S.).
Breckenridge had brought 2500 veterans in from the western mountain counties, along with other available units. At Lexington, the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets joined his force. The cadets camped about seven miles south of New Market the night of May 14. On Sunday, May 15, Breckenridge's men arrived at New Market. The battle commenced between 1 and 2 PM, with the cadet corps being in the hottest part of the action. The battle was over about 4 PM. General Breckenridge's units routed the Sigel force, capturing six guns and a number of prisoners, and compelling Sigel to retreat to Strasburg, 25 miles to the north. The role played by the cadets is all that many people remember of the Battle of New Market. Since that time VMI has celebrated the anniversary of the battle of New Market.
S169 This painting and a few others related to the content of Woods and Others can be seen on my art web site, www.woodjohn.net.
S170 Dwight Reynolds of Stockholm, Sweden, a great-grandson of James Francis Reynolds, has furnished me many photographs and much information about his line of the family.
Mary Dallas Street (1885-1951) [Fig. R005e], an author, was a regular guest at Nimrod Hall. Her name appears almost every year, from the beginning (1909) to about 1920, in the Nimrod guest register. She wrote a novel, Summer's End, (1936), about Bath County that has Nimrod and Hunter's Paradise in it. Here is her entry in Southern Writers / A Biographical Dictionary (Eds. R. Bain, J. M. Flora, L. D. Rubin, Jr.) (1979) Louisiana State University Press:
"MARY DALLAS STREET (1885-1951). Born on May 31, 1885, into a substantially wealthy and socially acceptable family in Richmond, Va., Mary Street was the daughter of Mary Gormley and George Levick Street. The only other surviving child was George, Jr,, four years younger than Mary. Her father was president of a company that manufactured parts for railroad cars.
"The family lived at 703 East Grace Street while Mary was growing up, but in 1919 moved to 815 West Franklin, a home she inherited after her parents' deaths in the 1920s. There Street remained until 1935, when financial problems and a bitter break with her brother over the family business probably contributed to her moving to New York City, where she lived until shortly before her death on November 10, 1951. She died in Charlottesville and is buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.
"Educated at Miss Jennie Ellett's School and in Chestnut Hill, Pa., Street enjoyed horseback riding, membership in the right clubs, and travel abroad. Large and masculine, she wore tailored clothes and was known to have passionate attachments to other women.
"One of the four editors of The Reviewer, a literary magazine of the early 1920s, she contributed funds as well as 27 pieces of her writing to the journal: twelve book reviews, six poems, five short stories, three sketches, and one editorial. Then, she seems to have published nothing for over a decade when her first novel appeared in 1936. A second novel followed ten years later.
"Her writing is conventional, romantic, and often sentimental. The plots in the novels are full of coincidence, but Street shows a modest gift in describing place. She was a minor writer in the lively Richmond literary community of the 1920s.
"WORKS: At Summer's End (1936). Christopher Holt (1946).
"DOROTHY McINNIS SCURA
University of Richmond
Richmond, Va"
S172 Kathy and Rees Shearer, of Emory, Va. A great-great-aunt of Rees was Susan Rucker Smith, wife of Dr. Henry Smith of Nimrod in the late 19th century. The Shearers have provided an immense amount of information about that time and place, and the Smiths and Watsons.
S173 From frames of old photographs that hang in the Nimrod Hall dining hall. One set of six photos shows scenes from 1887, Dr. Smith's time, the other frame contains a collage of photos from about 1895, Teddy Watson's time.
S174 About Hunters' Paradise. Gordon Blair's manuscript [R917] makes it clear that Dr. Henry Smith owned two properties in Bath County, a place named Hunters' Paradise as well as Nimrod Hall. In Mary Street's [S171] novel Summer's End the two principals, Robert Blake and Frances Dean, ride horseback from Hot Springs to Hunters' Paradise, "a good eighteen miles."
To this very day there is a Hunters' Paradise game resort
http://www.greenvalleyhuntersparadise.com/
in the Green Valley area of Bath County, north of Millboro Springs; roughly eighteen miles from Hot Springs.
S175 Charles E. Kloeber, Jr. (1869-1933) was a highly-regarded newsman with the Associated Press in New York City. A set of his letters reporting from many foreign capitals is preserved in the Princeton University library. Fig. S175 sketches the highlights of his career. Early in the 20th century it appears that he decided on a radical change in life style, which Fig. S175 alludes to, from New York newsman to country innkeeper, and on 12/4/1905 he bought Nimrod Hall (150 acres) and The Old Porter Place (850 acres) from A. W. P. Watson for $8500 (DB22-243).
Kloeber seems to have gone so far as to move his family to Nimrod, or the vicinity, because the teacher's register kept by Lewis E. Wood, when he taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the County (S093), records in March 1906 the presence of Robert Kloeber (11), surely the son of Charles Kloeber.
However, it was not to be: the AP needed Kloeber too badly, and they found a way to change his mind, as Fig. S175 indicates. In 1907 he had the Nimrod Hall furnishings auctioned off (Fig. R021p), and sold Nimrod (without the Porter Place) through J. D. Lowman, Jr. to Lewis E. Wood.
By 1920 Lewis and Emma Wood were 64 and 60, respectively, which we think of as retirement age, and they were very interested in selling Nimrod (a huge responsibility) and adopting a simpler life. Here is a draft advertisement for Nimrod written by Lewis, in pencil on scrap paper [S089]; I don't know where or whether it was published:
“Situated in Bath Co. Famous for its resorts, Especially Virginia Hot Springs which is only a little more than an hours drive. Also near the famous Goshen Pass. Lexington and Natural Bridge.
“State Road within four miles leading north & East [and] on a road leading west to White Sulphur that will more than likely be taken over by the State this coming year. The name alone attracts many people here. A great Golf Course could be built here, which ought to make the place desireable for a Golf Club. Would be a lovely place for a Summer School A Wonderful fresh water Spring that produces at least 20 H.P. that can be utilized to produce electricity for every imaginable purpose Complete set of furniture for [at] least twenty five rooms including Mattresses & pillows Six good cows, all farming implements & growing crops. Two No 1 Gardens in which there are several [??] fruits such Raspberries Gooseberries, Currants, Peaches Plumbs & apples”
[S089] speaks of negotiations with Messrs. Churmside and Eggleston in 1920, who spent much time at Nimrod and got as far as having a bill of sale drafted, but in the end the sale fell through. One reason, I think, is that Emma had second thoughts and she kept adding more furniture items to her list of exclusions from the sale, pieces that she wanted to keep to set up a new household. One of her lists, again on a piece of scrap paper, is in [S089]:
3 Tables in old parlor
1 chair John’s
2 Rockers & 1 little chair
1 Druget & Rug.
My room 1 Druget 3 Tables
2 or 3 rockers & pictures & clocks.
Dining room
Pictures & all dishes in side board & on top
1 Grey rack
Little Parlor
Pictures & druget, chair covers
Big Parlor, Peana & Victrola & stool & Brass fire set also pictures
also curtains in both rooms & old parlor & my room, also [??] druget
My own beding, & such other as I need.
falling leaf Table in linenroom
S177 Dottie Barrett of Franklin, N.C.; granddaughter of Maggie Trueblood [R455]
S178 Photograph by the author.
S179 Julie Nashwinter, granddaughter of Peck and Janis LaRue [R360].
S180 Kristen Wilkerson, Jackson Mich.
S181 Rita Holmes, Twin Cities Minn.
S182 Photograph VHI/P/24/0401 by James W. McClung, 1936, Virginia W.P.A. Historical Inventory Project. The Library of Virginia.
S183 The Heritage Book of Rockbridge Co., Va.
S184 The Right Stuff at Nimrod Hall: NASA's first man-in-space program, the Mercury Program (1959-1963), operated out of Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. (The Houston Manned Space Center was still under construction.) In that time several of the Mercury astronauts vacationed at Nimrod (as Mae Wood told me in the 1980s, in casual conversation). One even installed his trailer at the Blue Hole.
In 2014 my kids, Crispin and Georgia (Fig. 606a), checked the Nimrod guest register for evidence astronauts had been there. They turned up an entry for "Mrs M S Carpenter, Langley AF Base," on August 18 1961; signed by the wife of Scott Carpenter, the second American astronaut to fly into space (after John Glenn). Carpenter flew 3 orbits on May 24 1962, 9 months after his Nimrod visit.
Later they found that "Cdr. & Mrs. W. M. Schirra" (astronaut Wally Schirra), of Denbigh Va. (near Langley AFB) also signed the book on Sept. 5 1961. Schirra was the fifth American to orbit the earth, 6 orbits on October 3 1962, 13 months after his visit to Nimrod.
The astronauts had children of camp age at that time, and I speculate that one or more sons were campers at Camp Nimrod for Boys, which brought their parents there.
All the Mercury astronauts are deceased now except for John Glenn.
S186 Schalene Jennings Dagutis, Oakton Va.