"An Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties."  Interstate
Publishing Company, 1906.  p. 775.
 
WILLIAM WOOD

     engaged in farming a mile and a half south of Fravel, is one of the
pioneers of Skagit county, having come here in 1867, and it is noteworthy that
he has not since been farther away from his original homestead than Olympia.  In
his early days he was a prospector and on one occasion nearly met death with
four others while on a trip up the south fork of the Nooksack. The men started
out with their provisions on their backs and camped the first night at Whatcom
lake. From the lake they journeyed on, making but a single mile the first day
owing to the thickness of the brush and the steepness of the mountain. That
night they camped without water and were with out it until the middle of the
following afternoon, when they had to take their choice of bear-tainted pools or
nothing. The sufferings of the men were intense, and Mr. Wood says he then came
nearer death than at any other time in all his pioneer experiences. Mr. Wood was
born in Liberty, Maine, January 27, 1839, the second of five children of
Phineas and Mary (French) Wood, both of whom were natives of the Pine Tree
state. They were of a sturdy, patriotic stock. Mr. Wood's grandfather left
Admiral Cockburn's fleet in the Revolutionary War to espouse the cause of
liberty.
     At fourteen years of age William Wood of this article left home and came to
San Francisco via Cape Horn. He remained there but a year, however, then
returned to New York, via Cape of Good Hope, but in 1859 he was once more in San
Francisco. He remained a year there, then came on to Whatcom and made that place
his home until 1867, when he came to Skagit county. During the time spent in
Whatcom he followed fishing in the summers and working at different callings in
the winters. On one hunting trip he saw a herd of twenty-seven deer, so
plentiful was game in those early days. Mr. Wood left Whatcom direct for the
country where Edison now is, accompanied by Ben Samson, Captain John Warner and
Watson Hodge, none of whom is now living. The four squatted on land near each
other, and there Mr. Wood has since resided. He had to wait four years for a
surveyor.
     In 1863 Mr. Wood married Mary Wood, and they have had fourteen .children,
eight of whom are living: Mrs. Annie Smith of Fravel; Lucy, in Whatcom ; John,
in Alaska; Andrew, at Gray's Harbor; Ella, at Whatcom; and James, Thomas and
Fannie, at home. One daughter, Mrs. Nettie Crane, died at New Westminster, B.
C., in December, 1905. In politics Mr. Wood is a Democrat, but aside from
serving as justice of the peace on Fidalgo island and as road supervisor, he has
never held any office of a political nature. He has one hundred and twenty acres
of land, all but twenty of which are cleared and devoted principally to raising
hay and oats. In live stock he has six head of horses, fourteen head of cattle,
a number of hogs, etc. He is one of the old-time citizens of Skagit county and
has seen the country pass from a state of absolute wildness to its present
condition of prosperous settlement, himself keeping fully abreast of all this
progress. He enjoys the esteem of pioneers and later comers alike.
     
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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in March 2007 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.