Thomas Wood

Our community has been anxiously inquiring for several weeks for news in regard to our venerable fellow citizen, Thomas Wood, Esq., who has been ill at his home on Park Street. This morning at 7 o’clock he quietly passed away.

Mr. Wood was born February 10th, 1810 near Stony Point in this county and was one of twelve children, only two of whom survive him - Drury Wood, Esq., of our city and a married sister living in Tennessee.

In his fifteenth year he was sent to Charlottesville where he attended school some years and entered the University of Virginia during the second session of that institution. He was probably the oldest alumnus. He graduated in the school of law at the age of twenty..... .

We learned that soon after he commenced the practice of law in Charlottesville, he married a Miss Morgan of Cumberland County, and resided in that county a few years. He afterwards went to Memphis, Tenn., with the purpose of settling but on account of the climate soon returned to Charlottesville, where he formed a partnership with his friend, Judge Watson, which continued till 1845.

For several years he edited the Charlottesville Advocate (which afterwards became the Chronicle), a newspaper devoted to the advocacy of the doctrines of the Whig party. He was a ready and forcible writer and long after he ceased to be an editor he was a frequent contributor in the newspapers of

Charlottesville and Richmond, Va. he was a man of earnest and clear convictions on all subjects of general interest and was fearless and candid in the expression of his opinions.

Socially, he was genial and courteous and both a witty and humorous companion. Many of his witticisms have been repeated for years among the members of the bar, all of whom respected him for his ability and admired and loved him for his integrity and courtesy as a practitioner.

Whilst his legal success was chiefly as a chancery lawyer, he was a ready and fluent speaker and for many years there were few public assemblages of our citizens held to consider matters of public interest over which he was not called on to preside. As a presiding officer, he was unrivaled in this community. He was elected mayor of Charlottesville in 1859, was re-elected in 1860 and resigned July 8, 1861. He also served the county before the late war as a member of the house of delegates for one term and declined a re-election.

Mr. Wood’s first wife died about fifteen years ago. During her life they adopted two children, to whom he devoted a love as the most gentle and affectionate of fathers... .

His last wife was a Mrs. Sturtevant, who survives him. During the last five years of his life he was a consistent Christian, a member of the Presbyterian Church of this city........... ...Charlottesville Chronicle.

The subject of this sketch was an uncle of the editor’s and has other relatives in Marianna. James E. Wood, Editor and Proprietor of The Lee County Courier.