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Samuel Wood
Family of Samuel and Jody Wood
Samuel Wood Home at Bluff
Samuel Wood and his daughters
The Samuel Wood Family history contains an extensive history of Samuel and his wives and children.
Samuel Wood
Born: 1 January 1843 at West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England
Parents: Stephen Wood and Mary Ann Raybould
Married: 1 Josephine Catherine Chatterley 25 December 1871 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA
2 Emma Louise Elliker 5 November 1885 at St. George, Washington, Utah, USA
Died: 14 April 1910 at Bluff, San Juan, Utah, USA
Born in England to new Mormon converts Steven and Mary Ann Wood, Samuel became part of an extended Wood clan that would pin their futures on this new faith. Stephen, Mary Ann, uncles George and Samuel, with their wives, both named Jane, would experience persecution in England and eventual emigration 23 January 1849 to New Orleans, Louisiana. Stephen died of cholera as did four others of the fifteen Woods in the company.
Uncle George Wood escorted the young widow, Mary Ann, and her three sons to Salt Lake City, arriving there late in 1849. George accepted a call in 1850 to the "Iron mission", and Mary Ann remained in Salt Lake City; Samuel accompanied Uncle George. Mary Ann married William Oliver Davies in 1851 and they joined the new settlement in San Bernardino about 1853; Samuel's brothers, John and Stephen went with them.
As if he were Uncle George's son, Samuel learned to farm, freight, and worked in George's furniture store. He helped settle Parowan, then Cedar City, and was there when his mother and her new husband traveled on to the new California settlement of San Bernardino. He never saw his mother again.
He was mostly self-educated, having received a grade-school education. He served in the Black Hawk War. He built and operated a sawmill and acquired the trade of carpenter. For a time he carried freight and mail between Cedar City and Salt Lake City, where he married Jody Chatterley on Christmas Day 1871. They returned to Cedar and worked toward their financial independence. He built Jody a fine home, and here six children were born, two of whom died and infants.
In 1879, Samuel and Josephine Chatterley Wood and their family of four children, were called to join others to settle Bluff, Utah. They could not depart until 1882, however. This was a hard task to leave dear relatives and friends and a beautiful home to settle in a far away place among hostile Indians. They sold their home for a sack of bran and fed that to a neighbor's pig. That is all they realized out of their property in Cedar City.
Following their pilot, Hyrum Perkins, the Woods traveled with Charles Willden, Alvin Smith and David Adams and their families along the replacement trail bypassing the Hole-in-the-Rock, over an equally arduous route. They arrived at the primitive fort in October 1882.
When the settlers felt safe to leave the confines of the fort, Samuel built a log room on a little hill a block west of the fort. Even though he was a carpenter, little could be built from the twisted and crooked cottonwoods that grew along the river. Later, another room about twelve feet south of the first was added and then still later, the two rooms were connected making a three-room home. This was to be their home as long as they remained in Bluff. It was a crude home with a roof thatched with mud and it had very primitive, if any, conveniences, but within these log walls was all of the warmth and love of a real home. With its crudeness, there wasn't a home where more parties, candypulls, quilting bees, and children's gatherings were held. Everyone who knew Samuel Woodand his wife learned to love and trust them, even the Indians. Their home was turned into a home for all people, young and old, the sick, the weary, the discouraged, the happy. They all found an open door and open arms of love. Many town parties were held in their home, especially for the young.
Life was hard in Bluff--between the river leaving silt each spring and taking their crops, the deep sand, and the heat being fierce they couldn't raise grain, so it left little to survive on. They put cattle on Elk mountain, 75 miles away, and had to watch them continuously because the Indians would steal them; they planted crops in Monticello 50 miles away, and planted gardens and fruit trees in Bluff. They lived in a dug-out with a dirt floor and dirt roof. They would sprinkle the floor every morning to keep it hard and keep the dust down. Because of these dire circumstances, some of the men would go to Colorado to work for cash or materials and leave very few men with the women and children.
In late 1884 or early 85 Samuel and Jody returned to Cedar City for the delivery of her seventh child. While there, Samuel accepted the responsibity of taking a plural wife, and he married Emma Elliker on November 5, 1885. With Willard Butt, Jens P. Nielson, and three of Jens Nielson's third wife's children, their party of fifteen set out for Bluff via Moab in mid-November 1885, and arrived in Bluff more than a month later. Jody was called by Bishop Jens Nielson as Bluff's nurse and mid-wife after their return.
Samuel was called upon to share his wife with the community, and Emma became the housekeeper. He built coffins when someone died, and otherwise did his best to provide for two families comprised of eleven living children. In 1906, the combined families were called to settle in Monticello where Samuel had operated a farm for about ten years.
At some point in the 1890s Emma kept a home in Provo, and some of her husband's children lived with her while attending Brigham Young Academy. When "Aunt Jody" died in 1909, she returned to Monticello to be with Samuel until his death in 1910.
Source:
Samuel Wood Family, December 1982.
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Samuel Wood
Family of Samuel and Jody Wood
Samuel Wood Home at Bluff
Samuel Wood and his daughters