Biography

"JOHN WOOD, Governor 1860-1, and the first settler of Quincy, Ill., was born in the town of Sempronius (now Moravia), Cayuga Co., N. Y., Dec. 20, 1798. He was the second child and only son of Dr. Daniel Wood. His mother nee Catherine Crause, was of German parentage, and died while he was an infant. Dr. Wood was a learned and skillful physician, of classical attainments and proficient in several modern languages, who, after serving throughout the Revolutionary War as a Surgeon, settled on the land granted him by the Government, and resided there a respected and leading influence in his section until his death, at the ripe age of 92 years.

The subject of this sketch, impelled by the spirit of Western adventure then pervading everywhere, left his home, Nov. 2, 1818, and passed the succeeding winter in Cincinnati, Ohio. The following summer he pushed on to Illinois, landing at Shawneetown, and spent the fall and following winter in Calhoun County. In 1820, in company with Willard Keyes, he settled in Pike County, about 30 miles southeast of Quincy, where for the next two years he pursued farming. In 1821 he visited “the Bluffs” (as the present site of Quincy was called, then uninhabited) and, pleased with its prospects, soon after purchased a quarter-section of land near by, and in the following fall (1822) erected near the river a small cabin, 18 x 20 feet, the first building in Quincy, of which he then became the first and for some months the only occupant. He was one of the early town Trustees, and after the place became a city he was often a member of the City Council, many times elected Mayor, in the face of a constant large opposition political majority. In 1850 he was elected to the State Senate. In 1856, on the organization of the Republican party, he was chosen Lieutenant Governor of the State, on the ticket with Wm. H. Bissell for Governor, and on the death of the latter, March 18, 1860, he succeeded to the Chief Executive chair, which he occupied until Gov. Yates was inaugurated nearly ten months afterward."