Edwin Wood

EDWIN ORIN WOOD, LL.D.

             Edwin Orin Wood was born at Goodrich, Genesee County, Michigan, October 29, 1861. His parents were Michigan pioneers, Thomas Parmalee Wood and Paulina M. Wood, both of whom came from western New York. The grandfather and great grandfather of Thomas P. Wood served in the Revolutionary War. The parents of the subject of this sketch lived together sixty-two years and are buried in the Goodrich cemetery.

            Edwin O. Wood attended public school in Goodrich, studying Latin and Greek outside of school hours with Reverend Sanderson, a congregational minister, as tutor. Later, he put in one year at the Saginaw City high school. Leaving school, he was a clerk in the general stores of D. M. Scriver, Seth B. Pixley and D. W. and William Campbell at Goodrich; also in the store of Levi Campbell at Metamora, Michigan. While with D. M. Scriver he learned the tinner’s trade. For five years he was a clerk in the clothing store of George W. Buckingham, in Flint, Michigan. In 1885 he was appointed a railway mail clerk, but resigned to accept a position as traveling salesman for the wholesale grocery firm of W. J. Gould & Company, Detroit, remaining five years, following which he was the Michigan representative of Hackett, Carhart & Company, wholesale clothiers of new York.

            In March, 1893, he was appointed a special agent of the United States treasury by Secretary of the Treasury John G. Carlisle. In May of that year he was assigned to special work on the Pacific coast. He seized the steamship “Haytien Republic” for violation of the revenue and immigration laws. More than thirty persons were indicted by a special grand jury called at Mr. Wood’s request, and the steamship was confiscated by the government. The case was tried in the United States district court at Portland, Oregon, appealed to both the United States circuit court of appeals at San Francisco and the United States Supreme court and affirmed by both of these tribunals.

            It was shown in the trial that the smuggling ring, which included federal officials and the owners of the Merchants Steamship Company, of which the “Haytien Republic” was a unit had defrauded the government out of three hundred sixty thousand dollars in a period of seven months by the smuggling of opium, and that more than one thousand five hundred Chinese laborers had been admitted into the United States illegally. The collector of customs had received fifty dollars per head for landing these people, or a total of Seventy-five thousand dollars. Both the collector and special agent of the United States treasury for that district, Charles J. Mulkey, were convicted, as well as a score of their associates.

            Mr. Wood received the personal thanks of President Cleveland and the secretary of the treasury in recognition of his services in these cases. Judge George H. Durand, of Flint Michigan, was at the request of Mr. Wood, appointed special counsel for the government and had charge of the prosecution. Later, Mr. Wood brought to light a defalcation of more than forty thousand dollars in a United States bonded warehouse in Boston, and also a shortage of three thousand dollars in the cashier’s office of the Detroit Custom house.

In 1897 Mr. Wood resigned as special agent, although the position had been extended into the civil service and he has been especially requested to remain by General O. L. Spaulding, assistant secretary of the treasury.

            Mr. Wood was one of the founders of the Loyal Guard, a fraternal beneficiary society and for many years was its president. He was chosen president of the National Fraternal Press Association and a year later president of the National Fraternal Congress.

            He served as chairman of the Genesee County Democratic committee, and in 1904 was elected chairman of the Democratic state central committee. In 1908 he was elected a member of the Democratic national committee, re-elected in 1912, and again re-elected in a statewide primary in 1916. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in Denver in 1908, a delegate-at-large and chairman of the delegation in 1912, and again in 1916. Following the national convention at St. Louis, he resigned from the national committee in June, 1916.

            Mr. Wood was appointed by Governor Fred M. Warner, of Michigan, as one of the commission to purchase a silver service for the battleship “Michigan.” He served as president of the Genesee County Pioneer and Historical Society and upon the creation of the Michigan Historical Commission in 1913 was named as one of the commission by Governor Woodbridge N. Ferris. In 1916 he was elected president of the commission.

            In 1913 Mr. Wood was appointed a member of the Mackinac Island State Park commission by Governor Ferris and served as vice-president of the commission, resigning in September, 1916. He was instrumental in the placing of a bronze tablet on Mackinac Island to Jean Nicolet, the first white man to set foot on Michigan and the old Northwest territory; also a memorial tablet in honor of Lewis Cass, one of Michigan’s foremost statesmen. Mr. Wood erected a memorial fountain on Mackinac Island in memory of his son; it is known as Dwightwood spring and was dedicated with impressive ceremonies. He gave to the state museum at Mackinac Island a valuable historical collection.

            Mr. Wood was named by Governor Ferris as a delegate to the centenary peace commission in 1914. In 1915 he was one of the board of arbitration representing Flint in the matter of fixing the price to be charged for gas.

            In 1910 Mr. Wood was elected a vice-president of the General Motors Company, but resigned when the control was placed in the hands of a voting trust. In 1915 he again became connected with Mr. W. C. Durant and was elected early in 1916 a director in the Chevrolet Motor Company.

            Mr. Wood initiated and secured the required stock subscriptions, which brought about the founding of the Industrial Savings Bank of Flint, Michigan.

            Mr. Wood is a Knights Templar and thirty-third-degree Mason. He was one of the committee to raise funds to build the Masonic Temple in Flint, and was a member of its board of trustees from its inception until 1915 when he resigned. He is a member of the Mystic Shrine, the Elks and various other fraternal societies. He was president of the Pioneer Guard of Michigan Sovereign Consistory and is a member of the “Old Guard” of Genesee Valley Commandery, Knights Templar.

            Mr. Wood is a student of Michigan and Old Northwest history and has been a collector of early maps for many years. His special Old Northwest library is one of the largest private collections in the country. He is the author of many papers on the Old Northwest and of Historic Mackinac. In 1916 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Notre Dame University in recognition of his service along historical lines.

            Mr. Wood was married in 1889 to Emily Crocker, daughter of Stephen and Prudence Crocker, pioneer residents of Genesee County. Four children blessed their union: Dwight Hulbert, who was killed by a fire wagon in 1905 at the age of fourteen years; Albert Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mary B. Mr. and Mrs. Wood are members of the Episcopal Church, he serving on the vestry of Trinity church at Mackinac Island.    

            He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution and the Detroit Athletic Club. He dedicated the “History of Genesee County” to Rev. T. J. Murphy and his work, “Historic Mackinac,” to Rt. Rev. Monsignor Frank A. O’Brien, LL. D., both lifelong friends.

            Mr. Wood was a member of the committee appointed by the city of Flint to secure the new post office building. His associates were W. C. Durant, John J. Carton and Judge George E. Taylor.

            At the celebration of the Golden Jubilee marking the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Flint, in 1905, Mr. Wood was chairman of the executive committee. He was one of the original members of the board of directors of the Flint Improvement league, now the Flint Board of Commerce. During his term as mayor of Flint, Bruce J. McDonald appointed Mr. Wood a member of the police commission. He has been active and public spirited in everything pertaining to the advancement of the best interests of the city, county and state.

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 This article was transcribed by Mrs. Mary E. Byam from a work by Edwin O. Wood, LL.D., President Michigan Historical Commission, History of Genesee County Michigan Volume II, Her People, Industries and Institutions (Federal Publishing Company: Indianapolis, Indiana, 1916).

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