Samuel Newitt Wood papers

Biographical sketch: Samuel Newitt Wood was born into a Quaker family at Mount Gilead, Ohio on 30 December 1825. From an early age, Wood interested himself in politics and in the abolitionist cause, acting as a conductor on the underground railroad. It was in this endeavor that he met his future wife, Margaret Walker Lyon, with whom he had four children. After teaching and reading law, he was admitted to the bar in 1854.

That same year, Wood and his wife headed to Kansas in the name of the free state cause; Wood settled in the 1850s on a site near Lawrence, in Wakarusa township. He was a main participant in the Wakarusa War and served as a delegate at the National Convention in 1856 that created the Republican Party.

In 1859 Wood moved to Cottonwood Falls, Chase County and started the Kansas Press, the first newspaper in the county, which later moved counties and changed names. He also served as a territorial legislator and was later both a state senator and representative, as well as a judge; while in the state legislature, he introduced a bill for women's suffrage.

When civil war broke out, Wood immediately enlisted. He served first as captain of the "Kansas Rangers," Company I, 2nd Kansas Infantry. He was later transferred to a Missouri trip and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Wood spent a couple years in Texas raising cattle before returning to Kansas. He continued to edit and publish newspapers, and he was an original stockholder in the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. In the 1880s he became involved in the county seat wars involving Stevens County, over whether Hugoton or Woodsdale should become the county seat. Because of this conflict, Wood was killed on 23 June 1891 by James Brennan.

Abstract: The collection consists of Wood's correspondence, mostly arranged chronologically from 1855 through 1891 (alphabetically for undated materials), as well as some illegible correspondence; fee bills from Colorado District Court from 1871-1874; and military records from 1861-1891. The correspondence includes government and war documents, financial accounting papers, as well as business and political letters. There are no papers for 1857-1858 and for scattered other years; the bulk of the papers date from the 1870s.

Related materials: Microfilm reel MS 705.01: Letters from S.N. Wood to Salmon P. Chase.