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JAMES I. WOOD
Vol. 3, p. 955

The present mayor of that large and flourishing industrial City of
McAlester, James I. Wood has been closely identified with the
agricultural and political life of this section of old Indian
Territory and the new state for more than twenty-two years. He was
the first treasurer of Pittsburg County, and also was one of the
delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

He was chosen to represent a portion of the Eighty-ninth District in
the convention which formulated the organic laws of Oklahoma, and
during the session he served on auditing committee, the committee on
impeachments [sic] and removal from office, and the committee on
geological survey. Because of the progressive character of Oklahoma's
first state constitution it has always been considered an honor to
have been identified with the making of it, and that distinction will
have increasing importance with passing years.

After the constitution was completed Mr. Wood became a candidate for
county treasurer of Pittsburg County, was nominated by the democrats,
and was elected by a majority of about nine hundred votes. He was the
first individual elected to fill that office, and served for five and
a half years, retiring from the county office in July, 1914. In
April, 1915, Mr. Wood was elected mayor of McAlester, and has already
shown the progressive and independent quality of his administration,
which is one of marked benefit for the municipality.

Mr. Wood is of old American stock. His great-grandfather William
Wood served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and was a prominent
settler in Tennessee from which state he subsequently moved to Marion
County, Arkansas, and died there during the second year of the Civil
War. Thomas B. Wood, the grandfather, was born in White County,
Tennessee, and went out to the frontier of settlement west of the
Mississippi, and established a home in Arkansas when it was a part of
the old Louisiana Territory. He died in Marion County of that state
about 1851 at the age of sixty. By his marriage to Elizabeth TALBOTT
his children were: William S., Fred T., Benton, John W., and four
daughters.

William S. Wood, father of McAlester's mayor, was born in Marion
County, Arkansas, in 1823. At the outbreak of the Civil War he
enlisted in Gen. Joe Shelby's Confederate command and served in the
Trans-Mississippi Department. He had previously been sheriff of
Marion County from 1850 to 1854. In 1873 he moved to Comanche County,
Texas, and died there during the early '90s. He was a democrat, a
member of the Masonic order and of the Christian Church. He married
Malinda COKER, daughter of William Coker of Alabama. Their children
were: Thomas B., Sylvester, Fred T., Frank, William S., Arminta who
married James MAGNUS, Maggie, and James I.

James I. Wood was born in Marion County, Arkansas, February 3, 1850,
grew up on his father's farm in that state and was twenty-three years
of age when he accompanied the family to Comanche County, Texas. He
continued his efforts there as a farmer for twenty years, and then in
the early '90s moved into the Choctaw country of Indian Territory,
establishing a home near Scipio. In that locality he conducted farm
and ranch for about thirteen years, and played the part of an
industrious and hardworking citizen with only incidental
participation in public affairs until he was made the choice of his
fellow citizens for representative in the constitutional convention.

Before leaving Arkansas on March 26, 1872, Mr. Wood married Miss
Cynthia A. DOBBS. Her father was Jonathan Dobbs. To their marriage
were born the following children: Ada, who married Virgil H.
GRANTHAM; Jonathan W.; Burr; Olin; Ota, who married E. C. WINGROVE;
Minnie, and Lafe.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Vickie Taylor, December 16, 1998.