H. R. WOOD
H. R. WOOD, who since 1886 has permanently resided in El Paso and for sixteen years has been engaged in the real estate and insurance business, is a native son of Texas, his birth having occurred in Galveston, May 31, 1857. His parents were Edward S. and Anne Eliza (Otterside) Wood. The father was born in New Jersey but was reared in Virginia, from which state he came in the early ‘30s to the Texas country, then a part of Mexico. He located at Brazoria and afterward removed to Galveston, taking an active part in the war for independence which culminated in 1836 in the establishment of the Republic of Texas. He became one of General Sam Houston’s friends and associates in shaping the affairs of the new republic and his name is inseparably interwoven with the events of that period. At Galveston he embarked in merchandising and became a prominent business man of that city, taking an active and helpful part in promoting the commercial prosperity of the Texas seaport. In that day before the advent of railroads Galveston was a supply point for the entire state of Texas and the only wholesale center of the state. Edward S. Wood continued a resident of that city until 1878, when he departed this life. He was the president of the Society of Veterans of the Texas Revolution and was a prominent and influential resident of the eastern part of the state. His wife who was born in Philadelphia, was reared and educated in Portsmouth, Virginia. She was descended from an old English family.
H. R. Wood spent his youth in the city of his nativity, where he attended school and early entered mercantile life, being first associated with his father, while later he engaged in merchandising on his own account. He made a trip to El Paso in 1882 and in 1886 returned to make his home permanently in this city. Here mercantile pursuits until 1889, when he sold out and opened a real estate and insurance office. In this business he has since engaged and he has taken an active and helpful part in the upbuilding and improvement of the city. Negotiating many important realty transfers, he has thus been a direct factor in the improvement of El Paso and his efforts have ever been exerted for the benefit of this part of the state, for he stands as the champion of progress, reform and improvement.
Mr. Wood was married in the city of Houston to Miss Madeline B. Crosby, a daughter of J. Fraser Crosby, now deceased, who as a prominent character not only in the early history of El Paso, where he located in pioneer times, but in the state of Texas as well. He was a veteran of the Civil war and made a reputation as a gallant soldier and prominent lawyer of state-wide reputation and a judge of scholarly attainments who on the bench made a splendid record.
B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 393.
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