Joseph Wood was born on April 17,1841, near Nauvoo, Illinois, the son of Samuel and Sarah Steadwell Wood. His father died in Illinois and in 1845 Mrs. Wood married Ithamaur Sprague with whom the family came to Utah. After Sprague's death she settled in Ogden and in 1850 became a plural wife of Captain James H. Brown of Mormon Battalion fame. They were divorced and during the next decade she married Alonzo LeBaron and two other husbands so quickly divorced they are remembered only as Mr. Kelly and Mr. Lewis.

In 1860 Joseph Wood was one of the young men called to settle the Ogden Valley and found the community of Huntsville. He married Elizabeth Ellen Slater and with his wife and his mother settled in the new community. The much married Mrs. Lewis provided a jarring note. In the mid-1860s she became acquainted with the RLDS missionaries who opened the Utah Mission and after several polygamous marriages, became an avid reader of Josephite tracts. Wood was also suspect to local authorities. He came to the rescue of a man who was being severely beaten, allegedly on orders from local authorities and then protested the fact in the community. When he refused the bishop's request to destroy the RLDS tracts, a church court was convened to consider his rebellion. That night he was warned by a close friend, who had the reputation as the local Danite, that the outcome would likely involve blood atonement. Wood did some quick repenting, confessed his sins, settled outstanding tithing, burned the tracts, and (while still on a sort of probation) laid plans for leaving Utah. He mortgaged his farm and bought wheat. Then in early 1867 he and his family left Huntsville in a sleigh. He took the wheat to Salt Lake City, traded it for flour, and then left with his family for the boomtown of Austin, Nevada. Flour was selling at $25.00 per cwt, and Wood realized $3,000 on the trip. He bought a small ranch on the Reese River near Austin where he farmed and operated a smithy. He stayed in Nevada until the boom collapsed and conditions in Utah made him confident enough to return. In 1878 he moved to Cache Valley and settled near his brother in Lewiston. The next year he moved to Gentile Valley, Idaho, where the hard winter of 1879-1880 wiped out his herds. He returned to Cache Valley in a wagon pulled by a cow and a horse and settled in Trenton near Goodwin Brothers Ranch.

Active in the Liberal Party and the Raid, Wood acted as a "spotter", informing deputy marshals of the presence of Polygamists--the Clarkston incident has been mentioned. He was largely responsible for the founding of the New West School in Trenton in 1883. He was one of the fusion ticket of Liberals and Republicans who won control of the Trenton school board and who ordered the school closed to the local LDS Congregation. Though he did not join another church, he actively encouraged the New West and aided the various non-Mormon Sunday Schools in Trenton. He died January 28, 1925, and is buried in the Cornish Cemetery.

"The Gentile Comes to Cache Valley" by A.J. Simmonds - Appendix N (USU Press 1976)



Bio and top picture provided by Linda Owens