Richard Wood was dark and extremely tall, being described by his widow in her pension application as having been six feet, six or seven inches in height, with black hair and black eyes and of dark complexion. Having been born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, he came to Georgia as a child and remained here all of his life. Some of his childhood years were spent in Hancock County where his brother John Wesley was born.

He volunteered for service during the War of 1812 at Jefferson, the county seat of Jackson County, Georgia. At Fort Hawkins on the Oemulgee, he was sworn onto service on August 25, 1813 and commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Company of Captain Wilson McKinney, First Regiment of the Georgia Militia under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Groves. Upon termination of his service, Richard was honorably discharged from further service at Milledgeville, Georgia on March 05, 1814.

Richard returned home to Jackson County and resumed farming, also conducting an extensive lumber business. The court minutes of Jackson County show numerous receipts for lumber and bridge timber purchased from him. Richard named Justice of the Peace in 1813 in the Georgia Military District 246. He served as Representative to the Georgia State Legislature from 1834-1837. Then he served as a court judge in Jackson County in 1837. When a Jackson County school system was inaugurated by the Act of 1827, he was the new Commissioner to the Board. He was re-elected in 1846 to the State Legislature and served another term for 2 years.

Richard is buried in the Old Pentecost Church Cemetery in Barrow County, Georgia. His headstone reads: A husband dear, A tender friend, lies buried here.

7 May 1852, Jackson County, GA affidavits of Richard W. Pentecost, aged 63, Bailey Chandler aged 59, and Hill Steed aged 53, all residents of Jackson Co, state they have resided in that county for upwards of 40 years, state Daniel McDonald and his family moved to the neighborhood in the month of November 1816 and they were acquainted with them until the family moved to Talbot Co, GA January 1835 where Daniel died, and that Elizabeth his widow moved back to Jackson County in their immediate neighborhood where she previously lived.