Green Mack Wood was born January 31, 1792 in Washington (later Jefferson) County, Georgia to Solomon and Elizabeth (Eason) Wood. Solomon and Elizabeth were natives respectively of England and of Wales, who settled first in North Carolina and later in Jefferson County, Georgia. Solomon held the rank of general during the Revolutionary War and was also active in the Indian Wars. He died in Jefferson County August 17,1815. Elizabeth moved with son, Green M. Wood to Montgomery County, Alabama, and is buried in the family burying ground on the plantation there. Her mother was a Miss Bentley. Gen. Solomon Wood’s mother was a Miss Valentine.
Green M. Wood was educated in his native state and moved to Montgomery County in 1817. His landed estate was extensive and he owned a large number of slaves. He married Mary Wilkie Hall, the daughter of Bolling Hall and Jane Abercrombie on Jun 17, 1817 in Alabama. Some of her ancestry can be found in the book, Some Descendants of CHARLES ABERCROMBIE (1742 -1819)
He moved to Autauga County, Alabama around 1818 and settled in the “Fork”, where he was noted as a man of wealth, education and influence.
W. G. Robertson states of him:
“His plantation was on the river, and he lived on the second bottom at a beautiful place between the river and the hills above. After remaining in the Fork for a number of years, he sold his plantation to Dr. Ware and bought a plantation on the Augusta ferry road, seven or eight miles from the city, and there he became noted as the best farmer in the county.
He was a great corn planter and raised a variety of corn, known all over the country as the Green Wood corn, and some of that variety of corn is still in existence. Mr. Wood was the father of Maj. Green Wood, of Texas, and grand father of Dr. M. L. Wood, of Montgomery. He sold his beautiful place later on and moved to Texas, and has been dead a number of years.”
One of his daughters, Mrs. Douglas M. Campbell, of Houston, Texas, has written of these times as follows:
“During the war my father’s plantation was a very busy place, my mother having cloth woven and clothes made for the soldiers, as well as her own family, and the negroes, about two hundred on the plantation, and on Col. Powell’s plantation, son-in-law of Maj. Wood, as he was in the army. My father was very busy providing all necessaries and raising everything on the plan for soldiers’ wives and children and widows all over the county. His plantation was called the ‘Model farm,’ for he was very systematic and methodical-raised sheep, horses and cattle and hogs, as well as diversity of crops and all kinds of fruit and melons. A carpenter and blacksmith shop was maintained in the place and pitch, tar, and coal were made for all purposes. He was a most kind and humane master, a fine provider for all, and one of the best of neighbors. We had a governess, Miss Sarah L. Davis, of Batavia, N. Y. in our home for six years.
My mother was a fine southern woman, a good entertainer, and always kept open house for friends and visitors. ‘Marcus Warland’ or the ‘Long Moss Spring,’ by Caroline Lee Hentz, was written after a visit in Alabama. She visited at my father’s plantation, her husband being with her, and my father had the negroes give a ‘ball’ at their quarters for her benefit. She was a northern woman and had never known anything of southern plantation life. She was so delighted upon here return to the north she wrote this novel, and her negro characters were taken from several of my father’s servants, and the story one of the South.”
Green Wood’s wife Mary died June 29, 1820, and he married 2nd Evelina Alexander Barnes, daughter of William Barnes and Nancy (Abercrombie) Barnes, on Feb. 28,1822 in Alabama at her Uncle Bolling Hall’s plantation near Montgomery, Alabama. Both of her parents had died some years before in Hancock County, Georgia, leaving orphaned besides Evelina, a younger daughter, Elizabeth, who married William Campbell of Montgomery, and a son, William, who died at the age of seven. Evelina was a cousin on his first wife. In 1830, Green Mack Wood owned forty-two slaves by 1850, it appears he owned 95. Around 1847, Green Wood made plans to move to Texas, and on December 6th, 1849, he set out for the move to Montgomery County, Texas.
Children by his first marriage:
1.Green Mark Wood married Mary Jane Le Grande, daughter of William C. and May Jane Le Grande, granddaughter of Pierre Le Grande, a French Huguenot, who located in Richmond, Virginia in 1700.
By his second marriage
2.Bolling Hall Wood
3.Willis Breazeal Wood married Sarah Ann Harris
4.Nancy Wood
5.William Barnes Wood married Cornelia Josephine Mitchell, Houston, Texas
6.Elizabeth Green Wood married Robert Michael Powell, Texas
7.Mary Evelina Wood
8.Seignora Eliza Wood
9.Ellen Wood
10.Joshua Wood
11.Campbell Wood married Nannie Hall Mitchell, Austin, Texas
12.Ella Abercrombie Wood married Douglas M. Campbell, Texas
Green Mack Wood died in Danville, Texas on February 12, 1866 at the age of 74 and was buried at the Green Wood family cemetery in Montgomery County, Texas.
SOURCES
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, ALABAMA -Original data: Robertson, W. G.. Recollections of the early settlers of Montgomery County, Alabama. Montgomery, Ala.: Society of Pioneers of Montgomery, 1961.
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