Walter Wood (1765 - 1827)

Born 17 Aug 1765 in New York

Ancestors

Died 8 Sep 1827 at age 62 in Moravia, Cayuga, New York, United States

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Biography

Walter Wood (1765-1827) studied law and was admitted to the bar in White Creek, Washington County.

He moved to Aurora in 1794 and became Deputy Clerk of Onondaga County that year. He was the leader in the unsuccessful campaign to keep the county seat of Cayuga County at Aurora after the formation of Seneca County in 1804.

To aid this campaign, he brought the Pace brothers here to establish their weekly newspaper, "The Aurora Gazette," in 1805 and also erected, largely at his own expense, a building for the county court house. He was Postmaster of Aurora (1795-1811) and First Judge of Cayuga County (1810-1817).

He was also a distinguished lawyer under whose tutelage many young men received their training in the law.

Walter Wood first lived in a log house about one mile east of Aurora and had his office in Aurora in a small building near the site of the present King house; his later two-story residence is shown on the 1805 Howland Map of Aurora.

He was a member of Scipio Lodge No.58, F. & A. M., Aurora, and the earliest known "traveling certificate" bearing the name of Scipio Lodge was issued to Walter Wood in 1798.

In 1811 Judge Wood moved to Montville, near Moravia, because he was so deeply chagrined by the transfer of the county seat of Cayuga County from Aurora to Auburn.

There he built a large residence, a hotel, a scythe factory, a nail factory, a tannery, a store, a mill and a schoolhouse. He also assisted in building several other early schoolhouses in Cayuga County.

Walter Wood revealed his interest in education in other ways. He was a Charter Trustee of Cayuga Academy. He purchased a one hundred dollar Geneva College (now Hobart College) certificate giving him the right to send students to that institution.

In his will he bequeathed one thousand dollars to Cayuga Academy, Aurora, as a permanent fund to be used to assist boys without adequate means to secure an education at the Academy. He did something for girls, too, as the following paragraph in his will shows:

"And I do hereby agree that I will and my heirs shall stand and be seized of my Pew being number twenty-four in the Meeting house in Aurora which cost me two hundred and fifty dollars to and for the following uses to wit that the same be Exclusively used by such Females, as shall from time to time be attending a female School in said village of Aurora or females attending Cayuga Academy when no female School is Kept in said Village."

The "female School" then in Aurora was the Friends' school, Brier Cliff, taught by Susannah Marriott.

At Montville, as at Aurora before 1811, several young men studied law in Wood's office. One of these was a future president of the United States, Millard Fillmore.

In his autobiography, Fillmore tells of his associations with Judge Wood. (This is included to lay to rest the persistent belief that Fillmore lived and studied in Aurora.)

"My father sold his farm and removed to Montville, Cayuga County," (from Summerhill, Cayuga County, where Millard Fillmore was horn) "where Judge Walter Wood resided. He was a gentleman somewhat advanced in years and reputed to be very wealthy. He had farms and tenants scattered over several counties in the old Military Tract. He had a good library and was a man of remarkable energy and methodical business habits; and from his example and training I derived essential benefit, especially from his scrupulous punctuality."

Fillmore obtained release (1819) from his apprenticeship (wool carding) and taught school for two years, reading law books borrowed from Judge Wood's library during the winter and spending the summers in the Judge's law office in Montville.

Because Fillmore accepted a case before Judge Wood thought he was ready (he was paid $3.00 to "pettifog" for a justice of the peace), they agreed to separate and the young man went to his parents' home in the Township of Aurora, Erie County, where he continued the study of law in Buffalo.

He was admitted to the bar in 1823, held many public offices and became President when Zachary Taylor died in 1850. His autobiography reveals that it is due largely to Walter Wood that a native of Cayuga County became President of the United States.

Walter Wood died in 1827 leaving an estate valued at $500,000 and a will so involved that generations of lawyers worked for ninety-three years to complete its provisions.

Extensive Land Fraud by Walter Wood

Hints from Millard Fillmore's Autobiography

Future President Millard Fillmore studied under Judge Walter Wood and in his Autobiography has this to say:^[1]

About this time my father sold his farm, and removed to Montville, Cayuga County, where Judge Walter Wood resided. He was a gentleman somewhat advanced in years, and reputed to be very wealthy. He had farms and tenants scattered over several counties on the Old Military Tract. The titles were often the subject of litigation, and his professional business was mostly limited to actions of ejectment.

In the next few sections we see how Walter Wood obtained his lots in the "Old Military Tract," and why they were so often "the subject of litigation."

Sources

1. ↑ Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, Vol 10, p. 11, Internet Archive link

• Biography from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~springport/pictures59/5927.html