CAPT. AARON H. WOOD
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: LUTHER, PEARSE, GARDNER
is the owner of forty acres of fruit land in the Collins District. His ranch lies at the junction of the Kerwin and Sterling roads, about six miles southwest of Santa Clara. Twenty-five acres are in vineyard, fifteen acres being devoted to the culture of wine grapes, of the following varieties : Charbano, Matero, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Sauvignon. Ten acres produce Muscat grapes for table use. Fifteen acres are covered with fine fruit-trees, one-third peach and two-thirds almond. As showing the fertility of the soil and the excellent care taken of the ranch, we mention the peach crop of 1887, in which year, from five acres of trees six years old, were harvested twenty-eight tons of fruit. During the same year Captain Wood erected a winery with a capacity of 20,000 gallons, and is now prepared to make his vineyard even more profitable than before. The vineyard and orchard were planted by George M. Bruce, the property becoming Captain Wood's by purchase in 1885.
The subject of this sketch was born in Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts, May 29, 1836. His parents, John B. and Lydia (Luther) Wood, were also natives of Swansea. Both are now deceased. Captain Wood's boyhood was spent upon his father's farm, which he left at sixteen years of age to enter the counting-house of R. S. Burrough & Co., commission merchants of Providence, Rhode Island. But the charms of seafaring life, which had surrounded him from his birth, were not without their influence over him, and he remained in Providence but one year, going to sea at the age of seventeen years, as a "boy" on the Monarch of the Seas, of New York, William R. Gardner commanding. By strict attention to duty, and by the study of the science of navigation, he rapidly rose in his chosen profession, becoming chief mate of the vessel in which he commenced his career, at the age of twenty-three years. About one year later he took the same position in the ship Norway, of New York. After eighteen months' service, he was made captain, and placed in charge of the ship Emerald Isle, New York, in the Atlantic trade between that city and Liverpool. In after years he commanded the ships St. Mark, Sagamore, and Sovereign of the Seas. The last-named vessel, of which Captain Wood was part owner, was sold in Antwerp in the summer of 1884. Returning to his Massachusetts home, he enjoyed a much-needed rest, after more than thirty years of active life upon the seas. His next move was to visit California, whose charms soon decided him to make it his permanent home. With this purpose he purchased the property described at the beginning of our sketch. Here, in his pleasant home, he enjoys a life which is retired and quiet compared with the one in which his earlier days were spent, while the reminiscences of a rich experience remain with him. Politically Captain Wood is a strong and consistent Republican.
He was united in marriage, in 1864, with Miss Isabel F. Pearse, daughter of
William H. and Rosanna M. (Gardner) Pearse, residents of Swansea, Massachusetts.
Of the five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wood but one is now living, Oscar B.,
who was born March 8, 1875.
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Pg. 480-481
SANTA CLARA COUNTY The Valley of Heart's Delight