My Genealogy Hound

John Proudfit Wood, one of the prominent business men of Fayetteville, Washington County, was born in Brownsville, Tenn., August 14, 1845, and comes of a long line of mercantile ancestors of that State. He is the son of William P. and Ariadne Leonard, the former a pioneer merchant of Brownsville, Tenn., and a native of North Carolina. The Wood family dates their ancestry back to an Englishman, who came to America in very early colonial times, and made a settlement either at Boston or Plymouth Rock. The Leonard ancestors were early settlers of Tennessee, and were also more or less engaged in mercantile pursuits. At the youthful age of five years John Proudfit Wood lost his parents, their deaths occurring about two months apart, and a sister and himself were left to the care of his uncle. Spencer R. Wood, a merchant of Brownsville, Tenn., who afterward established himself in business at Memphis, of the same State, where he died during the yellow fever scourge of 1878. Mr. Wood received a thorough collegiate and business training at Brownsville, but afterward removed to Memphis, where for six years he was engaged in business. In 1872 he accepted a position with a wholesale house in St. Louis, Mo., and there remained for fourteen years in active and reputable connection with the wholesale commercial trade, traveling through Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Northwest Arkansas and Indian Territory, as a “knight of the grip­sack.” In 1883 he engaged in business for himself, and made investments in Fayetteville, with a small stock of bankrupt goods, increasing with the trade, and four years later had so increased his sale of goods that he felt compelled to abandon his sample trunks, giving his exclusive attention to his already extensive business. From a small stock of goods he had, by dint of persistent industry and economy, coupled with clever business ability, so increased his trade that he was forced to seek larger quarters. He moved into the double store-room of the large Opera House Block, 48x90 feet, his stock of merchandise averaging between $30,000 and $40,000, and aggregating about $60,000 annual sales. Mr. Wood formed a happy union at Helena, Ark., with Miss Fannie Nelson, a lady of refinement, a graduate of the West Tennessee Female College, at Jackson, Tenn., and a daughter of W. L. Nelson, of Helena, Ark. They are the parents of two bright little children: Mattie and John. Mr. Wood is a member of the Western Commercial Travelers’ Association, K. of H. and K. of P. societies, and he and wife worship at the Episcopal Church, in which she is an active worker. During the last two years Mr. Wood has made improvements in the Opera House Block, and has fitted it up in first-class style, preparing stage scenery, folding opera chairs, etc., making it altogether of a character in keeping with his other interests. He has a beautiful home on College Avenue, and being very fond of hunting, his fine Irish setters can be seen at any time playing around his handsome yard.