Wood, Nathaniel, 1797-1876

N. Milton Wood made his name in Maine as a minister and theologian. His rise to prominence within the Maine Baptist Convention seems to have resulted from his role in theological disputes that had particularly disruptive effects in Waterville, the site of his second pastorate. In Waterville, Wood confronted the challenge of theological disputes with a more senior minister, David N. Sheldon, who had held the Waterville pastorate when Wood was a student. By the time that Wood returned to Waterville as pastor in January 1852, Sheldon's disputes with his colleagues had been going on for eight years, and his theological distance from Baptist doctrines had become so great that he left not only the pulpit in Waterville but also the presidency of Waterville College.

Nathaniel Milton Wood (1822-1876) was born in Camden, Me., on 24 May 1822, the son of Ephraim (1774- ) and Prudence (Mirick) Wood ( - ). He graduated from Waterville College (now Colby College) in 1845. After a brief period as a tutor in Mississippi, Wood began studies in 1846 at the Western Theological Institute in Covington, Ky. He became minister in the Baptist Church in Bloomfield (now Skowhegan), Me., 1847 to 1852. He was later a Baptist minister in Waterville (1852-1860), Lewiston (1860-1866), and Thomaston (1866-1868) Me., as well as in Upper Alton, Ill. (1868-1872), and he was on the faculty of Shurtleff College in Upper Alton from 1872 to 1874. In 1874 Wood moved to South Boston, Mass., where he died of tuberculosis on 2 August 1876. In 1848 he married Caroline L. Bray ( - ), of Dresden, Me., and the Woods had three daughters.