Wood, S. N. (Samuel Newitt)

Samuel Newitt Wood was born into a Quaker family at Mount Gilead, Ohio on 30 December 1825. From an early age, Wood interested himself in politics and in the abolitionist cause, acting as a conductor on the underground railroad. It was in this endeavor that he met his future wife, Margaret Walker Lyon, with whom he had four children. After teaching and reading law, he was admitted to the bar in 1854. That same year, Wood and his wife headed to Kansas in the name of the free state cause; Wood settled in the 1850s on a site near Lawrence, in Wakarusa township. In 1859 Wood moved to Cottonwood Falls, Chase County and started the Kansas Press, the first newspaper in the county, which later moved counties and changed names. He also served as a territorial legislator and was later both a state senator and representative, as well as a judge. When civil war broke out, Wood immediately enlisted. He continued to edit and publish newspapers, and he was an original stockholder in the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. In the 1880s he became involved in the county seat wars involving Stevens County. Because of this conflict, Wood was killed on 23 June 1891 by James Brennan.

From the description of Samuel Newitt Wood papers, 1855 - 1891. (Kansas State Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 706804879

...