J. Jay Wood Page 583-584 - J. Jay Wood. The growth of a city is directly dependent upon the industrial expansion of that city, and one of the primary considerations influencing a manufacturing company to locate in a city is the advantageous factory site that can be secured through the realtors of the city. J. Jay Wood, as one of the leading real estate men in the city of Grand Rapids, dealing chiefly in industrial properties, may justly lay claim to being one of the men who has been a material aid to the commercial development of the city in which he has made his home for more than a quarter of a century. He was born in Franklin, Erie county, Pennsylvania, July 16, 1870, the son of James M and Elvira (Sprague) Wood, both natives of Pennsylvania, the former being born in Erie county in 1841 and the latter in Meadville in 1849. With the outbreak of the Civil war, James M Wood enlisted in the 111th Pennsylvania Infantry and after his discharge from that regiment, he journeyed to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, where he enlisted in the cavalry. He engaged in several campaigns against the Indians. In that service, he was promoted to the rank of quarter-master, but soon thereafter he was invalided home. He engaged in farming in Pennsylvania, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. In 1888, he settled at Grand Rapids where he continued to live until his death in 1916. His wife is still living in Grand Rapids. They are the parents of four children as follows: Rocke R Wood, born April 15, 1872, an employee of the United States postal service; J. Jay Wood, the subject of this review; Ethel, the wife of Archer V Forsythe of East Grand Rapids, who has one daughter, Ellen Leora; and Mark, born March 3, 1876, who is a ranch owner and rural mail carrier in Porterville, California, and has one son, Guy. J. Jay Wood received a public school education and then attended the normal school at Ypsilanti. He then taught school for a period of ten years in rural, village, and city schools of Kent county. In 1900, he went into the real estate business in Grand Rapids. He bought and subdivided plats and financed the building of houses. His business grew to such proportions, however, that he was forced to confine himself largely to the promotion of industrial properties. His work in this respect has been of untold value to the city of his adoption, and he has earned the name of being one of the most successful men in his field in the city. He is now completing his eighth year as a member of the Kent county board of supervisors. On July 25, 1895, he was united in marriage with Miss Sadie E Wells, the daughter of George M Wells, of Eastmanville, Ottawa county, Michigan, a cousin of Gideon Wells, secretary of the navy in the cabinet of President Lincoln. Mr and Mrs Wood have two sons: Jay Wells, born October 17, 1899, who married Miss Colleen Husted Hart, of Michigan, and who has one son, Robert A., born January 16, 1924; and Warren Wells, born May 15, 1909, a student in the Grand Rapids high school. Mr Wood maintains a fine suite of offices in the Fourth National Bank building.

Transcriber: Terry Start
Created: 13 December 2002