Archive:The Connecticut Nutmegger, Volume 46

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Jane N. Ryan, "Last Words: The Stories Behind Probate Records and the Will of Charles Henry Wood of Meriden", The Connecticut Nutmegger vol. 46, no. 4 (Mar 2014):250-266.

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Wills and probate records are not only rich sources of genealogical information, but they are also windows into the human side of what might otherwise be dry data. An interesting will can lead you down unexpected paths. Whether or not the individuals you meet are directly related to your genealogical interests, their stories provide background and flavor to the period you are researching.

What follows is not intended to be and extended genealogy of one family, but rather a snapshot of the people and circumstances surrounding one rather curious will. In this case, the will of a Meriden bank teller led from a family that lived in Bermuda and Maryland to a home for indigent boys in Connecticut and then to the upper echelons of business and finance.

Charles H. Wood of Meriden, New Haven County, Connecticut, signed his will on 19 March 1906. In it he bequeathed to his "beloved wife, Honora C. Wood," the use of one third of all his property, real and personal, for her use during her life. The rest of his estate he left to Burtrand [Bertrand] A. Page of Hartford, to hold in trust for his son Edwin P. Wood. He gave instructions that Page ws to use the interest and as much of the principal as necessary for the support and education of Edwin, and whatever remained was to be turned overr to Edwin when he reached the age of 21. However, should Edwin die before that age, the property in its entirety was to be given to his wife.

What follows caught my interest:

In justice to my wife, whom I call beloved because she is so, than whom no husband ever had a better wife nor child a mother, I desire to say to those who will make it their concern, that the strict statuary share of my estate herein give to my wife and the like selection of my friend Burtrand A. Page to be the trustee of my boy's inheritance are prompted by the desire to safeguard my boy's interests from the danger to which they would be exposed if my wife were in absolute control of them. Not that I think my wife loves our boy less than I do, but her unscrupulous aunt Rose W. Smead seems to exercise over my wife an influence which nobody can explain, under which my wife is ready to turn over to her aunt aull that she possesses under a mistaken notion that all that she may ever get belongs to her aunt of right for services for which

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in fact my wife has too dearly paid already. To remove my boy's inheritance beyond the reach of Mrs. Smead's conscienceless influence -- to save my wife from her own misfortune -- I have done what a discriminating world will justify. Lastly in addition to appointing Burtrand A. Page my trustee as in paragraph third, I do hereby appoing the said Burtrand A. Page to the the executor of this, my last will and testament.^[1]

The will of Charles H. Wood was accepted into probate on 23 Juen 1913. The inventory of his estate came to $5,216.02, not a huge fortune, but certainly enough to give a young lad a good start.^[2]

I was especially intrigued by this rather outspoken will because I had run across the family of Bertrand Page while researching my own family.

CHARLES H. WOOD

Charles Henry Wood was born in Meriden on 9 Jul 1871, the son of Henry B. Wood and Alice E. Pomeroy.^[3] Henry Wood and Alice Pomeroy had been married just the year before, on 6 September 1870.^[4] In 1880 they lived in Meriden: Henry Wpod, 36, Britannia worker, wife Allex [Alice], 30, son Charles 9, and son Nelson, 4. All were born in Connecticut.^[5]

On 2 August 1899, Charles H. Wood married Miss Nora [Honora] Catherine Whitney in an evening ceremony held at the Watkinson Juvenile Asylum and Farm School in Hartford.^[6] Nora was the niece of Edwin B. Smead, the first principal of the school.^[7] The school hall was decorated with goldenrod and hosted a party for some fifty guests. The newlyweds then spent two weeks honeymooning in the Adirondacks.

After their return to Meriden they set up housekeepeing at 104 Wilcox Avenue. The 1900 census shows Chas. H. Wood, 28, and Honorah, 27, married nine months, no children. Living with there were Charles's parents, Henry B., 56, and Alice, 50, and his brother Nathan, 23. Charles was a bank teller, and evidently he was sufficiently well paid that they could afford a servant, Jennie Anderson, 26, born in Sweden.^[8]

The elder Woods soon moved to another location, living first at 37 Elm Street in 1901 and five years later at 60 Crown Street. Nelson moved to Brooklyn, Nyew York, in about 1904. Charles H. Wood, teller at the Home National Bank, remained on Wilcox Avenue.^[9] By 1910, Henry B. and Alice C. Wood, 66 and 60, still lived at 60 Crown Street, while Charles and Nora with their son Edward [sic], 9, and two servants lived at 55 Wilcox Avenue.^[10]

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Charles H. Wood died in 1913, not yet 42 year old.^[11] His mother, Alice (Pomeroy) Wood, died the following year,^[12] and his father, Henry B. Wood, died on 28 August 1929 at age 85.^[13] All three were buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery, Section F, in Meriden.^[14]

HONORA C. WHITNEY, BELOVED WIFE OF CHARLES H. WOOD

Honora Catherine Whitney, daughter of George Orrett and Mary Jane (Jones) hitney, was born in Bermuda on 20 October 1872.^[15] Honoroa, or Nora, as she was then called, immigrated in 1878, arriving with her family in New York on 12 August 1878.^[16]

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