the defence of the coast against the American fleet. He was tall, of powerful frame, and was detailed to a company of grenadiers; but being determined not to bear arms against his native land, he took advantage of a stormy night and the excitement incident to a village ball, and in company with Bill Johnson, afterwards so notorious as an American spy and the "Hero of the Thousand Isles," made his way to a birch-bark canoe, concealed for the purpose under barn, and started for the

American shore.

The wind blew a gale, the rain fell in torrents, the lake became momentarily rougher; finally the adventurous spirits were obliged to seek shelter on an island, where for three days they lay secreted, suffering for food and drink: a bottle, supposed to contain brandy, which they had brought with them in their hurried flight, proving to be full of liquid blacking! At last, nearly famished, they reached Sacketts Harbor, then occupied by the fleet under Com. Chauncey, where they were arrested by the patrol boats and imprisoned four days as spies. At the expiration of that time an uncle from the neighboring town of Woodville, hearing of the capture, gave satisfactory assurances of their loyalty, when they were released, Wood going to his mother's at Woodville, New York, for a time, afterwards to Middletown, and Johnson entering the American service as a spy.

At the time of the movement of the English forces by water and by land for the invasion of the Eastern States by way of Lake Champlain, young Wood raised a company of which he was chosen captain, and marched to assist in the defense of his country, but before they reached the American army the battle of Lake Champlain had taken place, resulting in the defeat of the English; the company returned home and disbanded.

Wood, then at Middletown, entered the office of Gen. Jonas Clark, a distinguished practitioner, where he continued the study of law. In 1816 he married Miss Mary Rice, of the neighboring town of Ira, the next year removed with her to his mother's house in Woodville, and in September, 1818, came to Cleveland,

in those days farther away than Oregon or Alaska are now, erally to seek his fortune.

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It is not for us to tell his aspirations for position, wealth and honors, nor how high his hopes rose or fell as he stepped ashore in the scattering, straggling hamlet of that day. A few houses standing here and there on the river's bank, the clearings scarcely encroaching on the virgin forest that came to the water's edge; only a few years back the aborigines had hunted in those woods, and fished in the waters soon to bear the fleets of an empire.

Although he had been admitted to practice in the Vermont courts, he was compelled for lack of means to go on foot to Ravenna, where the Supreme Court was in session, to secure the diploma that enabled him to practice in the courts of the State. He afterwards brought his wife and infant daughter to Cleveland, coming from Buffalo on the Walk-in-the-Water, the first steamer ever on Lake Erie. In the absence of piers, and owing to the sand-bars then across the river's mouth, the passengers were landed in small boats. When he thus finally made his residence in Ohio, his wife walked at his side; he carried his infant daughter in his arms; he had a silver quarter of a dollar in his pocket; that was all.

In 1825 he was elected to the State Senate, filling the position three consecutive terms of two years each. He was afterward elected President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the district of which Cuyahoga was one of the counties. This position he occupied six years, and was then chosen to the bench. of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and twice re-appointed-the last three years as Chief Justice. His entire term of judicial service was about twenty years.

The data are not at hand from which to give an analysis of his judicial decisions, it must suffice to say that his influence had a marked effect in shaping the judiciary of the State, some of his opinions being given on important questions of the day and receiving great attention; and that as a judge he was inflex

ible in the administration of justice, of grave and dignified demeanor when upon the bench, highly esteemed by his fellow judges, and held in high regard by the bar and by honest litigants. For a number of years he was a prominent lawyer in Cleveland. He had two or three partners at different times, among others, the Hon. Harvey Rice. As a lawyer, he was keen and sharp in getting at the truth, being particularly skillful in criminal cases. He was a man of sound sense, who despised quibbles, seized the strong points, and endeavored to reach justice in a case by the most direct path.

Reuben Wood was a man of deep kindness of heart, of great geniality of disposition, and of tender sympathies. He had a keen wit, and admired wit in others. Possessing an inexhaustible fund of anecdote connected with the early days of Northern Ohio, he was one of the most agreeable of companions, retaining his freshness and vivacity to a good old age. When the country was new, and "traveling the circuit" was part of a lawyer's duty, he was the center of a circle of talented legal gentlemen whose leisure hours were devoted to social intercourse, the pleasures of which were greatly enhanced by his overflowing humor and kindness of manner. Many are the stories of the unbending of the Solons, their mad pranks and practical jokes, that linger in the traditions of the early bar of Ohio.

In the various official positions filled by him the breath of suspicion was never lisped against him. In his long career of public life he maintained a character above reproach. Even the heat and injustice of party conflict never left its mark upon his character, and his warm, personal, private friendships never were chilled by the bitterest political excitement. As a candidate for the suffrages of his fellow citizens he was very popular with his party, and his tall, erect form and commanding mien as a leader, had won for him the familiar and expressive title of the "Old Cuyahoga Chief." Thus, when in October, 1850, he was made the candidate for Governor by the Democratic party, although the dominant party had been Whig for a number of

years, he was elected by a majority of 11,000 over Judge Johnson, of Hamilton County, his opponent. Although the canvass was a spirited one, not a line of abuse or a blemish on his private character was ever hinted at by a single paper in the State. Indeed, such was his personal popularity throughout the State, every county of which he had visited either as an advocate or as judge, that many Whigs, personal friends, were found either electioneering or voting for him.

He took his seat as Governor in 1851.

In national politics it was a time when, after the passage of the odious Fugitive Slave law, the country was full of dissension and discussion. Governor Wood was always opposed to the extension of the slave power, and was an anti-slavery man, although he deprecated unlawful or unconstitutional means for the abolition of slavery. In his inaugural address he expressed his natural aversion to the institution, and asserted that "the Democratic party has opposed, and ever will oppose, either the diffusion or the extension of slavery into any territory of the United States by every legal and constitutional means, and would rejoice if any mode not doing violence to others could be devised to overthrow and eradicate the evil."

During his administration the State enjoyed unusual peace and prosperity, and the gubernatorial chair was never filled more worthily. Always tempering justice with mercy, of great kindness of heart, one of the trials of the position was the constant appeals of convicts for pardon. The New Constitution, so called, went into effect in March, 1851, thus vacating the office. Governor Wood was re-nominated by the Democracy, and re-elected in October, 1851, by a majority of 26,000 over Samuel F. Vinton, the Whig candidate, a majority at that time unheard of in the political annals of Ohio. His second term of office began in January, 1852.

At the assembling of the Democratic convention at Baltimore in June, 1852, that party was so strongly in the ascendant throughout the Union that a nomination was considered equiva

lent to an election, and Governor Wood was spoken of as a prominent candidate. The strife between Lewis Cass and Stephen A. Douglass, the leading candidates, was a bitter one, lasting for several days; finally, after forty or fifty ballots had been taken, the Virginia delegation sent a committee to the Ohio delegation, offering to give the entire vote of Virginia in the convention to Governor Wood if Ohio would bring him out. Owing to the chairman of the Ohio delegation having personal feeling against the Governor, this proposition was declined. Then they made the offer to the New Hampshire delegation, who accepted it; Franklin Pierce was nominated and elected. Thus, personal jealousy and ingratitude prevented a nomination that would undoubtedly have resulted in the election of Reuben Wood to the Presidency, a position his experience in legislation, in the judiciary, and in the State government would have qualified him to fill with credit to himself and satisfaction to his countrymen.

Positions of public trust, such as Governor Wood had held during his long official life, while they are full of honor when occupied as he filled them, rarely are remunerative, especially when they take up the time that should be devoted to a profession. Therefore, when in the spring of 1853 he was offered the consulate at Valparaiso, South America, then said to be one of the most valuable offices in the gift of the President, he accepted it, resigning the Governorship into the hands of the Lieutenant Governor, William Medill, and left Cleveland for that far distant land on the 12th of July, 1853, accompanied by his family.

He issued an address to the people of Ohio, expressing his regret at leaving them, gratitude for their confidence in him during all the years of his public life, and hopes for their continued happiness and prosperity.

His departure was accompanied by the regrets of thousands of friends. The press throughout the State expressed the liveliest interest in his welfare.

In the absence of the Envoy to Chili, he filled for a time, in addition to the consulate, the position of Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the Government of that Republic.