Naomi Dunn Davis
Surnames: Crawford, Wood
Regions: Madison Co., Oneida Co., NY - Walworth Co., WI
Source: Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women, by Florence Chambers Dexheimer,
W. D. Hoard & Sons Co., Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Pages 97-99
Naomi Dunn Davis, born in Shiloh, New Jersey, September 8, 1800, was married to Lewis N. Wood of Cumberland County, New Jersey, in 182l. They went to Madison County, New York where they lived until 1824, moving to Waterville, Oneida County in 1832. Here Mr. Wood conducted the Academy and studied medicine, graduating from the Geneva Medical College in 1837. His wife, a beautiful and intelligent woman, was a most efficient helpmate and the wise mother of the eight children born to them. Upon completing his course in medicine, Dr. Wood went at once to Chicago. His wife and children went to New Jersey to visit their relatives before taking the journey to that far distant town which then contained about three thousand inhabitants, on the outpost of civilization among the Indians and the pioneers of the frontier. Dr. Wood travelled to his new home via Buffalo, where he took a sailing vessel going by way of the Great Lakes to Chicago. When Mrs. Wood took her family they went by boat from New York City to Albany, then by canal boat to Buffalo and thence by sail boat by the same route the head of the family had taken. The boat on which Dr. Wood expected his family to embark was burned en route and all the passengers lost. He learned of the tragedy and suffered the agony of believing all his family had perished until the vessel arrived on which they had taken passage. The canal boat from Albany was so slow in its journey that they missed the ill-fated vessel and so there was a joyful reunion in the new home.
They found Chicago a rude pioneer town and the young doctor concluded it was not a suitable place with its changing population in which to rear his children and he bought three hundred sixty acres of land in Walworth County, where they all went in 1839. In that region he practiced his profession and gave some service to the State after its admission to the Union as a member of the legislature. He was successful in the practice of his profession and was in advance of his time for he was a constant student with a philosophical mind. He had received a fine education and Mrs. Wood had also enjoyed unusual advantages. Their home, though a pioneer one, was one of culture, study and much reading. Mrs. Wood was a handsome woman of great physical endurance, endowed with courage and fortitude. While her husband practiced his profession, she managed the big farm efficiently, trained the sons and daughters in ways of unselfishness, industry and studiousness, and shielded her husband in his arduous work. She secured tutors for the children and when they grew older they went away to school and college. Dr. Wood's office adjoined the house and his wife and daughters rendered assistance in emergencies. Several young men studied medicine there and one of them married the daughter Clarissa. Another daughter married John B. Crawford of Baraboo, Wisconsin, who had been a partner of Dr. Wood's son, J. W. Wood in California, whither the young men had gone in 1849, with thousands of others who went in search of the Eldorado. Mrs. Wood lost her daughter, Naomi, to Mr. Crawford, when he came to Walworth to visit his former partner on their return from California in 1852.
The family of Dr. and Mrs. Wood scattered as all families have a way of doing and after living for so long the strenuous life of a "Doctor of the Old School", the Doctor's health began to fail and he retired from practice. They moved to Baraboo, where their daughter, Naomi was living and there passed their remaining years. Dr. Wood died in 1868, aged 69 years, and Mrs. Wood lived fourteen years without the companion of her youth and active life.
Though deprived of her husband's society so long she was brave, beautiful and interesting to the last. She was one of the pioneer women of Wisconsin who helped materially and spiritually in making Wisconsin the wonderful community that it was for so many years. She was a descendant of the original Sharpless family that settled in Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania and went with her daughter, Naomi D. Crawford to attend the two hundredth anniversary of their settlement in America, celebrated in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1882. Naomi Davis Wood was a queenly woman fitted by nature to fill any position of whatever responsibility or prominence.
