Charles Erskine Scott Wood of Oregon, Intimate of Mark Twain, Chief Joseph and Emma Goldman
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| Lieutenant C.E.S. Wood, 1874 The State of Oregon's Blue Book refers to Wood as the most interesting individual in the history of the state. |
Born in 1852, C.E.S. Wood was the child of the Surgeon General of the United States. His father, William Maxwell Wood was in fact the first Surgeon General - the post was created for him as a reward for years of service in the fledgling U.S. navy which he described:
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"An outrage is committed upon some Americans by a small body of individuals.~ perhaps, provoked by the abduction of some female. . or by smuggling off pepper at night. Without inquiry, or the means of adjudicating the facts, a man-of-war comes along and batters down the town and the houses of some rajah and his people entirely innocent of the matter, and then goes away. The eclat of vindicating American rights, by battering down some semi-barbarian town, may be brilliant in the home papers, but ten or twelve thousand miles’ distance, and the absence of a press among the punished people, may prevent many contingencies appearing to tarnish that brilliancy." - W. M. Wood, Fankwei
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| William Wood was born in Baltimore, Maryland, 27 May, 1809. He entered the navy as an assistant surgeon, 10 May, 1829, became a passed assistant surgeon, 1 January, 1835, and was commissioned surgeon, 20 February, 1838. He served on the steamer "Poinsett" on the coast of Florida during the Seminole war in 1838-'41, was appointed fleet-surgeon of the Pacific squadron in 1843, and brought the first intelligence of the opening of the Mexican war from Guadalajara to Mazatlan to Commander Sloat. This information induced the commodore to go immediately to California, when he captured Monterey and began the operations which resulted in the conquest of the state. He was fleet-surgeon of the East India, squadron in 1856-'8 and present at the capture of the Barrier forts in Canton river, China. He was fleet-surgeon of the North Atlantic blockading squadron in the flag-ship" Minnesota" in 1861-'4, and was present at the capture of the forts at Hatteras inlet, 28 August, 1861, in the engagements with the "Merrimac," 8-9 March, 1862, at the capture of Sewall's point and Norfolk in May, 1862, in the sounds of North Carolina in 1863, and on blockade and other operations on the coast in 1863-'5. On 1 July, 1869, he was appointed surgeon-general and chief of the bureau of medicine and surgery, in which he served until 24 October, 1871. |
'Ces' Wood's father took him to meet President Grant when he was a boy, and it was Grant who appointed him to West Point as an Army cadet when Wood was 17. Wood hated military life and finished West Point with 95 demerits (100 demerits meant probable expulsion). Nonetheless he was subsequently highly regarded as a soldier and General O.O. Howard (whose XIth Corps had fought beside Corvallis boys at Gettysburg after having taken the brunt the first day's fighting) made Wood his aide-de-camp.
Consequently, it was Wood's task to record the negotiation's with Chief Joseph which ended the Nez Perce War. It was Wood who wrote down the famous words of Joseph, "I will fight no more forever" (click here for the story and the full text of Joseph), and remained Joseph's friend and defender until the Chief died, sending his own son Erskine to live in Joseph's camp.
While he was Howard's aide-decamp, Wood took leave to explore Alaska, where the Russians had recently sold their colonial claims, to the U.S. While in Alalska, Wood traveled into the interior and recorded the culture, stories and poems of the Tlingits (click here)
Wood took a leave of absence, studied law and subsequently left the army, moving here in 1884. His law firm became the foremost firm in Oregon. As a lawyer he represented the railroad magnates in their various land fraud schemes but also represented suffragettes, political prisoners, labor organizers, the poor, artists, and the people of Oregon in the various actions which led ultimately to the referendum and intiative system, the direct primary and direct election of senators (they had previously been appointed by a corrupt legislature and the conviction of several of them, as well as a Senator and Oregon Congressman in land frauds, led to public revulsion). His involvement in the Oregon progressive causes born in the 19th century led to his investigation by the House Unamerican Activities Committee, an irony since he, far more than they, was a product of the nation's traditions.
Wood was a poet, essayist and painter too.
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| One of Wood's paintings 'au naturel' |
He died in 1944, having lived to see both the opening of the Civil War (he witnessed the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac) and WWII, as well as everything between.
He was the sweetheart of Sara Bard Field, a leading Oregon suffragette (Click here).