Wood studied at both
Dartmouth College and
Andover Theological Seminary. He started his teaching career as the Latin and natural science instructor at
Kimball Union Academy in
Meriden, New Hampshire. Later he served as the President of the Female Seminary of
Cleveland, Ohio, Principal of the Clinton Female Seminary in Brooklyn, and professor of botany at Terre Haute Female College in
Indiana. He retired from his instructional work in 1867 and lived the remainder of his life in
West Farms, New York. In an obituary in ''The Gardener's Monthly and Horticulturist'', Wood was described as performing the important task of taking the progressive scientific research of botanists and making their "knowledge widely distributed" through "universal" textbooks. ==References==