Born in
Mountnorris, County Armagh, Ireland, the son of David Wood, a merchant, and Frances Bigham Trew, he emigrated to Canada sometime before 1846. He found employment at James Shepard Ryan's hardware store in
Toronto in that year; in 1848, he was put in charge of the branch in
Hamilton. In 1856, he opened his own business. Wood was a founding director of the Hamilton and Lake Erie Railway Company in 1869 and the Ontario Cotton Mills Company in 1881. In 1893, he became one of the owners of the Hamilton Blast Furnace Company; when it merged with the Ontario Rolling Mills Company to form the Hamilton Steel and Iron Company in 1899, Wood served as its first president. A
Liberal, he served three terms as a member of parliament in the
House of Commons of Canada. First elected in the
Canadian federal elections of 1874, the election was later declared void. He was re-elected in an 1875 by-election and again in
1896 (he was defeated in
1878 and
1900). He represented the
electoral district of
Hamilton in the
province of
Ontario. Wood was married twice: to Elizabeth Freeman from 1851 until her death in 1860 and to Jane White in 1863. On 21 January 1901, he was appointed to the
Senate of Canada upon the recommendation of Sir
Wilfrid Laurier. He represented the senatorial division of
Hamilton, Ontario, until his death. == References ==