Melissa Wood

MRS. MELISSA WOOD. It is always a matter of the keenest interest to review the lives of pioneer settlers and note the changes time has made in their surroundings. The subject of this brief sketch is the daughter of John S. and Mary (Forbes) Slater. Her father, who was an Englishman, emigrated to the United States when a youth, eighteen years old. He married Mary Forbes, a native of Ireland, who came to America when a girl. They settled down to wedded life in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, where he followed the combined pursuits of carpenter, wagon-maker and farmer. They reared a family of four children, viz.: Sarah, deceased; Melissa; Lydia; and Eleanor.

Melissa Slater was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, in 1835, and resided there until she was about twenty years of age. She then moved to Jackson county, Iowa, where she resided until she moved to Kansas, with her husband, in 1875. They located on her present farm, - the west half of the northwest quarter of section 30, Montana township, on which she has resided since that time. She carries on general farming and fruit raising.

Nathaniel A. Wood, her husband, was a native of Ohio, and was born in 1818. He was reared to farm life, and followed that honorable calling all his life. Death called him from labor to rest, in 1889, at the ripe age of seventy-one years.

Mr. and Mrs. Wood reared three children, who are well advanced in the walks of life. Maxwell is employed by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Ccmpany, and resides in Denison, Texas; Alice lives at home with her mother, and is her comfort and solace in her declining years. Frank A. is employed by the Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek District Railway Company, and resides at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mrs. Wood is a devout Christian woman, and a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church.