Individual Details

Curtis Sutherland Wood, passed away Sunday morning, July 3, 2016 at Manor Care in Walnut Creek, California. He was surrounded by his loving family the entire day before. Curt was 87 years of age.
Curt enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 17 and was assigned to the military police in Japan. He received a BS degree in business from UC Berkeley and also passed the junior bar exam. He was a landlord for 66 years and worked for six companies in 40 years, including Cutter Laboratories, Tri Valley Growers, Hexcel Corporation and Pacific Maritime Association.
Curt is survived by his wife. 
They were married July 23, 1966 in Oakland, CA. He died 20 days before their 50th wedding anniversary.
His three children and families survive him.
Curt's urn was placed in a niche at the Pioneer Alamo Cemetery in Danville, CA.
The Life of Curt Wood was published in the Sunday Edition of the East Bay Times on 9/11/2016.

Published in San Francisco Chronicle on Sept. 12, 2016

Days Gone By: Old green trunk yields clues to past family tragedy
By NILDA REGO. PUBLISHED: February 1, 2010 at 4:42 pm | UPDATED: August 15, 2016 at 4:35 pm
INGRID and Curtis Wood of Walnut Creek had a story to tell me about the eight generations of their family that have been living in Contra Costa County.
We decided to meet at the Moraga History Center. Ingrid arrived first with a soft-sided suitcase full of mementos, books, photographs and papers.
She handed me the names of the eight generations. But before she explained who was who on that sheet of paper, she had to tell me the story about a trunk.
When her husband, Curtis Wood, decided to turn the upper floor of a barn his family owned in Alamo into an apartment, he had to move a big green wooden trunk full of family papers and books. The barn had been built by his grandfather, Judge Fred V Wood. In 1901, he bought five acres in Alamo and built a house and barn. Curtis and his family still own the property.
After moving the trunk around for several years, Wood pulled out a Bible published in 1850 in New York. He opened it, looked at the first few pages and couldn’t find any clues as to who originally owned it.
Ingrid became curious about the old Bible and went beyond the first pages. When she got to page 196, the second book of Samuel, she found an old newspaper clipping.
“The funeral of the little daughter of Judge and Mrs. Fred V Wood, Mildred Verna, was held this afternoon at 2 o’clock from the family residence on Thirtieth Street (Oakland).
“Around the little white casket in the darkened parlor, the mourners gathered for a last look at the sweet, childish face.
“From the back parlor came the soft, soothing strains of song, ‘Safe in the Arms of Jesus’ and then Rev. Dr. Chapman read a passage from the second book of Samuel and spoke with pathos in word and manner of the young life that had passed away.”
As Ingrid read the obituary, she remembered seeing pictures of a little girl in her husband’s collection of family photos. She had heard stories about how the little girl died of measles. Ingrid even knew the date, May 26, 1897.
“She was only about 2½. Now there are injections to protect children. Then there was nothing. Her mother fell in such a deep depression,” said Ingrid.
By this time, Curtis had joined us at the history center. He remembered a story that his father, Melvin Wood, had told him.
The judge had a gold pocket watch with two compartments. When you lifted the lid on one side, there was the watch face. When you opened the lid on the other side, there was a baby picture of little Mildred Verna.
Ingrid reached in the suitcase and pulled out the gold pocket watch. Curtis clicked opened the two sides, and sure enough, there was the picture of Mildred Verna.
“She was my aunt. My father told me that his father started every day opening his watch, looking at that picture,” said Curtis.
Ingrid said after she found the clipping, she kept going through the Bible page after page to see if there were any other clippings. She didn’t find any, but what she did find was more revealing. This was not the Wood family Bible.
Between the Old and New Testaments, there were pages for family records. Under marriages, someone had written, “David Hall and Rebecca Walker was married on August 20th 1823.” On the next page under births was written, “David Hall the son of Joseph and Mary Hall was born September 20th 1799” and “Rebecca Walker the daughter of John and Mary Walker was borne October 9th 1806.”
A list of the children born to the Halls then followed. There were six names. The second child born to the Halls was listed as Eliza Jane Hall.
Ingrid said she now connected the dots. In the Wood family photo collection was a picture of four generations. Eliza Jane Hall Glass was in that picture with her daughter, Clara Glass Ivory, her granddaughter, Laura Ivory Wood, and her great-granddaughter, Mildred Verna Wood.
Eliza Jane Hall had married David Glass. Their daughter Clara married Edgar Ivory and then their daughter married Fred V Wood, Curtis’ grandfather.
Ingrid believes the Bible belonged to David Hall, who left it to his daughter Eliza, who left it to her daughter Laura, who may have put it in the green wooden trunk.
Not only does Ingrid believe that Hall owned the Bible, but that he entered the names.
“See the ink, all the same color. Must have been written at the same time. And the handwriting is all the same,” said Ingrid.
The records stop with the death of David Hall’s youngest son, David Emery Hall, in 1866. The elder Hall died 10 years later. His death isn’t listed. And his wife Rebecca never came to California.
Ingrid says if Eliza had written the entries, she would have continued it with the death of her father, her marriage and the birth of her children.
Ingrid and Curtis connected the dots some 30 years ago. So why did she want to tell me the story now?
On May 15, the home of Eliza and David Glass at the Forest Home Park in San Ramon will be opening to the public as the David Glass Museum. Ingrid has volunteered as a docent.
Next time: Eliza and David Glass.

• 

Birth	10 Jan 1929	Oakland, Alameda County, California
Census (family)-shared	10 Apr 1930	(Melvin V. Wood and Genevieve Sutherland Sweetser) Oakland, Alameda County, California
Census (family)-shared	11 Apr 1940	(Melvin V. Wood and Genevieve Sutherland Sweetser) Oakland, Alameda County, California
Marriage	Aug 1950	Living
Marriage	23 Jul 1966	Alameda, Alameda County, California - Living
Residence	1 Sep 1998	Alamo, Contra Costa County, California
Death	3 Jul 2016	Walnut Creek, Contra Costa County, California
Burial		Alamo Cemetery, Contra Costa County, California

Spouse	Living
Child	Living
Child	Living

Spouse	Living
Child	Living

Father	Melvin V. Wood (1898 - 1950)
Mother	Genevieve Sutherland Sweetser (1902 - 1988)

Notes