Commodore Decatur and Malinda Logan Wood
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Porch Talk
Coosa County Stories
In order to understand who and where we are, it’s important to know where we came from and to know our roots. As we continue to look into Coosa County’s history, this month we with the Coosa County Historical Society have written a column about the Commodore Decatur Wood and Malinda Logan Wood family, early settlers in Coosa County, particularly the Richville area.
This is their story with biographical information about them and their children, many of whom are also buried in Coosa County.
Commodore Decatur Wood married Malinda Logan, daughter of Henry and Martha Ann George Logan. The Wood plantation lay on the west side of Coosa County, north of the community of Richville.
The land was productive, and the family enjoyed a rather high standard of living. It is said the older boys were sent by the family coach with a slave attendant to the gulf coast to a boys’ academy. Plans were made to send the girls to a girls’ school when they were older, but Commodore Wood died at the age of 43 years. He had gotten wet, developed pneumonia and did not recover.
Malinda Wood was left with seven minor children and an eighth child born after Commodore’s death. Wood had planned for his family through his will.
Malinda was able to keep the children and the farm together until she remarried four-plus years later. On August 16, 1862, she married Dr. Little Berry Parker, a physician born in Georgia (Sep. 8, 1816-March 2, 1898) who died in Coosa County.
Malinda and Dr. Parker had one child, Eli, born in August 1863. The Wood children and their stepfather must have had a good relationship, as the Berry name has continued to appear down through the generations of Wood relatives.
In February, 1865, Malinda Wood Parker filed a petition in writing in the Probate Court of Coosa County showing Commodore left a widow and eight children, each of whom was to receive an equal share of the property whose assets were five slaves, and 310 acres of real estate.
By the summer of that year, the War Between the States had impoverished the Wood’s families. This early history is taken from the book “Ancestral Heritage” by Sara Waites Guthrie, Gateway Press Inc., 1998.
Commodore Decatur Wood was born circa 1815 in Tennessee and died March 3, 1858, in Coosa County. He married Malinda (Linda) Logan January 16, 1840, according to marriage records of Coosa County. She was born Sept. 21, 1821, in Tennessee and died Dec. 26, 1901, in Coosa County. Both Commodore and Malinda, along with Little Berry Parker, are buried in Ebenezer Methodist Cemetery, Coosa County, per “Coosa County Cemeteries, Vol. II,” p. 231.
The offspring of this marriage were:
- Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Wood, born 1841; married first Malachi Gulledge and moved to St. Louis, Mo.; married second James Foster.
- James (Jim) Henry Wood, born Jan. 7, 1842/43, and died May 8, 1914. He married Sarah Frances (Sallie) Lee on July 26, 1868. She was born Dec. 9, 1850, and died Jan. 21, 1912. Both are buried at Swamp Creek Cemetery, Coosa County. The Jim Wood home was near Swamp Creek, north of Richville.
- Richard (Dick) Wood, born Dec. 1, 1844, and died Jan. 17, 1901. He married Mary Elizabeth Chancellor. They lived in Childersburg in a large, two-story house. Both are buried in Childersburg Cemetery, Talladega County.
- Martha (Fannie) Wood, born March 4, 1847, and died April 4, 1930, married Frances Marion Allen, born Nov. 20, 1840, and died Dec. 1, 1913. Both are buried in Shady Grove Cemetery, Coosa County.
- Sarah Jane (Janie) Wood, born Oct. 20, 1849, in Coosa County, and died Sept. 1, 1931, in Chambers County. She married George Pinckney Waites, born March 25, 1837, in Lexington District, S.C. He died Jan. 25, 1922, in Coosa County. Both are buried in Pleasant Hill Methodist Cemetery, Coosa County.
- Louisiana (Lucy) Wood, born Aug. 22, 1852, and died Nov. 1938, married William Cornelius (Nead) Norrell, born 1856 and died 1936. Both are buried at Providence Baptist Cemetery, Coosa County. They lived in Richville.
- Commodore Decatur Wood Jr. was born Dec. 29, 1854, in Coosa County and died Oct. 11, 1903. He married Lucretia Beulah Allen on Nov. 10, 1878. She was born Oct. 7, 1862, and died May 1, 1926. Lucretia Beulah Allen, Commodore Jr.’s wife, and Marion Allen, Fannie’s husband, were brother and sister.
- Ellis “Doc” Wood, born July 2, 1858, married Kate Goggans.
Eli Parker (son of Malinda Wood Parker and Dr. L.B. Parker) was born August 1863, and he married Josephine Hannon on Jan. 2, 1883, according to the “Coosa County Marriage Book, 1882-1884,” page 75. He was said by some sources to have been riding a train from which he fell and was killed in 1908.
Dr. Parker and Malinda Wood Parker lived their latter years at the Waites’ place, home of Janie and George P. Waites.
James Henry, the eldest son and second child of Commodore Decatur and Malinda Logan Wood, entered service as a CSA Private on April 14, 1862, Rockford, in Co. G, 38th Alabama Infantry. He was captured at Missionary Ridge and imprisoned at Rock Island.
He returned to the Richville area, married, and reared 11 children: Mary Beatrice, b. July 14, 1869; Richard Isom, b. Jan. 18, 1872; William Berry, b. March 31, 1874; Sinclair Eugene, b. Nov. 26, 1876; Elizabeth Lee, b. Oct. 1879; John Reedy, b. March 1882; Robert Edward, b. Nov. 2, 1884; Alice Levann, b. Oct. 20, 1886; Theresa Lou, b. April 1, 1889; Lilla Mae, b. Aug. 28, 1891; and James Henry Jr., b. Sept. 26, 1896.
He was in the “store” business, farmed and cut timber, all businesses pursued by several of his children and their families.
