August 14th, is an important day of sorts
for me, my house, and the history of not only Eaton.... but also of Madison
county and today's agriculture. If you have a four wheel drive car, truck
or tractor...it might be impotant to you also.
Eaton is the home of Allen Wood the maker of the
first four-wheel drive transmission that used metal gears like today's models.
It was the his brain child and wish to make this unit available to
pull traction engines into the field with all of its equipment.....in other
words the precursor of today's tractor. Yes it meant man rode on it into
the field for the first time. To accomplish this his relative Loyal Clark Tabor
invented and patented its design with all its gears...
Allen Nelson Wood was born in the community of
Middleport, one of the stops on the Chenango Canal just below Eaton. His mother
and father named him after the great Lord Nelson. Captain Allen Wood Sr.,
Allen’s father, was a Revolutionary War veteran and a well-known Freemason. His
death recorded on March 16, 1823, resulted in the largest Masonic funeral in
Madison County history up until that time and for some years to come, because
of the decline in Masonry after the William Morgan incident.
Allen Wood Sr. married Lucinda Newcomb of Lebanon,
they had five children - Alonzo born in 1808, (he married Lydia Hodges),
Olivia, born in 1810, (she married Oliver Whitaker), Tirza (married David Smith
of NYC), Polly Hale (married Dr. Orson Gregory of NYC) and Allen Nelson Wood,
born on August 14, 1818.
Mr. Wood was a respected member of the area, the
Congregational Church, and the business community. Wood was a director, and one
of the largest stockholders of the First National Bank of Morrisville as well
as director and a major stockholder of the Hamilton National Bank. In 1880.
Allen Wood was the also the main stockholder of the Morrisville National
Bank, owning personally sixty-five shares. He traveled as the business agent of
the company that had offices in Chicago, Augusta GA. and of course, Eaton, NY.
Through his records of stock found in Cornell's
Olin Library it was evident that Mr. Wood invested in many banks across
America. Mr. Wood was also instrumental in bringing the Midland Railroad
to the area. To bring the railroad in, Eaton agreed to bond for $150,000.
The railroad, of course, allowed an easier and
wider distribution of the steam engines and parts, as well as affording the
company an easier way to bringing the needed iron ore from the Clinton area to
Eaton for use in the foundry, and the coal from Pennsylvania. A foundry, we
might add, which made all the parts for the engines - even to casting all of
the needed gears. Wood and company also employed many through the deepest
depressions of the post Civil War period and set up and sold rights to the
Oneida Royal Company.
Mr. Wood's great granddaughters visited the Wood
House on Brooklyn Street in 1996, and took pleasure in telling of how... their
great grandfather, Mr. Wood, who was considered the larger than life pillar of
the community... Mr. Wood was on the Board of Directors or Trustee for the
banks, the Eaton Congregational Church where he was also a Deacon and Sunday
School Superintendent, he was Trustee of the Eaton Village Cemetery
Association, and an abolitionist whose house was and Underground Railroad stop
and of course – the founding member and co-owner of the famous Wood, Taber
& Morse Steam Engine Works... stood only 5 foot three inches tall.
Happy Birthday Mr. Wood..your family pictures
still grace your house on Brooklyn Street and still see's many visitors.
For more information on Mr. Wood, Wood, Tabor
and Morse, Patents for the machines visit the Old Town of Eaton Museum on River
Road in Eaton. For information visit their facebook page >>> Old
Town of Eaton Museum.
*An interesting side note for genealogists is
Lucinda's sister Jerusha, who married their father's brother John Newcomb,
lived and is buried in Eaton. One of Lucinda's brothers Daniel married Anna
Clark of Eaton.
Eaton Church is still standing with its historic windows one of which has the Wood family name on it..near the pew where he is mentioned in a story in a book by Melville Landon! The Landons have a window also!
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