Israel Wood (1822-1906): Merchant in Compton, Accountant in Stanstead and Director and Mayor in Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke City Council named Wood Street, after its 27th mayor in 1947, shortly after it had annexed part of Orford Township, west of Jacquescartier Boulevard North
Israel Wood IV was born in 1822 in Stanstead Township. He was the fifth of 12 children born to Lucy Lucina Bangs (1789-1862), originally from Massachusetts, and of Captain Israel Wood III (1797-1843), whose parents had left Massachusetts in 1797 to settle in Stanstead Plain.
Israel Wood was a member of the Militia and joined the Stanstead Cavalry. His unit was assigned to patrol the boundary in the Stanstead area during the apprehended invasion by the Fenians in 1866 and 1870. He received his commission as Militia Captain from the hands of Lord Dufferin, Governor General of Canada at the time (1872-1878), and his commission as Major from the hands of the Marquis of Lorne, Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883.
Israel Wood married Lydia M. Moulton (1822-1915), daughter of Fanny Wallingford and of Arial Moulton, at the Free Will Baptist Church in Stanstead on October 9, 1849. They had a daughter, Lucy Frances, born in 1851. The family first settled in Compton Township where Israel was a merchant. Then, between 1861 and 1871, he lived in Stanstead Plain, where he was an accountant
and later in Sherbrooke (1878). Israel Wood worked as a claim adjuster for several insurance companies. Starting in 1866, he was also bankruptcy trustee, Director and Vice-president of the Eastern Townships Bank (to be absorbed in 1912 by the Canadian Bank of Commerce). He was also Vice-president of the Jenckes Machine Co. (a manufacturer, mostly of railway equipment) as well as a shareholder of several other companies. He was a Sherbooke alderman in 1890-1891 and Mayor in 1891-1892. At the time, the mandate of mayor was of one year at a time. During Wood’s mandate, in 1891, the City bought 67 acres of land from Thomas B. Terrill in order to create Victoria Park.
In 1886, Israel Wood was a founding member ot the Sherbrooke Library and Art Association that built (1887-1888) the buliding presently at 229 Dufferin Street Thus providing the first arts and cultural centre as well as a public library until 1927. Israel Wood was, among other activities, a member of the Natural History Committee. From 1903 to 1906, he was President of the Sherbrooke Protestant Hospital, then located on Park Street (du Cégep Street since 2006). He was also a faithful advocate of the temperance movement. Wood died in Sherbrooke in 1906 and was buried with his wife in Elmwood Cemetery. After the death of her husband, Lydia Wood lived with her daughter and son-inlaw, Daniel Hansom Green, in Montreal’s Notre-dame-de-grâce district.