Originally published in The Smithfield Herald, November 15, 1912. Copy provided by Edna Wood Smith.
Last Sunday morning about half past six o'clock, Mr. John S. Wood gently passed away. He died with heart dropsy. He had been in declining health for several months, but was not confined to his bed at all, not being very sick for more than an hour before his death.
If Mr. Wood had lived until the 24th of December he would have been 76 years of age.
In his death the community has lost one of its best friends and the state one of its most loyal citizens.
Mr. Wood never united with any church, but the writer believes he was deeply interested in his souls salvation because of so much time spent in reading the bible.
He could commit to memory as much scripture as any man I ever saw and its possible that he oftime called upon the Lord in secret prayer and was saved.
Mr. Wood served his country in the Civil War for more than 3 years, during which time he suffered much hardship, and privation and was a good soldier.
Doubtless it was such men as Mr. Wood and the lives they lived that impressed the poet to write:
Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime
and departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.
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