California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


CHESTER WORTHINGTON WOOD. Among the foremost and substantial exponents of western 
success in Merced county is Chester Worthington Wood, one of the incorporators and vice-
president of the Uriah Wood Company, and president of the firm of C. W. Wood & Company, 
commission merchants, 406-408 California street, San Francisco, also owner of one of the finest 
fruit ranches and one of the most modern country homes in Merced county. Mr. Wood 
possesses the shrewdness, adaptability and practical common sense which characterizes the 
men responsible for the upbuilding of the state. He not only is able to recognize an 
opportunity, but knows how to take advantage of it to the permanent good of himself and 
others. Behind his effort is the pride of all worthy native sons of California, and more especially 
that of one thoroughly in harmony with the present and the future of the west. Born in old 
Gilroy August 21, 1864, he is a son of Uriah Wood, whose life and deeds are set forth elsewhere 
in this work, and who is numbered as one of the resourceful and successful pioneers of the 
state. 

The oldest of four children, C. W. Wood had exceptional educational advantages in his youth, 
going from the district schools to St. Augustine College at Benicia, from there to the Military 
Academy of San Mateo, and later attending the Hopkins Academy of Oakland. After graduating 
from Heald's Business College in San Francisco he inaugurated his business career as a 
bookkeeper and assistant cashier of the Bank of Hollister, and eight months later, in 1885, he 
started a dairy business with three hundred and seventy acres of land and one hundred and 
twenty head of cattle at San Felipe. His business grew apace, and he established a cheese and 
butter manufactory on his ranch, having plenty of alfalfa and excellent water from numerous 
artesian wells. From 1885 until 1889 he supplied the San Francisco markets with butter and 
cheese, and after disposing of his enterprise came to Los Banos and leased the Los Banos ranch 
of five thousand acres, devoting the same to grain and stock until 1893. He then permanently 
located on his present ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, two and one half miles northeast 
of Los Banos, all under irrigation from the old canal, and upon which he had already set out an 
orchard consisting of one hundred acres of prunes, ten acres of peaches and five acres of 
apricots. This was an experimental venture, and was found to be fairly successful, 
notwithstanding the fact that ten acres of prunes were set out on low ground, and the apricots 
did not come up to requirements. Mr. Wood has his own dryers and packing house, and 
furnishes direct to Eastern markets. He has given the study of fruit growing and packing 
exhaustive consideration, availing himself of every possible means of keeping in touch with the 
best producers in all tropical climes. 

As one of the incorporators and the vice-president of the Uriah Wood Company, Mr. Wood has 
assumed a large and varied responsibility, having the management of the four thousand five 
hundred acres belonging to the company in Merced county; of the San Felipe dairy, which is 
leased as a seed farm; and of residence and business property in San Jose. They expect to bring 
their dairy up to a thousand cattle, and indications promise one of the most complete dairying 
enterprises in this part of California. As a Republican Mr. Wood has taken a prominent part in 
the local deliberations of his party, has represented his district in state and county conventions, 
and served on the county central committee. His influence along educational lines has resulted 
in constant improvement in school buildings, and in the standard of instruction adopted in both 
county and towns. He was a member of the school board from 1885 until 1904, and during most 
of that time was clerk of the board. Fraternally he is connected with the Los Banos Lodge No. 
312, F. & A. M., and was a charter member of Fremont Parlor No. 44, N. S. G. W., of Hollister. In 
Hollister Mr. Wood was united in marriage with Minnow Ingels, born in 1864, while her parents 
were on a trip to California. Her father, the late Benjamin F. Ingels, eventually settled in the 
state, becoming a grain and stock-raiser near Hollister, later removing to a fruit ranch near San 
Jose. Mr. Ingels is survived by his wife, formerly Martha Stewart, who at present resides in San 
Jose. Mrs. Wood is a graduate of the Hollister College, and is the mother of two children, 
Chester Earl, born in 1886, now attending the University of California, class of 1908; and Hazel 
Vivian, born in 1888, a student in the high school of Los Banos. Mr. Wood is one of the 
substantial and reliable business men of Merced county, and one in whom the future 
commercial interests of the locality are safely vested. Scattered over the state are many who 
enjoy his friendship, who feel a just pride in his business success, in his conversational and 
other gifts and his faculty of diffusing an air of prosperity, happiness and energy. He has a just 
appreciation of the social duties of life, is a capital shot and sportsman and has in his possession 
many prizes and trophies of the chase.