Smith L. Wood (1802-1879)

The Pioneer with Two Last Names

Today, residents know of “Woods Lake”, sans the apostrophe, but just who was the man whose family name came to be woven into the history of the nearby Winchell and Oakwood Neighborhoods?

Smith Liveoak Wood was born in 1802 in New York. Most pioneers who settled in Kalamazoo during its first decade were incredibly hearty and industrious, and Wood was no different. Wood settled in the village of Bronson in the spring of 1832. A capable carpenter who was the only one in the early years of the village to possess building equipment, Wood erected his first wood frame house on the Northeast corner of Park and Main streets. Given his skillset and access to tools, he was hired to build the Cyren Burdick-owned Kalamazoo House, which opened to the public several months later. Around this time, he took over a vacated saw mill located a couple of miles south of the village, along Portage Creek. There, Wood had access to lumber for building projects. In 1834, the arrival of Theodore P. Sheldon to oversee the Federal Land Office saw Wood sell his home to the newcomer.

What Wood craved was land, and enough of it to farm. Looking a mile south toward Arcadia Township (later changed to Kalamazoo Township in 1836), Wood purchased over 100 acres of land in the southeastern portion of Section 29, including the lake. Living in a log cabin on the northern portion of the lake, Wood tragically lost his infant son to a lightening strike. The baby was buried in an unmarked grave along the banks of the lake, and from that point on, Smith’s last name would be indelibly connected to the body of water. Over time, the lake has also been referred to as Bragg’s Lake, Oakwood Lake and Lakeview Lake. Oakwood Neighborhood’s Toad Hollow School may have been built by Wood in 1835.

At some point, in the late 1840s, possibly motivated by a 1839 tornado, Wood moved his family of wife Ruth, and children William H. and Delia Burrell to their new Greek Revival farmhouse at 2621 Oakland Drive (then Asylum Drive). The house’s built-date could be anywhere between 1848 and 1860. The Gazette obituary of Smith’s son William said that he moved into the home eight years after his birth (placing the date at 1848). In 1868, Wood sold much of his land to the west to Leonard G. Bragg, retaining the portion that would ultimately be developed into the Oakwood Plaza by his granddaughter Edith L. Gumm and her husband Trigg A. Gumm.

After several years of ill health, Wood passed away in 1879, and was buried in Mountain Home Cemetery under a conspicuous obelisk. His wife Ruth passed away twenty years later.

Written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, July 2024