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M. A., Ottawa, the subject of this sketch,
was born in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, on the 14th October, 1841. He
is the youngest son of William Woods, by Martha, nee Henderson. Both
these parents were of old covenanting stock, and were among the
Protestant immigrants from Scotland who settled Ulster. Our subject was
educated at the London, Ont., Grammar School, and at University College,
Toronto, where the gold meal in classics was awarded to him in 1862.
Among his classmates, it may be mentioned, were Prof. J. Loudon, the
late Principal Buchan, Dr. James A. McLellan, Rev. Dr. Gibson, of
London, Eng., and James Fisher, of Stratford. Excellent school and
college editions of portions of Demosthenes, Virgil, Horace and Caesar
have been published by him, and have long been standard classics in our
institutions of learning. Mr. Wood was a member of the University Rifle
Company first formed during the Trent excitement, and he subsequently
took a certificate at the Kingston Military School. He was rector of the
Kingston Collegiate Institute, from 1862 to 1877, erecting for this
institution a provincial reputation in the department of classics, and
ranking it one of only four in the first class of Ontario. After this
time he engaged in business for a few years, then unanimously, and
without solicitation upon his own part, he was appointed principal of
the Lake Forest Academy, Ill. This situation he held for two years,
resigning in June, 1883. He was then, at the urgent request of the Board
of Managers of the Ottawa Ladies' College, induced to accept the
principalship of the college. In this excellent institution he is
carrying out those ideas of education, which he has so long held and
advocated, and is rapidly acquiring a very high place for his college.
Mr. Woods was the originator of the Ontario Building and Saving Society
of Kingston; was one of the original directors of the Kingston Street
Railway Company, and he reorganized the present very successful Kingston
Mechanics' Institute, of which he was president. Of this latter
institution he is now one of the three life members, the others being
the Right Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, K. C. B., and John Carruthers. He
was the originator and for four years president of the Irish Protestant
Benevolent Society of Kingston. He is likewise vice-president of the
Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club, and a member of the Senate of the
University of Toronto. In the Masonic order he is P. D. D. G. M., having
held that position, in 1876, in the St. Lawrence district, and is a
charter member of the Minden Lodge, Kingston, and was a member of
ancient St. John's, but demitted. In religion, Mr. Wood is a member of
the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and belonged to the old kirk branch
of that united church. He married on March, 1863, Elizabeth, third
daughter of Wm. Ford, Kingston. She died in Oct., 1884, leaving four
children surviving her. Our subject has always been a liberal
Conservative in politics, but seldom takes any active part in any
contest. He is a man of a strongly original mind, firm convictions,
untiring industry, and marked energy. The institution of which he is the
head, reflects the strongest possible credit upon him. |
