With all the recent interest in Richard "Father Dickey" Wood, I thought this would be an appropiate time to reprint his memorial by his great-grandson Sparrel A.Wood. Nettie S. Clifton ======= RICHARD WOOD 1769 - 1859 One purpose and one impelling thought inspire our hearts and minds. For five successive years we have met to honor our ancestral hero; and each year as we meet to mingle our words of devotion, the life and name of our great-grandfather assume larger and still larger proportions. We dedicate in his honor today this memorial, so fitting to the life he lived. Of the facts and incidents of his life it is unfortunate we know so little. But I invite you, fellow descendants, to scan some pages of memory and vision, and glean therein, if you will, some sure indications of the life he must have lived. O, Muse, who dids't so oft for the Greeks of old lead them into the paths of wisdom, so lead us into the paths of human record and achievement. With thy magic key unlock for us a gold-embossed volume entitled "Richard Wood, 1769 - 1859." Enrich our impressions as we read the book and choose our words as we speak of the hero of our story. Richard Wood 1769-1859. A full life spanning ninety stirring years in American history! Wonderful years those, and they must have made their lasting impression on the life of Richard Wood. Let us open here this book of memory and vision and turn back the pages to 1769 in fair Virginia land, then an English colony. A new human record began that year in Lunenburg County, Virginia. In 1769, a boy was born, named Richard Wood, son of John, grandson of Stephen Wood, his known ancestors going back to 1700, two hundred and thirty-nine years before this year of grace 1939. Great deeds were then being done, and great thoughts behind those done, And Richard Wood in his early boyhood must have pondered those thoughts and deeds. At that time Patrick Henry in Virginia and Samuel Adams in Massachusetts were stirring men's hearts and souls and teaching those lessons of liberty and equality, which were to culminate, before Richard Wood was twenty-one, in Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, Washington's victory at Yorktown, and Madison"s Constitution of the United States. These are great names, and great things were then being done. Fortunate was Richard Wood that those things were being done while he was yet a youth. And fortunate are we, fellow descendants, that he passed on to us the impressions he then received. Little Richard Wood at the time of the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, a boy of six years, but much older in experience, was listening to his elders and to those accounts of patriotic courage and daring, which must have made a deep and lasting impression on the young impressionable life. Accounts of hardships endured by patriots prepared him for the hardships to come into his life. Deprivations, which he saw men and women meet, were preparing Richard Wood to meet the deprivations certain to come in the days before him. He was just turning twenty when the Constitution became the supreme law of the land in 1789; his new country unfurled her flag of freedom to the breeze; and General Washington became the first President of the United States. By that time a new vision was dawning in the minds of young Americans. The land to the west, these mountains and beyond, the great Ohio country, and the land of Boone, were saying to Richard Wood and others, as Greely said in later days, "Go west, young man, go west!" Then came Jefferson and the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, when Richard Wood was thirty-four. Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana Territory, negotiated by James Monroe, another Virgininian, more than doubled the area of the new country. Men's minds were fired with enthusiasm in contemplation of that great western country. And Richard Wood in his early thirties must have heard the call. It was between the years of 1789 and 1803, no doubt that he left the place of his birth in Lunenburg County, Virginia and came to the top of the Blue Ridge Mountain. "Why did he stop here and go no further?" you ask. The answer is brief and simple. Lack of funds necessary to such an undertaking; hostile Indian bands then roamed the unsettled country; roads had to be made, such paths as they were, through the primeval forests; making a substantial living for himself and family became paramount. So Richard Wood settled here at the top of Woods Gap, named for his ancestor, that illustrious pioneer and explorer, Colonel Abraham Wood. In the war from 1812 to 1814, when Richard Wood was forty-three, this country gained her second independence. Freedom and independence became more cherished than ever; and the soul of Richard Wood was strengthened and his heart rejoiced in loyalty to his state and country. The years from 1789 to 1846, in the life of Richard Wood, were years of industry; and, considering the great handicaps in an inaccessible mountain country, they were also years of a measure of prosperity. Then came 1846 and his country was again in war, this time with Mexico. Two years ended that conflict, and again Richard Wood saw his country victorious. By this time and earlier he viewed with alarm the growing dissension in the minds of his countrymen caused by slavery and states' rights. He visualized, no doubt, the wreckage such a conflict would bring to his beloved southland. We rejoice that he was spared the experience of witnessing the destruction caused by the Civil War. He passed to his reward in 1859 just two years before the battle of Fort Sumpter. Yes, Richard Wood, our beloved ancestor, your life was full. You saw the beginning of your country and witnessed her progress to 1859, second to none in power and influence. Your life in your ideals kept pace with that of your country. We rejoice that it is the privilege of this generation of your descendants to erect and dedicate this memorial in your honor. We rejoice that our generation can here and now place your life and name in their proper perspective. We dedicate this memorial, this "barrow" as called in other climes and ancient days. Had you lived in those ancient days, methinks your ashes would have been placed in a golden urn and deposited in your memorial "barrow" near some great highway, that through the years men might come to do you honor. Thus the ancient Greeks honored many a favorite son; thus they honored Achilles. Homer in his immortal Odyssey gives vivid description of honors thus conferred. They bore the body of Achilles from the field of Troy, where he was slain in battle, placed it on a bier, and washed his fair flesh with warm water and ointments. They clothed the body in raiment incorruptible; and all the nine Muses, one to the other replying with sweet voices, began the dirge. For seventeen days and nights continually they mourned Achilles, bravest of the Grecians, immortal gods and mortal men. On the eighteenth day they burned the body and killed many a fatted sheep around the pyre. They gathered together his white bones sprinkled with wine and ointments. His mother gave a two-handled golden urn to receive the ashes of her god-like son. The built a great and goodly tomb, a "barrow" it was called, high on a jutting headland overlooking wide Hellespont, that it might be seen from off the sea, by men then living and those to come thereafter. These honors and more they did for Achilles, for dear he was to gods and men. Thus in death he did not lose his name, but received a fair renown in all succeeding generations. Richard Wood, our beloved ancestor, you are our Achilles. We honor you, not as a victorious general; not as one whose fame has spread around the world; not as ruler of man and nation. But we honor you as a man amongst men in the ranks, a private who answered the call of duty. We have no golden urn to receive your ashes; but better still, your memory is enshrined in human hearts. We place not your memorial "barrow" high above the seashore to be seen of men; but high on this mountain of ethereal blue, in a gap named for your illustrious ancestor. Toward this sacred place paved roads are already reaching. Hard-by your memorial "barrow' is Blue Ridge Parkway, extension of Skyline Drive. Strange to relate, the paved roads you needed so much in your day have paved the way for us to do you honor. Here you rest in peace in these eternal hills, God's altars. To your memorial "barrow", Richard Wood, your descendants yet unborn will come and at your tomb call you blessed. Here we dedicate in your honor this your memorial "barrow" and raise our requen in parting salute. And until the sun has made his annual course again we say adieu, but not goodby. Richard Wood, adieu! Sparrel A. Wood, Great Grandson Jul 9, 1939. From: The Enterprise - 27 Jul 1939