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@1|@|  . .. . ...a............................................................................t........
-    SARAH JANET WOOD BALDERSTON
           Author-Grace Balderston Daly
                  Wisconsin Rapids
.. .
    In a little brown house, on top of the hill, at the
corner of Third and Vine Sts. lived "Grandma".
    It seems quite fitting that she occupy a place among
the pioneer women of Wisconsin-having lived for more
than seventy years in this same little house.
    Sarah Janet Wood was born in Seneca Falls, New
York, June 24, 1834. Her mother was Hester Jane Kirt-
land, descended from Robert Chapman, born 1616 in Hull,
England, who came to Boston in 1635.
    Her father was Joseph Wood, who's ancestor, Daniel
Wood lived in Boxford, Massachusetts in 1630, and was
also of English descent.
    When a wee little girl, Sarah Janet came with her
people to Fort Hill, Illinois, Chicago then being a mere
trading post. Her family lived some years on the Illinois
farm, where in 1843 the mother died.
    Joseph Wood, the father, was a born pioneer, and in
1846 he came ajourneying into the wilds of Wisconsin,
and finding the pine lands good, he built a home, and
for him Wood County was named.
    Three times he made the long journey with teams,
from Illinois to Grand Rapids with the little daughter,
before she would stay in the Indian country. A new
mother, Matilda Compton, and small brothers coming
during these years, helped to make life less lonely for the
little girl Janet.
    My mother often told us that on one of these jour-
neys her father brought one wagon filled with pinks,
lilac and honeysuckle bushes, "York State" roses, and
"pineys", Lombardy poplars and Balm of Gilead, packed
by the capable hands of her step-mother, thus starting
these shrubs and trees in this section of the country.
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