Governor Wood “was a superb specimen of the highest human type; six feet in height; hair and beard flowing and as white as snow; ruddy face; strong cut features; muscular frame and a pleasing dignity gave him the appearance of a Roman Senator, causing Governor Yates and others to refer to him frequently as the “Old Roman from Adams.” His nature was bold, frank and generous. He was a stranger to moral or physical fear. A few years before his death, with his wife, and a party of Quincy friends, he visited California. While on a steamer visiting places in Southern California, he was wrecked by the boat running on a rock. The Captain, after placing women and children safely on boats, said: “Now, Governor Wood, you take your place.” His answer was that of a hero. “Send the young folks first. I am seventy years old. Save the young.”” Before 1858, Governor Wood resided in a large two-story frame dwelling with pilastered portico, which that year he moved across Twelfth Street into his old orchard, and on the old site he erected a magnificent sandstone palace, the finest then in the State, costing $125,000. It is now used as a boy’s school by the Methodist Church, while the old frame dwelling is owned by the Quincy Historical Society, both, with immense tracts of land within the city limits, having passed from the Governor shortly before his death through the unfortunate speculations of his sons on the Chicago Board of Trade; he surrendered everything to pay their debts. He died in Quincy, June 4th, 1880, full of honor, at the ripe age of eighty-two years, and was buried by the side of his patriotic father in Woodland Cemetery, on a high knoll facing the magnificent waters of the Mississippi and within four blocks of where he built his log cabin in 1822. Immediately south of Woodland lies Indian Mound Park, and a mile north is Riverview Park, where George Rogers Clark’s monument stands in repose with a Continental hat in hand and arms folded, looking out in admiration on the lands his valor had saved for American freemen. There are numerous Indian mounds, both in the cemetery and parks, and they extend for many miles along the bluffs, North and South of Quincy. A life-sized bronze statue of Governor Wood is in Washington Park, located in the business center of the city, erected by the city which he founded, nursed through infancy with care to the full maturity of the “Gem City” of the Mississippi, with a prosperous population of forty-five thousand intelligent people, whom he honored by a patriotic and a stainless Christian life. Before the election of Governor Wood, Illinois had three governors of Celtic descent—Duncan, Carlin and Ford. Both Ford and Carlin, previous to their election, had resided in Quincy.