Rambler Tells Story of Col. W.P. Wood, Who Ruled Capitol Prison

William P. Wood, several times named in these rambles on the history of Old Capitol Prison as superintendent of the prison, was born in Alexandria in 1820 and died at Soldiers Home, Washington, in March, 1903. To save you from reading my writing and to spare myself some effort-my principal reason-I will hand you an account of Mr. Wood which was printed in The Evening Star, Saturday, March 21, 1903. Much of that account was obtained, I believe, from Mr. Wood's memoirs, written for publication but not published. The manuscript is the possession of one of his sons.

The Star's story, based on the autobiography, tells a great deal about Mr. Wood, and when old men write their memoirs it is their habit to say much of their success, skill and courage when young. The Rambler's remembrance of Mr. Wood is that he was considered an extraordinarily shrewd detective and that Secretary Stanton so believed him. Two of Mr. Wood's sons--George M. and Volney S. Wood--live in Washington. The eldest of the four sons of William P. (Patrick) Wood is Samuel A. Wood, resident of New York. The youngest is Mendum S. Wood, and I am told that he 'Is out West somewhere.' Here follows The Star's story of March 21, 1903:

"When Col. William P. Wood died yesterday at the Soldiers' Home there was removed from the earth a man who had been a prominent figure in the National Capital for nearly half a century. He was a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars and one of the few remaining survivors of Walker’s filibustering expedition to Nicaragua. He was also the first chief of the United States Secret Service when I became part of the Treasury Department. The connection of Col. Wood with the Civil War was unique, and his relations with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton were absolutely confidential. His life was actually sought more than a dozen times, one man crossing the ocean to assassinate him; the Confederates were determined to capture and hang him, and dozens of times he escaped from apparently inextricable dangers by his extraordinary nerve, adroitness and audacity, coupled with prodigious physical strength and activity. Col. Wood's life was a continuous melodrama bordering on the tragic. He was born in Alexandria, Va., March 11, 1820. His father was an engraver and die sinker, and Wood became one of the most expert model makers, die sinkers and mechanics in the country.

"When the Mexican War broke out he enlisted in the Mounted Rifles of Gen. Samuel H. Walker, the noted Texan Ranger, whose command soon became the 3d Regular Cavalry, in which Wood was the dare-devil leader of the famous Company C. Serving out his time he returned to Washington City and married Harriet Smith of Cumberland, Md., by whom he reared a large family. He had receded from the Catholic Church, in which he was born and baptized, and was a conspicuous leader in the Know Know Nothing party. He likewise was an active conductor on the underground railroad and aided hundreds of runaway slaves to escape safely to Canada and New England.

"Wood drilled men to take part in John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Having in the Mexican War and elsewhere become proficient in military matters, he revised and in part composed the book of tactics gotten out for the instruction of he abolitionists who were to join Brown in all parts of the country to wipe out slavery. Wood would have had charge of the enterprise, but objected to crossing State lines under arms. Unable to convince Brown that the methods he wanted to pursue would lead him to the halter if he failed, as he was sure to do, Wood and his men remained out of the Harpers Ferry raid and quietly disbanded after Brown’s defeat and his death on the scaffold.

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"When Edwin M. Stanton became Secretary of War he appointed Wood to be superintendent of the military prisons of the District of Columbia and concentrated the so-called ‘state prisoners’ and all others in the Old Capitol prison, near the Capitol, to which was soon added, for females and citizens, the Carroll buildings, called the Carroll prison. Into these structures Wood sent spies, blockade runners, carriers of contraband dispatches, foreign officers armed with passports who were caught serving the confederacy, leaders of the Knights of the Golden Circle, opponents of the draft, etc. and to him, too, came all the captured mail of the locality to be deciphered and, if important, turned over to the proper officers of the War Department. While maintaining strict, almost tyrannical discipline, the prisoners liked and respected Wood, frequently adopting resolutions to give expression to their feelings toward him.

"Probably Col. Wood's most daring feat was making repeated personal visits to every military prison in the south. Sometimes he effected an entrance as agent of the federal government; frequently he entered in the disguise of a confederate soldier and a few times he got in by permitting himself to be taken prisoner. In several instances he procured the statements of inmates as to prison conditions, written out by stenographers in the presence of the officials in charge, for the information of Lincoln and Stanton. When charges of starvation and cruelty to Union captives in confederate prisons were most numerous and persistent and the supplies sent to the incarcerated Union soldiers from the north were intercepted and eaten by the hungry confederates, Wood disguised as a North Carolina volunteer, secured entrance to Salisbury, Castle Thunder and other prisons and distributed nearly a quarter of a million dollars in confederate money, with which the boys were able to purchase enough food and clothing to ease and prolong, if not save, life. Among his other numerous and hazardous duties, Wood was charged by the Treasury Department with capturing counterfeiters, defrauders of the revenue, bounty-jumpers and persons violating government contracts for supplies.

"When Lincoln was assassinated Wood was in Cincinnati searching for counterfeiters. A telegram from Stanton brought him in haste to Washington, where he was first to learn positively that the assassin was John Wilkes Booth. He secured from Dr. Mudd, in Maryland the first and only statement that Booth ever made concerning his part in the matter and would have effected a capture if the fugitive had not been shot as he emerged from a burning barn by Boston Corbett. Col. Wood also secured the confession of Mrs. Surratt and Payne. He always maintained that Mrs. Surratt was innocent of taking any part in the conspiracy, and the last interview he ever had with Stanton turned upon this point.”

Further down in The Star's story is this: "Col. Wood was probably nearer to Edwin M. Stanton than any other man. Wood was the last man who ever saw Stanton alive, and their final interview was a stormy one."

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The Rambler will postpone the remainder of the life story of Col. Wood, because the Rambler wants to bring in other local items found in The Star, in which appeared the story of Col. Wood. These local items are full of Washington names. The Rambler refuses to accept any blame for the popularity of the rambles. He feels that their popularity is due to defective public taste. He also believes that many persons read the rambles from fear that they will see their names in print. Therefore, I present the following selections from The Evening Star of March 21, 1903:

"The J.T. Euchre Club met at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Vermeule, 1230 B street southwest. The players were Mrs. L.A. Rosafy, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Eellis, Mr. and Mrs. G.U.S. Hoover, Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Crown and Mr. and Mrs. F.E. Guss.”

In a story of a Saengerbund musical I find the names Mrs. Ivy Herriott Schade, John T. Finnegan, Mrs. William T. Reed, James S. Hicks and Messrs. Stevens, Hicks, Birch and Moore.

And this: "Mr. Return Jonathan Meigs, jr., assistant clerk of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, was kept busy today acknowledging congratulations extended by members of the bar and scores of other friends. Mr. Meigs today completed 40 years of service as an official of the District Supreme Court."

Another: "The Columbia Heights Art Club received recently a great kindness at the hands of Mrs. Henderson of Boundary Castle. The club with a number of invited friends met on a pleasant morning to study the various art treasures collected by Senator and Mrs. Henderson and artistically displayed in this beautiful home. The hostess welcomed the ladies with cordiality and Mr. Henderson added much to the enjoyment of the occasion by his interesting descriptions and reminiscences of the paintings."

The Old Guard gave an entertainment and these names are in the story: Capt. J.M. Edgar, Miss Gladys Wilkinson, Miss Nelie Ramby, Miss Lillian M. Royce, Miss Louise Mae Farrow, Miss L.A. Feathers, Dr. Thomas Carver, Mr. and Mrs. A.H. Frear, William T. Bannerman and Nelson R. Wood. "Uncle John Hutchinson" of New England and Col. John A. Joyce "each gave characteristic numbers." A.H. Frear, M.M. Lewis and B.F. Graham were the committee of entertainment.

The Washington School Dramatic Club put on “The Prince of Liars” at Dunster Hall, “in the northwest suburbs,” and these were the players: A.C. Downing, jr., C.M. Foulke, jr., H.P. Cooper, R.W. Hooper, A.D. Waring, A. MacA. Washburn, H.R. VanLaw as the Gutta Percha Girl, F.L. Cole and J.A. Sterrett. Music was directed by William George Valentine.

Union Veterans’ Legion, Encampment 111, entertained Ladies’ Auxiliary 32, Col. T.J. Shannon spoke the welcome and Mrs. M.E.S. Davis replied. Others taking part were Mrs. M.L. Weis, Mrs. Kathleen Temple, Mrs. S.E. Pittman, Mrs. Johnson, Chaplain Henry N. Couden, Misses Louise and Alma Weigman and Misses Ruth and Grace Harvey.

Grocers’ salesmen organized at the Jolly Fat Men$#39;s Club, on D street, and those mentioned were W.S. Summons, James Hannon, William Triplett and B.M. Mundell. Ben Mundell drops in to see me now and then, no often enough, and talks of the time when Anacostia was no more than the Brooklyn of Washington, and when the Samuel Shreve-Jimmie Reagan-Jim Watson-Connie Weiss apothecary shop was the forum where Eastern Branch statesmen adjusted the tariff, currency and immigration, passed laws for the regulation of railroads, telegraphs, Wall Street and all that, and did many other things that saved Congress a lot of trouble.

The old Star records that Mr. A. Lasker entertained the Uniformed Rank, Knights of the Maccabees, and that those who took part were Cap. John C. Gall, Lieuts. Guy E. Padgett and A.A. Burdsell, and Charles Pick, B.M. Ferman, D. Greenberg, J. Catts, S.V. Gusack, Paul Balterman, Barnet Smith, Henry Smith, A. Glanzman, Joseph Murray, W.J. Hall, A.A. Schultze, E.E. Persing, B. Bass, Sol Weinstein and G.W. Hammond.

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There was activity in Society. In the social column of the old paper it is told that Mr. and Mrs. George Heider celebrated their silver wedding at their home, 1331 Sixth street northeast and that "among those present were” Mrs. E.J. Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. Cady, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Wilson, Clarence, Charlie, Bessie and Annie Heider, Mrs. Mary Schultze, Miss Louise Helder, Rev. F.D. Power, Rev. William A. Schell, Mr. and Mrs. J.G. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Stearns, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Day, Mr. and Mrs. C.A. Hays, Mr. and Mrs. D.M. Price, Mrs. S.C. Drown and Messrs. A. Bird and C. Hein. It is also noted that Mr. and Mrs. John Cammack and their son Edmund entertained the X.L.C.R. Euchre Club at their home, 23 C street northeast, and that prizes were won by Miss Hallie Reeves and Mr. Jess Arnold. It is not forgot that "a repast was served."

The D.K. Euchre Club met at the home of Mrs. Holt, on Massachusetts avenue northeast, and Mrs. Shoemaker won first, Mrs. Jacobs second and Miss Tyree the booby prize.

Them was great days for euchre. I asked my wife last evening if she could liven up the house a bit by giving a euchre party and she said: "There! There! Take your care, dear, go over to your rocking chair, put this shawl over your knees, light your pipe, sip this hot toddy, and I'll put on the record, 'Sweet Adaline,' until I can tune in on an old-folks concert."

Friends of Earl Amos met at his home, 1312 North Carolina street, and formed a social club “to be known as the Smart Set.” Those who joined were Frank R. Chase, Miss Bliss Amos, Misses Ruth Sipher, Mable Galleher, Annie Chase and Ina Stalee and Messrs. Diller Galleher, John Haas, Kirk Sipher and Frank N. Steele. There were also meetings of the Iris Success Club and the Social Wave Social Club.

In those old notes the Rambler finds the marriage of Miss Katherine Hemmick of Pittsburgh and Oliver Perry Johnson of Washington and gets a glint on the doings of Miss Louise Foraker, Mrs. George B. McClellan, Ambassador and Mme. Mayor des Planches, Admiral and Mrs. Dewey, Gen. and Mrs. Draper and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Walsh.

Perhaps one of these society jottings of 1908 has given you a thrill. That is the Rambler’s aim. And as I look along the column a memory comes to me. It is of the woman who wrote those names in 1903, a woman, good true and earnest in her work for you and The Star. I think of Helena McCarthy, then our society editor. Gone long ago! But, Miss McCarthy, the old workers on The Star remember. May thy soul be happy! May it be conscious and hold us in its memory. May it visit in the office where you worked! May it touch us, cheer up when we’re a bit blue and help us in our work!