Description
The Scrapbook contains photographs, newspaper clippings, advertisements and articles about and by R. E. Wood, landscape photographer
and inventor.
Background
Romanzo Erastus Wood, or R. E. Wood, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts August 10, 1838. In 1859 he came west on the
Oregon-California trial arriving in Napa County, California. Wood married Mary Elizabeth Olmstead Wade October 17, 1864 and
had a daughter Cleo Emma. The Woods moved to Santa Cruz County in 1868 and settled at Troutdale Farm near Bear Creek just
above the San Lorenzo River. Wood supported himself in a variety of ways: as an inventor of rodent traps, farmer, manufacturer
of matches, brooms and knives. He wrote for the county newspaper the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Together with Mary they also travel
around California putting on Lantern Stereoscopic shows and offering their services as landscape photographers. In 1881
they moved to Tahoe City. He wrote for the Tahoe Tattle and they continued their photography activities. They divorced in
1891. Wood married again to Phoebe S. Brown in 1892. He died April 1, 1925 in St. Helena, California.