Abraham Wood

Abraham Wood (1614-1682), sometimes referred to as "General" or "Colonel" Wood, was an English fur trader (specifically the deerskin trade) and explorer of colonial Virginia during the 17th century. His base of operations was Fort Henry at the falls of the Appomattox in present-day Petersburg. This fort was built in 1646 to mark the legal frontier between the white settlers and the Native Americans, and was near the Appomattoc Indian tribe with whom Wood traded. It was the only point in Virginia at which Indians could be authorized to cross eastward into white territory, or whites westward into Indian territory, from 1646 until around 1691. This circumstance gave Wood, who commanded the fort and privately owned the adjoining lands, a considerable advantage over his competitors in the "Indian trade".

Several exploration parties were dispatched from Fort Henry by Wood during these years, including one undertaken by Wood himself in 1650, which explored the upper reaches of the James River and Roanoke River.

The first English expeditions to reach the southern Appalachian Mountains were also sent out by Wood. In 1671, explorers Thomas Batts (Batte) and Robert Fallam reached the New River Valley and the New River. The New River was named Wood's River after Abraham Wood, although in time it became better known as the New River. Batts and Fallam are generally credited with being the first Europeans to enter within the present-day borders of West Virginia.

In 1673 Wood sent his friend James Needham and his indentured servant Gabriel Arthur on an expedition to find an outlet to the Pacific Ocean. Shortly after their departure Needham and Arthur encountered a group of Tomahitan Indians, who offered to conduct the men to their town across the mountains Harv |Wood|1990|p=33. The Tomahitans are sometimes thought to have been Cherokee, but in 1727 a delegation of Cherokee visiting Charleston referred to the Tomahitans as old enemies of their allies the Yamasee Harv |Green|1992|p=26n. After reaching the Tomahitan town Needham returned to Fort Henry to report to Wood. While en route back to the Tomahitan town Needham was killed by a member of the trading party with whom he was traveling Harv |Wood|1990|pp=36-38. Shortly thereafter, Arthur was almost killed by a mob in the Tomahitan settlement, but was saved and then adopted by the town's headman Harv |Wood|1990|p=38. Arthur lived with the Tomahitans for almost a year, accompanying them on war and trading expeditions as far south as Spanish Florida Harv |Wood|1990|p=39 and as far north as the Ohio River Harv |Wood|1990|pp=40-41.

References

*Citation
last=Briceland
first=Alan Vance
date=1999
contribution=Wood, Abraham
editor-last=John A. Garraty (ed.)
title=American National Biography (Vol. 23)
publication-place=New York
publisher=Oxford University Press
page=748-749
oclc=39182280.

*Citation
last =Drake
first =Richard B.
date =2001
title =A History of Appalachia
publication-place =Lexington, Ky.
publisher =The University of Kentucky Press
isbn =0-8131-2169-8
oclc =43953981.

*Citation
last =Green
first =William
date =1992
title =The Search for Altamaha: The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of an Early 18th Century Yamasee Indian Town
series =Volumes in Historical Archaeology #21
publication-place =Columbia, S.C.
publisher =The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina
oclc =27735429.

*Citation
last=Monaghan
first=Frank
date=1943
contribution=Wood, Abraham
editor-last=Dumas Malone (ed.)
title=Dictionary of American Biography (Vol. 20, Werden-Zunser)
publication-place=New York
publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons
page=454
oclc=70543382.

*Citation
last=Wood
first=Abraham
date=1990
title=Letter of Abraham Wood to John Richards, 22 August 1674
periodical=Southern Indian Studies
volume=39
pages=33-44
url=http://rla.unc.edu/archives/accounts/Needham/NeedhamText.html
accessdate=2007-10-10.