The Life and Legacy of Herbert Wood
Herbert Wood was born on August 29, 1942 in Shiloh, Tennessee, a place named for a Hebrew word meaning “peace”. He found his own peace April 3, 2015 when he died at Jackson General Hospital. Wood was a banker, a funeral director, a historian, a friend, a husband, and a father.
Rex Brotherton worked with Wood at Merchant and Planters Bank in Bolivar but first met Wood through a phone call regarding a subject that would form a would form a lifelong bond preserving the history of the civil war. Brotherton recalled,”The first time we talked I think it was around 1983. He was thinking about organizing a Sons of Confederacy Veterans Camp. So he called me asking for help. We had a meeting in Bolivar and had 40 or 50 members at one time, Harry Bishop was a member and he told us he had purchased some land from a forgotten battle of the Civil War. It turns out it was the battle of Davis Bridge, which was the 2nd largest battle in West Tennessee.”
This revelation sparked a dream for these two men that would take years of hard work to see come to fruition.
“We just thought Davis Bridge should be a place people know about,” recalls Brotherton. “Harry sold 5.5 acres to me and Herbert, we gave 500 an acre for it and we had every kind of fundraiser you can think of to try to pay for it”.
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