Harriet Wood was born into slavery. Her owner was Meredith M. Marmaduke, a former governor of Missouri. She married Cleave Wood on August 15, 1857, on Marmaduke's plantation in Saline County, Missouri. They had seven children together: Cleve, born around 1848; Eliza Banks, born around 1850; Isabel Franklin, born around 1855; Henry, born around 1859; Minny, born around 1861; Preston, born around 1862; and Betty, born around 1864. Her husband died during the war, and Harriet passed away in Missouri on June 15, 1871.
Five of her children were still minors at the time of her death, and Meredith M. Marmaduke, Jr. (the son of her former owner), assumed legal guardianship. In 1883, he petitioned for pensions on their behalf. Several members of the Marmaduke family provided affidavits, testifying to Harriet and Cleave's marriage and the fact that Cleave was the father of her children. The children eventually received pensions of $8 per month, backdated to the time of Cleave's death and ending on the day they reached legal adulthood.
| Name: | Wood, Harriet | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Gender: | F | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race: | Black | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Death date: | 1871-06-15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Death place: | Missouri | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pension Records for Cleave Wood, RG15, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
