Joshua Wood was born in 1809 in Ohio. He moved to Madison County, Illinois, by the 1820s, and he married Sally Houston on December 30, 1829. They had at least six children: Eliza, born around 1831; Peter, born around 1833; Mary, born around 1837; Solomon, born on May 6, 1838; James, born around 1841; and Cornelia, born around 1849.
They lived in Madison County, and Wood worked as a farmer. By 1850, he owned $4,000 of real estate. A decade later, he owned $4,900 of real estate and $1,500 of personal property. He died in 1865.