History of Michigan, / by Charles Moore. [Vol. 3]

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

1475

Puget Sound and Portland districts during the seven months previous
to Mr. Wood's assignment to the case, and during that same period the
Government had been defrauded out of over three hundred and forty
thousand dollars in customs duties upon opium which had been smuggled
from British Columbia. It was also established in court that the collector
of customs had received $50 per head for admitting Chinamen, or a total
of over seventy-five thousand dollars in less than one year.
It was also proved that several other customs officials had been on
the pay roll of the smugglers' ring. After the successful conclusion of
these investigations and prosecutions, President Cleveland and the Treasury officials extended formal thanks to Mr. Wood for his efficient conduct
of the cases.
In I895 he was one of the founders of the Knights of the Loyal
Guard, a fraternal beneficiary society, having an extensive membership.
In I904 he was made chairman of the Democratic States Central Committee, and in I908 was elected a member of the Democratic National
Committee for Michigan, being re-elected in I912. He has served as
president of the Genesee County Pioneer and Historical Society, and on
the formation of the Michigan Historical Commission in May, 1913, he
was appointed a member by Governor Ferris. He is a member of the
Board of Trustees of the Masonic Temple Association, and belongs to all
of the Masonic bodies, having received in the Scottish Rite the thirtythird degree.
He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Denver,
in I908, and was a delegate-at-large to the Baltimore convention in I912
and chairman of the Michigan delegation.
Mr. Wood was married to Miss Emily Crocker, daughter of Stephen
and Prudence Crocker, in Flint, in I889. Four children have been born
to their marriage. The eldest son, Dwight Hulbert Wood, died on August
12, I905. The other children are, Albert Crocker Wood, Leland Stanford
Wood, and Mary B. Wood. All of the family are members of the
Episcopal Church.
Mr. Wood is a life member of the American Historical Association,
and of the historical societies of Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Minnesota, and Michigan; also of the Mississippi Valley Historical Society,
the American Geographical Society, the National Geographical Society,
and of the American Museum of Natural History; also the AmericanIrish Historical Society. He is a student in historical research along the
lines of the old Northwest Territory, and has accumulated a special library
pertaining to this section of the United States. This necessarily embraces
an extensive collection of books connected with the French period and
the early history of New France, the Great Lakes country, Mackinac,
Michigan, the Indians, and the states which made up the old Northwest
Territory.
JUDGE GEORGE S. HOSMER has been for more than a quarter of a
century one of the judges of the Wayne county circuit court. His record
of service classifies him as a fine type of the modern judge, and he has
long filled a place of distinction and done much important public service
in his home city of Detroit.
George Stedman Hosmer was born in Detroit, May 13, I855, a son
of the late John and Lucy Jane (Buttrick) Hosmer. The Hosmer family
is of English descent, and the American lineage goes back to 1635, in
which year the first of the name settled in Massachusetts. Many distinguished men of that name have lived in New England and other parts
of the United States, in subsequent generations, and have been prominent in almost all the important walks of life. John Hosmer, father