Lawrence Foristall Wood (1878 - 1964)

Eliza Payne Edelen (1887 - 1973)

Lawrence Foristall Wood was the fourth of Charles Wood and Ella Terrell's five children.  He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on 27 April 1878 and attended schools there.  Lawrence's uncle was a native of Missouri.  and was, at the time, working in St. Louis in the wholesale dry goods business.  Apparently Uncle Frank offered his nephew a job opportunity, for about 1894, when he was sixteen years old, Lawrence came to St. Louis where he worked with his uncle as a stock boy for the Rice-Stix Dry Goods Company.  That began a long career as a Manufacturer's Representative in the Notions and Dry Goods industry.   In 1911, he decided to go into business for himself as a manufacturer's agent.  He opened his office in the Sesame Building in downtown St. Louis.  He worked out of that office for over 25 years.
 
Lawrence Wood always retained his ties to Kentucky, however.  He met and married a Kentucky girl, Eliza Payne Edelen, in Frankfort on 2 January 1912.  Lida, as she was always known, was the daughter of Thomas Lewis Edelen and Eliza Hopple Bull.  She had been born in Lebanon, Kentucky, on 2 Jan 1886.  Thus, her wedding occurred on her twenty-sixth birthday.

After their marriage, Lawrence and Lida Wood lived in St. Louis, at first staying in Lawrence's father's house.  They moved into their own place in 1914.  Lida Wood, it must be recalled, was raised to be a “Southern gentlewoman.”  As such, she was not prone to spend her days cooking and cleaning.  The Wood family was served by a black cook and Lida sent the family laundry out to be cleaned.  Her days were spent in reading, writing, and watching her three children grow to adulthood.

In 1925, Lawrence bought a house on an acre of land in Glendale, a small community “out in the country” in St. Louis County.  It was about a 25 mile trip from their county home to his office in the city, but that house remained their home for the rest of their lives in St. Louis.

Late in his life, Lawrence F. Wood suffered from kidney cancer,  until, in the Spring of 1964, he was hospitalized.  He died at the hospital on 27 June 1964.  Services were held at the Presbyterian Church, of which he had been a member all of his lifetime.  Following cremation, the family buried his ashes in the yard alongside his home in Glendale.  After her husband's death, Lida Wood moved to Kansas City to live with her daughter, Lillie.  She remained in Kansas City until her death on 13 October 1973.  The family took her remains by train to Frankfort, Kentucky, where she is interred.