Silas Wood

Silas Wood, Congressman from New York

Silas Wood (September 14, 1769 – March 2, 1847) was a U.S. Representative from New York.

Born in West Hills, near Huntington, New York, Wood pursued classical studies. He graduated from Princeton College in 1789 and during the five succeeding years was a teacher at that institution. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Huntington, New York. He was appointed district attorney of Suffolk County in 1818 and 1821.

Wood was elected to the Sixteenth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1819 – March 3, 1829). He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Congresses). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1828 to the Twenty-first Congress. He died in Huntington, New York, March 2, 1847. He was interred in the Old Public Cemetery on Main Street.

George Bradford Brainerd (American, 1845–1887). Silas Wood's House, Huntington, Long Island, ca. 1872–1887. Collodion silver glass wet plate negative. Brooklyn Museum

Sources

• Silas Wood at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Silas Wood at Find a Grave