BY MILES LAYTON

Another of the great ones who made Edenton a great place to live has passed away. 

Thomas Benbury Wood died on Wednesday, May 28, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church announced on Wednesday.  

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 3 in the church with a reception to follow. Please keep Thomas, Adrian and all of their family in your prayers. 

For if we live, we live unto the Lord, and if we die, we die unto the Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s possession — Romans 14:8

A Southern gentleman known for his storytelling, Wood was an attorney and businessman in Chowan County who was known near and far across Northeast NC.

Wood’s wife, Janie, passed away Jan. 18. Tommy and Janie lived at Hayes Farm for many years – a beautiful home bordering Edenton Bay that was registered in 1974 on the North Carolina Register of Historic Places.   

Owned originally by Samuel Johnston, a Revolutionary statesman and planter, Hayes was passed down through the Wood family for generations until the state purchased that historic property in 2021. The house and grounds are undergoing renovations and improvements, so people have seen history firsthand within Hayes’ walls, certainly during Pilgrimage.   

Side notes to that story – an original copy of the US Constitution was found in 2022 inside a filing cabinet within a library at Hayes. 

Worth noting, Mulberry Hill with its associated golf course – Links at Mulberry Hill – was developed by the Wood family throughout the years. 

When a new 18-hole golf course was dedicated in April of 1989, a story published in the Chowan Herald said the new architect-designed course, which offers a panoramic view of the Albemarle Sound, was made possible by Thomas Wood.   

“We feel that this project, culminating in many years of cooperative hard work and determination, will constitute a milestone in responsible Northeastern North Carolina Development,” a spokesman for the Country Club said. “The most significant aspect of this effort is that this very fine golf course has been built upon a dream and concept that was executed with sacrifices of a small country club with limited resources that persevered and succeeded upon the ambition to build a golf course of which the entire State would be proud.”   

Flashback to 2004: Tom and Janie Wood saved and moved Sumnerville, an 18th  century gambrel-roofed house from Perquimans County, to Mulberry Hill outside of Edenton, according to the Elizabeth Van Moore Foundation. Sumnerville is typical of many 18th century houses that were once found in the Albemarle. Several, including Sumnerville, have been moved to Edenton and restored. The Woods later found that a window pane had been inscribed with the name of the builder of Mulberry Hill whose brother lived at Sumnerville. The house contains elaborate 18th century wainscoting and mantels.  Sumnerville shows how Edenton continues to be a haven for important structures that otherwise would be burned or demolished.    

Wood earned his bachelor’s (Class of 1959) and law degree (Class of 1962) from the University of North Carolina. A trial attorney, Wood worked on the Attorney General’s staff and was a member of the Wake County and North Carolina Bar Associations when he and Janie lived in Raleigh.  

Throughout the years, Wood was very active in the community — a founder of the Edenton Historical Foundation and serving as vice president of the James Iredell Association, and active with the Cupola House Association, the Edenton Rotary Club, and he attended St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. In 1981, the Times Publishing Company published a book written by Wood entitled “Town and Plantation Tales of the Albemarle.”  

Wood was a member of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, one of thirteen such Societies organized in the closing days of the Revolutionary War by officers of the American army, whose descendants constitute the present membership.  

Thomas and Janie, his wife of 59 years, met on the porch of the Zeta Psi fraternity house at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Together they raised a family – Thomas Benbury Paxton Wood and his wife, Adrian of Edenton, and Caroline Cameron Wood Hauser and her husband Bobby of Pilot Mountain.  

Thomas and Janie were proud grandparents to six beloved grandchildren: Kimberly, Lyric, Thomas, Russell, Blair, and Amos. 

News spread fast as to Wood’s passing, so as folks begin to process the news, more kind words will be added to this story.

“Tommy Wood was a Southern gentleman, through and through! His manners were courtly,” said Sally Francis Kehayes, who knew Wood well, worked alongside him on many projects and historical related events. “His regard for others was warm and welcoming. His ability to tell a story was unparalleled and so enthralling! He loved his home and the history of his family in Eastern North Carolina which were the heart of many of his stories. With his wife Janie, his participation in so many activities supported the uniqueness of our community. For me, their hosting the first of the Penelope Barker Anniversary Teas at their Mulberry Hill will remain a highlight in my memories. Tommy was a unique individual and with Janie held a unique place in the life of our community. I loved being  a recipient of his Southern charm and hospitality.”

Edenton Town Councilman Sambo Dixon said, “Tommy was a real supporter of Edenton. He was happy and encouraging when he found out that the State and the Elizabeth Moore Foundation were entering into a public/private partnership to restore and maintain Hayes in perpetuity.”

Former Edenton Town Councilman Bob Quinn added, “Tommy knew more Edenton history and had more colorful stories than anybody in Edenton. “Tommy and his cherished wife Janie loved their home Mulberry Hill. It was a museum in itself.”

Jerry Climer, former Chairman of the Edenton Historical Commission and Edenton Chowan Partnership, met Tommy and Janie casually around when his family moved to Edenton from Washington DC and they back from Raleigh.

“Tommy Wood was Edenton’s premiere storyteller, weaving the history of NE North Carolina and the nation into a beautiful tapestry,” Climer said. “Countless newcomers, guests at Mulberry Hill and on the streets of Edenton, heard colorful stories about Edenton’s contributions to the nation’s founding from Tommy. He never tired of telling that story. He and Janie were most welcoming to us and countless others.”

From my memory, I was impressed when Wood came into the newspaper office one day – he needed a cold glass of water after mowing parts of the golf course – he was in his 80s. He wore his trademark brimmed hat – I remember thinking, I want to be mowing grass at his age like him. Still very sharp.  

Monday, I was getting an oil change/tire rotation at Colony Tire in Edenton when I struck up a conversation with Thomas Wood Sr., who owns/associated with Chowan County’s best golf course,” I wrote in a column from May of 2021.    

Did you know that the 86-year-old Wood mows the fairways and links at Mulberry Hill – impressive, very impressive. Mows the grass two and a half times per week. Other folks do the greens and some of the other lawncare. Wood said he prefers riding a lawnmower instead of a tractor because it is easier to corner. That golf course is a great thing for Edenton and Northeastern NC.”

A volunteer gardener at Hayes and at the Cupola House, where he also serves as a docent, Jonathan Tobias and Wood crossed paths many times over the years.    

“The number of people who knew Tommy and heard his famous stories – and his infamous singing his off-color songs are legion – including me,” said Tobias, a college professor and local columnist. “Though his politics and mine differed, we sure did like each other. At least I’m very sure of that on my end.”

Tobias continued, “I will miss that man. I’ll miss seeing his straw hat nearly as wide as a sombrero walking down Broad. His accent, his syntax and his diction was like listening to Edenton a century or two ago, haunted with the resonance of a hundred ghosts that probably still wander around Hayes and Mulberry and the streets of our town. But a lot of that haunting was sure jovial — he seemed to be on friendly terms with the lot of them. When he’d see me at the Barker House or at church, a lot of times he’d thrust a paper in my hands that contained a piece he had written. One was on a German submarine sighting off the Outer Banks during WWII. Another was something about the report of a Confederate captain’s actions during the Civil War around here. Tommy was a true blue native, despite his time in Raleigh, born and bred in this soil.”