Woodford D. Hand was raised on the farm and educated from the subscription schools. October 5, 1861, he enlisted in the late rebellion, serving in Company D, Thirtieth Illinois Infantry. He entered as a private, and when mustered out July 17, 1865, was Captain of his company. He was with Sherman on his march to the sea, and took part in most of the engagements of his regiment. After the war, he returned to the home farm, and began farming, at which he still continues. He is now the owner of 100 acres of good land. He was married, in Crawford County, October 21, 1855, to Miss Mary J. Cox, a daughter of Needham Cox, a native of Wayne County, N. C. Mrs. Hand was born in Crawford County, May 3, 1838. They have the following children: Malinda E., Mary B., Daniel W., Augusta B. and William S. Mr. Hand is now holding the offices of Justice of the Peace and School Treasurer. He and wife are members of the Baptist Church. Politically, he is a Republican.
 

March 14, 1900, pg. 8 of Robinson Constitution
A Former Citizen Writes of Early Days in Crawford
Windsor, Mo., Feb 23, 1900

Note: The following is a letter written by Mary A. Hand Shepherd Franklin to her nephew, Woodford D. Hand, which was published in the Constitution. Woodford was the Captain of Company D of the 30th IL Infantry during the Civil War.

W. D. Hand -- Dear Nephew: Your letter received requesting me to write on my 89th birthday a sketch of my father's family. My parents, Eli and Jane Hand were married in the wilds of KY about the year 1800. My two older brothers James and George Hand were born there. From Kentucky my parents moved to Ohio, near Chillicothe, where I and the younger members of the family were born. About 1820 my father bought a soldier's claim on the Spoon River in the wilds of IL, and in the spring of 1821 started to move to his land. On April 15, on his journey west, he met a man of Busrun(?) prairie, east of Merom IN. and in conversation learned his name was James Newlin, who said he had settled on land about nine miles northwest of Merom and directed father the route to his cabin in the unbroken regions of Crawford, and stated that there as a cabin close by that had been built by two bachelors who had gone. He told father to take possession and he would return in a few days. We crossed the Wabash at Merom, and the only cabin between there and Newlin's was Thomas Gill's on the west side of Lamotte Prairie. We went into the cabin as instructed and the first night the wolves made a charge on our dog and kept him under the cabin. In your letter to me you stated that Cyrus was the only member of Uncle Jimmy Newlin's family living. My mind goes back to the happy days when I used to nurse him when he was small and the older children of both of both families toiled and played together as one family, Never could a family have received kinder treatment than we received of the Newlin family, and it is sad to think that myself and Cyrus are the only ones living of the two large famlies. My father left his family there and rode horseback, carrying gun, pocket compass and rations and found his land on Spoon river. he was well pleased with it and anxious to move; but when he returned and told the adventures of his trip we would not consent to go any farther. He said for five days and nights he traveled without seeing a white person. Indians would meet him on their ponies and escort him to their wigwams and fill his saddlebags with venison and give him new flints for his gun. Fort Clark was the nearest white settlement to his land. After his return we remained two or three years on the Newlin farm. During our stay father went hunting and killed an elk and hauled it with oxen by the cabin in which we children were attending school for us to view the monster, which weighed between four and five hundred pounds. Father then bought and improved a farm where Quaker Lane was afterwards laid out. My brother ,James was elected captain of militia in 1827 and received commission from one of the first governors of Illinois. Their drill ground was on the prairie then known as Conrad Prairie but now know as the Emily Newlin( nee) Rains farm.. My brother George served apprenticeship with Jesse Barlow on Lamotte Prairie, and got to be a boss mechanic. His work can be seen yet in the wood work of Uncle Doctor Hill's old home and Ed Rains's home. Chas. B. Shepherd, my first , made the spinning wheels with which the mothers spun the flax and wool for the cloth that our clothes were made of. In the early 40's he moved to Robinson and he and Abe Jeffries contracted and built the first court house on the corner where the bank now stands. It was afterwards moved and is now the first house north of Olwin's store. My part of the work was to do the cooking. I will close by saying I would be glad to meet Aunties' McDowell and Gwen and Nixon Evans and other old settlers of Crawford whom I used to know so well.

Mary A. Franklin

     Mr. Peck is a native of Des Moines county, Iowa, where he was born in 1856. In the Hawkeye State he received a generous education and grew to manhood, but in 1886 he came to Colorado and located at Idalia, in what was then eastern Arapahoe county, now a part of Yuma. He engaged in the real estate and loan business, being, also, notary public, conveyancer and land attorney, and he soon enjoyed a most lucrative patronage. As his sterling honesty and integrity of purpose in every phase of his life became more generally known, his business grew in harmony with his growing popularity. The settlers had faith in his ability; they knew that they could place implicit confidence in his integrity, and they entrusted their business to him with the utmost assurance that their interests would be guarded with zealous devotion. When settlers got into trouble they went to Mr. Peck to help them out, and he never refused his aid where the cause was just and honorable, often fighting the battles of his friends at his own personal expense. He record was a clean one and, while of necessity, he made a few enemies, he attained a high degree of wide popularity which but few men ever enjoy in a community.

     Mr. Peck has always been a Republican and in the campaign of 1894 he received the nomination for representative in the state legislature for the eastern district of Arapahoe county. In defiance of the bitter opposition of some politicians, the gentleman was elected triumphantly, and in the legislative session of 1895 he made a most creditable record. Among other measures which received his active support, he introduced and carried though a bill providing an appropriation of $50,000 for the purpose of buying seed grain for the drouth stricken counties of Eastern Colorado. The governor referred the bill to the supreme court on a question of constitutionality, and upon receiving an adverse decision from that tribunal he vetoed the measure.

     One prominent feature of Mr. Peck's career is the fact he scrupulously avoided the advocacy of anything dishonorable, or tainted with the slightest degree of fraud or dishonesty. He never took a position on any subject that was not inspired by the highest and purest motives, or one that he would now recall if he could. As a result, even his enemies have the utmost faith in the gentleman's veracity and integrity of purpose.

     Two years ago Mr. Peck suffered a serious loss in the burning of a large hotel and an adjacent business office he owned in Idalia. The furniture of the hotel, too, as well as that of his office, and many valuable papers were burned also. The gentleman owns several quarter sections of land in the southern part of the county, as well as a herd, each, of fine cattle and horses.

     In 1893, Mr. Peck married Miss Maud Mitchell, an accomplished Arapahoe county lady, and the union has been blessed with four interesting children. Last November the gentleman and family moved to Wray where he will open an office for the transaction of business at an early date.

     While Mr. Peck is modest and unassuming, his well stored mind and magnetic qualities render him one of the most genial and companionable of gentlemen. He is an honorable opponent and one of the most faithful and generous of friends, his friendship recognizing no limits within the bounds of ability, honor and truth. In public matters he is enterprising and progressive, giving his hearty support to every measure calculated to benefit the community, and he has well earned the general esteem in which he is held in Yuma county. He and his excellent wife and family form a pleasing acquisition to the business and social circles of Wray.