THE WOOD SHOVEL & TOOL COMPANY, of Piqua, is one of the city's prosperous and important business enterprises. Its establishment dates from June, 1902, and it was incorporated under the laws of the state of Ohio, with a large investment of capital. Its officers are: H. K. Wood, president; S. S. Gould, vice-president; and William W. Wood, secretary. The main office is maintained at Piqua, with factories at the same place, while the following cities have branch offices: New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Mexico City.

The scope of manufacturing covers everything in the way of shovels, scoops, draining tools, etc. The plant's dimensions are 62 by 300 feet and they occupy about 25,000 square feet of floor space. Employment is afforded some eighty men in the works and eight traveling men cover the United States, while for exports representatives are kept in England, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Mexico and Central America. To achieve success in pushing and maintaining a business of such large proportions, men of great ability and force, strong and self reliant, practical and experienced are required and these have been secured for this enterprise.

H  K. Wood, president of the Wood Shovel & Tool Company, was born in 1847, in Miami County, Ohio, a son of William W. Wood, who was born in Hollis 2 New Hampshire, and was a representative of a family that came to New England from Amesbury, England, in 1638. William W. Wood became one of the pioneer manufacturers of Miami County and as such brought the first car of coal to Piqua. He was prominent in all the early public affairs of the county and was the first president of its board of education and took upon himself many of the early responsibilities which brought subsequent good to his fellow citizens. In 1850, he made the overland trip to California, by ox team, returning in 1852 by way of Nicaragua. For many years he controlled the cooperage business in this section. For thirty-one years, with his son, be was engaged in the linseed oil business. He married Caroline Kirk, who was born in Ohio, a daughter of William Kirk, and they had four children, only two of whom lived to maturity, H. K. and William Albert. The latter was engaged for many years in the wholesale tobacco business at St. Louis, and died in California, in September, 1881. The death of William W. Wood occurred in 1905, at the advanced age of eighty- eight years, his birth having taken place in 1817. On both sides he had come from Revolutionary ancestry.

H. K. Wood was married on September 6, 1873, to Miss Frances Adelaide Wilson. Her father was Judge William Martin Wilson, a very prominent man, and her mother was a daughter of Judge Dorsey, who was the first treasurer of Miami University. Mr. and Mrs. Wood have one son, W. W. Wood, who is treasurer and secretary of the Wood Shovel & Tool Company. Mr. Wood is a member of the Green Street Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is steward. In the early history of the Y. M. C. A. he was its president, and he was chairman of the building committee when the present building was erected. For eighteen years he was president and general manager of the Piqua Electrical Company, and he is vice-president and a member of the board of directors of the Piqua National Bank. He has served on many civic boards and has belonged to numerous commissions appointed for the general welfare. He is a Thirty-second Degree Mason and belongs also to the Piqua Club and to the Sons of the American Revolution.