Alfred A. Wood, the senior partner of the well-known firm of Wood & Cunningham, proprietors of the leading hardware establishment of Riverside, is a native of California, dating his birth in Sonoma County in September 1859. His father, William B. Wood, came to the State in 1850, and spent many years of his life in Sonoma and Monterey counties, and later, in Riverside, he was a businessman and engaged in mercantile life. The subject of this sketch was reared and schooled in Castroville, Monterey County, and after his attendance in the public schools entered the State Normal School at San Jose, and after a four-years course graduated at that institution in 1880. He then joined his father at Duncan’s Mills, Sonoma County, and was there engaged in business pursuits and teaching until his health became impaired, and he sought the milder climate of Southern California. He first located at San Diego County, in 1881, and was employed as a teacher in the public schools in Ballena, and then as a clerk in the post office at San Diego, after which he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company as a clerk, and finally engaged in mercantile pursuits with Rockfellow & Co., of San Diego.
In 1883 he came to Riverside, and entered into his present business with his father, under the firm name of W. B. Wood & Son. The business was established by his father and W. W. Carr in 1882, under the firm name of Wood & Carr. In 1887 Mr. Wood’s father retired from the firm, and he conducted the business alone until May, 1888; the firm of Wood & Tibbott Bros. was then formed and conducted the enterprise until September of that year, when Mr. George D. Cunningham purchased the interests of Tibbott Bros., and the firm of Wood & Cunningham was established.
Mr. Wood is one of Riverside’s leading businessmen, and is at the head of one of the largest hardware and crockery houses in the county. The reputation of this firm for reliability and integrity is well established, and its success is in no small degree attributable to his able management. He is a believer in the prosperous future that awaits Southern California, and has real-estate interests in various sections of San Bernardino and San Diego counties. He has also been a supporter of the various public enterprises that have built up his chosen city. He is a member of Sunnyside Lodge, No. 112, and Uniform Dank Knights of Pythias, and is the Captain of the latter organization. Politically he is a Republican.
Mr. Wood was married in San Diego in 1881, wedding Miss Etta Choate, a native of Placer County, California. Her father, Daniel Choate, is a well-known pioneer of the State, and is now a resident of San Diego.
