In 1829 Elizabeth Cooper, a member of the Cooper’s Point (Camden) Cooper family, was married to Issac H. Wood, a farmer and businessman.  She obtained the house and one hundred and fifty acres for $6200.  When the house burned in 1841, rebuilding was done which is the dwelling that exists there today.

So actually, the Elizabeth Haddon home is really the Samuel Wood home, as after the passing of his mother in 1890,  a son, Sam, became the owner of the estate.  Sam Wood was a leader in the community life of Haddonfield, and he was also a leader in the business and the government of the area.

At  his death in 1929, he was the president of the Haddonfield National Bank.

In his later years, Sam was mainly the grower of beautiful roses, and gardening occupied much of his time.  Sam never succumbed to the automobile era and his horse and buggy was seen every afternoon parked at the curb in front of the Republican Club on east Kings highway for at least an hour while he was inside the club reading the afternoon newspaper that had been delivered there.

The Samuel Wood house and three and one half acres were retained by Sam when he sold the farm for real estate development in 1920.   This preserved the boxwood and yew trees that Elizabeth Haddon had brought over from England.

Sam’s fatal accident when his horse and buggy were hit by a bus at the point of Tanner street and Haddon avenue in 1929, caused the last break in the link that Haddonfield had of being a farming community.  For 65 of his full 85 years, Sam Wood was very special in our town.