Leon Herbert Wood
Born: May 21, 1893, Pennsylvania
Died: September 5, 1941, Saranac Lake
Married: Lillian Agatha Doyle Conklin Wood
The following is an excerpt from Lillian Agatha Doyle Conklin Wood by Sally Seufert Holmes, Recieved by Historic Saranac Lake, May 5, 2020
On August 14, 1922, Lillian married Leon Herbert Wood in Bloomingdale, New York, a village in close proximity to Saranac Lake. It is my belief that Lillian and Leon met while both seeking the cure.
Leon was a World War I veteran from Oil City, Pennsylvania. He was born in that state on May 21, 1893, exactly one month prior to Lillian’s birth. By age 17, he was a tank builder in the oil industry. In May 1917, immediately following the United States’ entry into the war, he enlisted in the United States Navy Naval Reserve (USNNR) Coastal Artillery. He served as a Seaman Second Class at Wissahickon Barracks, Cape May, New Jersey; Lewes, Delaware; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was engaged in active duty until March 1919 and was honorably discharged on May 8, 1921.
According to his obituary, Leon was “declared a total disability at war’s end.” It is unknown if he was injured in the war, but clearly tuberculosis, at least in part, contributed to his physical challenges. It’s possible that Leon had been exposed to the disease before entering the military, as his mother, Mary Herbert Wood, suffered from TB as early as 1916. Mary died from this disease the year following her son’s enlistment.
Somehow, in the cycle of seasons between Leon’s release from the military and the summer of 1922, he and Lillian found each other. Like all persons who suffered from active tuberculosis and had removed to a cure community, they weren’t only navigating the disease, but navigating loneliness, as well. Moreover, they were faced with the reality that chasing “the cure” could take years.
For Lillian and Leon, it would take the rest of their lives. From the time before their marriage in 1922 and ever after, Lillian and Leon would live in the village of Saranac Lake, the curing cottages their most frequent residences. The 1925 New York State Census shows them living in Harrietstown, Saranac Lake. Leon’s occupation was listed as “patient.” Lillian could have made temporary strides with her health, as she was listed as “housekeeper.”
Five years later, the 1930 U.S. Federal Census reported that the couple was living in a nursing cottage at 84 Park Avenue, Saranac Lake. This time, both were listed as patients, neither held occupations. The cottage, according to the census, boasted a radio, which must have provided the household with great entertainment. News, music, radio plays, quiz shows, and other programming would have filled their evenings, especially those of winter. That year’s number one song, hitting the charts a few months after the [Street Crash of 1929], was, paradoxically, “[Days Are Here Again].”
The hit song’s sentiment was not yet the case for Lillian, though, as Barbara, now 12 years old, was still living in Dedham with her grandmother. At age 77, Fannie was head of household. Having remained with their mother throughout the years, three of Fannie’s adult children also shared the home. Despite the unfavorable situation of Barbara being separated from Lillian, Fannie Doyle’s house provided a secure haven and consistent family unit for the young girl.
By 1934, however, the winds had changed and happy days were, indeed, here again, the song’s lyrics coming true for mother and daughter. “So long sad times, Go long bad times, We are rid of you at last…” Finally, after years of separation, Barbara now lived with her mother and step-father at 1 Johnson Road in Saranac Lake. She attended Saranac Lake Central High School and subsequently, Russell Sage College in Troy, New York.
By 1940, having once again moved, Lillian and Leon were living at 163 Park Avenue in St. Armand, Saranac Lake. That year’s U.S. Federal Census indicated that the Woods owned their home. Leon’s occupation was listed as office clerk, but coded him as “unable to work.” Lillian was listed as keeping house and Barbara as having completed two years of college.
The following year, on September 5, 1941, when the U.S. was on the brink of entering World War II, Leon Wood passed away. He and Lillian had just celebrated their nineteenth wedding anniversary, a testament to their courage on that long ago day in August 1922, when they turned their backs on their futures skewed by tuberculosis, and, instead, took a vow “for life.” The cause of death stated on Leon’s death certificate was pulmonary tuberculosis with the contributory cause, thorocoplasty, the surgical removal of multiple ribs. This procedure was “a last resort in gravely ill [TB] patients.”