From These Roots

The Wood family were some of the early settlers in Tigerville. Sometime before the Civil War, Dr. Thomas Earle Wood moved to Tigerville and purchased a home. His house was located on the property that is now Grazer’s Store at Famoda Farms on Highway 253. Dr. Wood left Tigerville to serve as a doctor in the Civil War but returned when the war was over. He married Nancy Glenn on August 3, 1865, and the couple had eight children together. In 1894, Dr. Wood became an early trustee of a new high school in Tigerville named North Greenville High School.

One of Dr. Woods’ sons, John Thomas Wood, was born in 1871 and grew up to marry Cordia Noe in 1899. Mr. Wood worked for Benjamin F. Neves as the manager of his store in Tigerville. He had a head for business and this talent would prove useful when he became a trustee of North Greenville High School in 1905 and began a nearly twenty-year run as the treasurer of the school. His neat handwriting, excellent spelling, and meticulous recordkeeping were invaluable to the school in those early years.

In 1914, John and Cordia Wood completed their new home in Tigerville. The house was just down the road from the store where Mr. Wood worked, making it a convenient location for the family. By the time the house was finished, the Woods had three sons- Bryan Clinton Wood, John Thomas Wood Jr., and Thornton Pralo Wood. The following year, they welcomed their youngest son, Paul John Franklin Wood, into the world. All four of the Wood sons attended North Greenville and Paul Wood later became a benefactor of the school.

When John T. Wood passed away from pneumonia and the flu on December 11, 1924, it was a hard blow to North Greenville. The 1925 North Greenville yearbook, The Moonshiner, included this dedication of the former treasurer and trustee, “A friend to everybody, and especially to the students and teachers of North Greenville Baptist Academy, of which institution he was a trustee for many years. In appreciation of him as a man, as a friend, and as an officer of the school, this page is dedicated by the present faculty and student body of North Greenville Baptist Academy.”

Cordia Noe Wood lived in the house until she died in 1950. John T. Wood, Jr. became the next owner. During his lifetime, John T. Wood, Jr. was a principal and superintendent of Landrum High School, a superintendent of a textile mill department, a Civil Service career officer with the Veterans Administration, a teacher at Blue Ridge High School, and a three-term member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. There is a bridge on Highway 253, near the campus, named in his honor.

The John T. Wood house changed ownership a couple of times in the 1990s until North Greenville College purchased the property in 2002 and converted it into a men’s dorm. The dorm was called “Porch House” by the students and was used in this capacity until the early 2010s.

In 2011-2012, the former John T. Wood home was renovated and named the Barbara McCormick House in honor of Barbara Morton McCormick who graduated from North Greenville Junior College in 1955. She met her husband, Lee McCormick, at North Greenville. Dr. Lee McCormick eventually came back to North Greenville to serve as the academic dean. While her husband worked for North Greenville, Mrs. McCormick helped found the Christian Ministry Scholarship Fund and the University’s Women’s Auxiliary Board. She served on numerous committees and was known for helping students in need. Mrs. McCormick was surprised by North Greenville in 2007 when she received an honorary Doctor of Christian Leadership degree. The Barbara McCormick House cost about $50,000 to restore and was used as the University Guest House where the McCormicks served as the hosts to campus visitors.

Eventually, around 2015, the Barbara McCormick House was repurposed to be used as offices. The Office of University Marketing and the Office of Communication were originally located in the house. Today, the Barbara McCormick House is home to the Office of Advancement and University Engagement.