James David Wood autobiography, circa 1964

James David Wood was born in 1841 at Mercer County, Missouri. In 1864 he traveled from Atchison, Kansas, to Virginia City, Montana, with a freight outfit, working his way as a mule herder. Once in Montana Territory, Wood tried his hand at mining and other jobs, eventually moving to Idaho to again engage in mining in the Leesburg area. During the Nez Perce war he was one of the first on the scene of the "Birch Creek Massacre," in which a freighting team that was killed by the Nez Perce in present day Clark County, Idaho. During the Bannock War of 1878 he was a participant in a fight involving a freight wagon team in the Lost River Valley, Idaho, where a comrade, Jesse McCaleb, was killed. Wood became a successful businessman in Salt Lake City, Utah, towards the end of his life, owning mining interests in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho, along with a mercantile operation in Salt Lake City itself. He died on January 17, 1909.

Stanley Roland Davison transcribed and edited the autobiography in 1964. Davison was born May 6, 1911, in East Helena, Montana. He received a doctorate from the University of California and served in the Navy during World War II and Korea. Davison spent most of his academic career at Western Montana College in Dillon, Montana, where he worked for thirty years. He wrote a number of articles on Montana history and received an award from the Daughters of the American Revolution for his contributions to Montana history, research, and study. He died on May 14, 1986.