The story of Eleazer Derby Wood, whose surname was memorialized when Wood County was founded in 1820, will be featured Thursday, Sept. 23 at Way Library in Perrysburg.

Larry Nelson, site director at nearby Fort Meigs State Memorial from 1980 to 2004, will deliver his “Eleazer Derby Wood – Wood County’s Hero” at 7 p.m.in the downstairs meeting room of the library.

Wood was born in Massachusetts in 1783. He was an early appointee to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the engineers, stationed in New York, Virginia and Connecticut, before being assigned to the “Northwest Army.” Wood was chief engineer, overseeing construction of Fort Meigs at Perrysburg and Fort Stephenson in Fremont. He eventually went to western New York and was killed in action at Fort Erie.

After retirement from the Ohio Historical Society, which operates Fort Meigs State Memorial on Ohio 65 in Perrysburg, Nelson joined the history faculty at Bowling Green State University. He is currently retired. Nelson and his family live in Weston in Wood County.

The program is being sponsored by the Wood County Bicentennial Commission and Way Library. The program had been planned for 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.