Abiel Wood was a U.S. Representative

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 from Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. Born in Wiscasset, Maine (then a district of Massachusetts), he was the son of Gen. Abiel Wood (1743-1811) and Betsey Tinkham, both originally of Middleborough, Massachusetts

Middleborough, Massachusetts

Middleborough is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,117 as of 2008.For geographic and demographic information on the village of Middleborough Center, please see the article Middleborough Center, Massachusetts....

. He was the second of eleven children. Wood attended the common schools, then engaged in mercantile pursuits. He served as member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Massachusetts House of Representatives

The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...

 1807-1811, and again in 1816.

He married Hannah Hodge on November 30, 1793 in Wiscasset. They had one child, a daughter named Helen, who married John Hannibal Sheppard.

Wood was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Thirteenth

13th United States Congress

- Senate :* President: Elbridge Gerry , until November 23, 1814, thereafter vacant.* President pro tempore: Joseph B. Varnum , December 6, 1813 – February 3, 1814** John Gaillard , elected November 25, 1814- House of Representatives :...

 Congress (March 4, 1813-March 3, 1815). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1814 to the Fourteenth

14th United States Congress

- Senate :* President: Vacant* President pro tempore: John Gaillard of South Carolina, first elected December 4, 1815- House of Representatives :* Speaker: Henry Clay of Kentucky-Members:This list is arranged by chamber, then by state...

 Congress, but served as delegate to the constitutional convention of Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 in 1819. He was a Maine State councilor, after which he resumed mercantile pursuits and also engaged in shipping. He served as Bank commissioner for Maine until his death in Belfast

Belfast, Maine

Belfast is a city in Waldo County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 6,668. Located at the mouth of the Passagassawakeag River on Penobscot Bay, Belfast is the county seat of Waldo County...

on October 26, 1834. He was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Wiscasset.