Born in the New York state in 1832, Josiah Wood was a resident of the utopian Christian Socialist community of Hopedale, Massachusetts, in 1854. Shortly before or during the Civil War, he married Lurana P. Mosher, with whom he had four children: Lyneus (1866?), Cameron (1871?), Avis M. (1874), and Cortez (1876?). During his life, Wood was employed in a number of different occupations, at different times listed as a tin-peddler, farmer, and carpenter, and in the 1880 census as a merchant. He was a soldier, as well. During the Civil War, he served in Company D, 27th Massachusetts Infantry, sustaining an arm injury in 1864 that required hospitalization at Annapolis Junction.