The headline in the Hobbs Daily Flare issue of January 27, 1961 read “Death Takes Pair of Old-Timers From Lea Scene.” It related the recent passing of John W. Green and Archie Dow Wood. A. D. Wood was 79 years of age and lived south of Lovington on the Arkansas Junction Road. It added that he moved to Lea County as a boy, started his own ranch and also said that he had served as a deputy sheriff for fifteen years during the oil boom. Survivors included his wife and son as well as numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Archie Dow Wood was the son of George Washington Wood and Jessie Lucinda Cauble Wood. He grew up in Texas and Oklahoma before coming to New Mexico when he was fourteen years old working on ranches for others until he “filed on a government claim” of his own. After Lea County was formed, he worked as a deputy sheriff from about 1922 to 1933 and served as a New Mexico cattle inspector for nearly forty years. He retained a title as special deputy of Lea and other counties for many years as well.

A. D. was one of the organizers of the Open Range Cowboys Association. They started meeting informally in the early 1930s and were more formally organized around 1940. He was known as a great story teller and enjoyed relating the early days of the area even before Lea County was formed.

He was first married to Jessie Pearl Markley and secondly to Mary Beth Wilf. A. D. passed in 1961 and was interred at Lovington Cemetery. Mary Beth survived him until 1986. She is also interred at Lovington Cemetery.