Benjamin Akers Wood was born on September 20, 1864, in Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa, to Jackson and Hellen Wood.  He was the third child born to Jackson and Hellen.

Ben grew up on the family farm with two older sisters, an older half sister and brother, and one younger brother.  By age 16, he had gotten a job in town as a bank clerk.  He moved to Wellington, Kansas, before age 20, where he met and married Mame Kelly.  In 1885, they moved to Syracuse, Kansas and had six children: Helen, Kathryn, Louise, Dorothy, Ben K., and Robert before his wife, Mame, died in 1899.

In 1906, Ben was married for a second time to Edna Groscup, a 26-year old school teacher from Cumberland County, Illinois.  Ben and Edna had five children: Harry, Susie, Maxine, Woodrow, and Jack.

Ben led an exemplary life.  He was elected county clerk (he is said to have had beautiful penmanship), served in the state Legislature, was a City Council member, and was on the Board of Education.  He was also one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Syracuse and served as its first president.

Ben was very successful in business, especially in his ownership of property and in the livestock industry.  Obituary articles written about him in the Syracuse Journal and other local papers in 1926 proclaimed him to be one of the really big men of the county, and one of its leading citizens.  He was particularly noted for his generosity and compassion toward others in the community, especially those who were less fortunate.

Ben died suddenly at age 61, on a Saturday afternoon in June 1926, of a heart attack, in the home he built at 9 Johnson Street in Syracuse, Kansas.  He was survived by his eleven children and his second wife, Edna.  He is buried in the Syracuse Cemetery.