The Association of Independent Architects in 2007 named the Governor John Wood Mansion one of the 150 most important structures in Illinois. The large mansion is now owned by the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County and is open for tours from April through October. Politician Wood was elected to seven one-year terms as mayor of Quincy 1844–1848, 1852–53 and 1856) and to the Illinois state senate in 1850. Earlier a Whig, Wood became a Republican and was elected Illinois' first Republican Lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1856. When Governor William Henry Bissell died on March 18, 1860, three years into his four-year term, Wood succeeded him, becoming the state's 12th governor. The General Assembly, soon to adjourn its session in early 1860, granted Wood's request that he be allowed to remain in Quincy to manage business interests and the construction of his stone octagonal mansion. A room on the south side of his Greek Revival mansion was expanded to become the official governor's office of the State of Illinois. While conducting the governor's business from Quincy, Wood permitted Abraham Lincoln to use the governor's office in the state capitol building in Springfield during his 1860 presidential campaign. Wood also allowed Governor Bissell's widow to continue to live in the new executive mansion. Wood's greatest achievement in his ten months as governor was his work to reorganize the Illinois militia, which had been neglected since the end of the Mexican War. With business interests pressing Wood, he declined his party's request to run for re-election. Civil War Governor Richard Yates appointed Wood one of five Illinois delegates to the failed "Peace Convention" in Washington, D.C., in February 1861. After the start of the Civil War in April, John Wood was named Quartermaster General of the State of Illinois. In 1863, at age 65, Wood became even more personally involved in the Civil War. He raised men for the 137th Illinois 100-day volunteers. Wood and the 137th were assigned to duty in southwest Tennessee, and Wood was given command of three more regiments. His own regiment fought a four-hour battle on August 21, 1863, against one of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest's regiments. In 1863, Wood's wife Ann died, and he married Mary Ann Holmes. Final years Wood's octagonal mansion was completed in 1864 and his Greek Revival mansion went to his eldest son, Daniel. The octagonal home, built at