 By 1850, the family moved to Parkersburg, a growing city on the Ohio River and the county seat for Wood County (from which Wirt County had partly been formed), so Charles received his private education there (Virginia having no public schools until after the Civil War).In 1850, his father was listed as the head of household and a merchant with $3000 in real estate; the family included a year-old daughter Amy, as well as 50-year old Robert S. Smith Sr. (an English-born tanner with $2,500 in real estate) and Virginia-born Thomas Smith (15 years old) and Elizabeth Smith (12 years old; probably their father's younger siblings).By the 1860 census, Wood's father listed his occupation as "private citizen", and he owned $5000 in real estate and $5000 in personal property, the same as his next door neighbor, lawyer Arthur Boreman (the neighbor on the other side, also a "private citizen" 70-year old John P. Mayberry, owned $36,000 in real estate and 9,500 in personal property).