Melvina S. Holt was born in Woodstock, Vermont in 1828 to Dr. Jacob M. and Susan E. Holt who settled in Bridgewater, Vermont. Melvina had one sister, Flora E. Holt Newton (1860-1921). The family apparently took an early interest in Spiritualism. A Spiritualists Memorial to Congress sent in March 1854 to the 33rd Congress stated, “Memorial of N P Tallmadge and others, Citizens of the US praying the appointment of a Scientific Commission to investigate certain physical and mental phenomena of questionable origin and mysterious import that have of late occurred in this country and in Europe.” It was signed by Jacob M. Holt and Susan E. Holt of Bridgewater among hundreds of others.
By 1856, Melvina was listed as a medium in Bridgewater, Vermont as Mrs. M. S. Townsend (formerly Mrs. Newton). She was advertised as giving clairvoyant examinations and sittings for friends in the towns she was visiting. She was also called a trance medium in 1859. Her father was listed as a healer in 1860 and 1861.
Melvina’s marriages are not well documented. In1866, she was called Mrs. M. S. Townsend of Bridgewater, Vermont; in 1868 and 1872 Mrs. M. S. Townsend Hoadley of Vermont; and in 1876 Mrs. M. S. Townsend of Cambridge Port, Massachusetts. The only marriage record found is to farmer Charles N. Wood in 1877. It was his second marriage and her third according to the document They lived in Newton, Massachusetts.
Throughout the late 1870s and 1880s, Melvina spoke to large audiences. From 1879-1887, she was on the Banner of Light’s list for Spiritualist speakers. At the Lake Pleasant Spiritualist camp, she spoke on “The General Features of Spiritualism.” She also participated at the Labor Reform Convention in Boston in 1880.
The Fitchburg Sentinel, 14 April 1882 wrote, “Mrs. Townsend Wood, one of the oldest and best speakers in the field, is to speak for the Leominster Spiritualists….” During the 1880s she was guest speaker at Camp Etna, Onset Bay Camp, and spoke in other New England towns. The titles of her talks included “The Prison, the Gallows and the Philosophy of Charity,” and “The Power of Spirit over Matter.”
She was also a proponent of suffrage and prohibition. In1888 at Onset Bay, “That grand advocate of woman suffrage and prohibition, Mrs. Townsend-Wood, was speaker of the forenoon. Her subject, ‘Temperance, and its relation to Spiritualism,’ was ably handled,” wrote the Golden Gate, 28 July 1888.
Her husband, Charles Wood, died in 1905 and Melvina followed in 1907. In her will she said she would like either to be cremated in Massachusetts or buried in Vermont without clothes so that the clothing did not go to waste. She was cremated in Cambridge, Massachusetts.