DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice passin' it along. Franklin Columbus Woodard. Born April 1, 1847, in Alabama.
Died January 31, 1911. And between those two dates, the man managed to live about three lives' worth of story. His family brought him to this part of Texas around 1850, when he was just a small boy, and Houston County became his ground.
Now, most folks pick a lane and stay in it. Franklin Columbus Woodard looked at the lanes, considered them carefully, and decided he'd take all of them. He started as a teacher.
Got himself educated, stood up in front of students, did that work the way it deserves to be done. Then, somewhere along the way, he looked up from the schoolroom and decided medicine was calling him louder. He graduated from medical school in 1887, and not long after, he packed up his family and moved them to Grapeland to hang out a shingle and start his medical practice.
Doctor and former schoolteacher. That's already more than most. But Franklin Columbus Woodard was not finished.
In 1898, he was ordained a Baptist minister. So now you've got a man who could teach your children, heal your body, and tend to your soul, all before supper. The community noticed.
They made him mayor. They made him school board president. He was a Mason.
A civic leader. A prominent man in every sense the marker intends. And through all of it, he was a husband, twice married, and the father of fifteen children.
Fifteen. The man built a town and a family at the same time, and Houston County is still standin' in the shade of what he planted.
What the marker says
(April 1, 1847 -- January 31, 1911) Alabama native Franklin Columbus Woodard settled in this area with his parents about 1850. After being educated as a teacher, Woodard graduated from medical school in 1887 and later moved his family to Grapeland to start his medical practice. In 1898 Woodard was ordained a Baptist minister. A prominent civic leader and mason, he served terms as mayor and school board president. Twice married, he was the father of fifteen children.