DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker on Governor George Tyler Wood tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Born in Georgia in 1795, George Tyler Wood had the kind of life that seems almost too full to fit into one man's years. He married Martha Evans Gindrat in Georgia in 1837 — she was a widow already raising three children — and just two years later, Wood packed up that whole family and pointed them toward Texas.
They settled along the Trinity River, near a place called Point Blank. Now, Point Blank. That name alone ought to tell you something about the frontier these folks were walking into.
Wood studied law, got himself elected to the Sixth Republic of Texas Congress, serving from 1841 to 1842, then showed up again at the Annexation Convention of 1845. By 1846 he was a state senator, and he sponsored the bill that created Tyler County. Woodville — the county seat — was named for him.
So was Wood County, created in 1850. The man left his name on the map more than once. But Wood wasn't the kind to sit still in a senate chamber when there was a war to be fought.
He left the Senate in 1846 to fight in the Mexican War, and his military heroics — that's not my word, that's what the record says — made him the popular choice for governor in 1847. So there he is: Governor George Tyler Wood. And the problems waiting for him were no small thing.
Recurring Indian hostilities. A boundary dispute out in Santa Fe County, which is now part of New Mexico. A large public debt that kept the young state up at night.
Wood urged the sale of public lands to address that debt. His administration saw the establishment of a state library and a penitentiary. Not glamorous, maybe, but the work of building something real.
Now here's the detail that stays with you. Mrs. Wood — Martha Evans Gindrat Wood, who by all accounts was a remarkable woman in her own right, raising silkworms and making her own silk cloth — she did not accompany her husband to the state capital at Austin.
And the reason the marker gives you is worth sitting with: Austin was then a rough frontier town, and there was no official governor's residence. The governor of Texas had no house to bring his wife to. Wood failed to win a second term in 1849, and he came back home.
Back to Point Blank, along the Trinity, where he had put down roots all those years before. He died at age sixty-three and was buried nearby. George Tyler Wood — two counties, a county seat, a governorship, and a quiet grave near the river where he started.
That's a Texas life.
What the marker says
(1795-1858) Born in Georgia and married there in 1837 to Martha Evans Gindrat (1809-63), a widow with 3 children, George T. Wood came to Texas with his family in 1839 and settled along the Trinity River near Point Blank. Wood studied law and was elected to the 6th Republic of Texas Congress, 1841-42, and the Annexation Convention of 1845. As a state senator in 1846, he sponsored a bill creating Tyler County. Woodville, the county seat, was named for him, as was Wood County, created in 1850. Wood left the Senate in 1846 to fight in the Mexican War (1846-48). His military heroics helped make him the popular choice for governor in 1847. Under Gov. Wood, the recently-organized state government faced the problems of recurring Indian hostilities and a boundary dispute in Santa Fe County (now part of New Mexico). Gov. Wood urged sale of public lands to pay the large public debt. His administration saw the establishment of a state library and a penitentiary. Mrs. Wood, who raised silkworms and made her own silk cloth, did not accompany her husband to the State Capital at Austin, then a rough frontier town without an official governor's residence. After failing to win a second term in 1849, Gov. Wood returned to his home at Point Blank. He died at age 63 and was buried nearby. (1976)