DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the William and Elisabeth Woody Homestead out in Parker County. Now, if you want a story about stubborn, determined, flat-out relentless people, you have pulled up to the right marker. William Woody — everybody called him Bill — was born in 1824 in Roane County, Tennessee.
He grew up in those eastern Tennessee hills where Tennessee leans up against North Carolina, and in 1846 he married Elisabeth Lydia Farmer, born in 1822. That ought to be the beginning of a quiet chapter. Settling in, getting comfortable, maybe planting something that would outlast them both.
But Bill and Elisabeth Woody were not quiet-chapter people. Six weeks after the birth of their son — six weeks — the Woody family packed what little they had and set out for Texas. On foot.
December of 1846, mind you. Not the most hospitable month for a walk. And this was not a stroll to the next county.
This was Texas. Six months later, they arrived in Honey Grove, up in Fannin County, where they met up with other family members and established a working farm. Most folks would have stopped right there and said that's enough.
Not the Woodys. In 1851 they traveled again, this time to White Settlement in Tarrant County, and they stayed put there while something better was being built. By 1855 that something was finished — a story-and-a-half, four-room dogtrot home, right here in the Veal's Station Community.
Now, they did not just grab whatever timber was nearby. They used hand-sawn yellow pine lumber transported by ox all the way from New Orleans. Think on that for a moment.
Ox. From New Orleans. Someone made that trip happen because Bill and Elisabeth Woody were not going to cut corners on the house they had walked halfway across the continent to build.
Once it was up, that house became something remarkable. It served as a refuge and stagecoach stop for pioneer travelers passing through. It was a boarding house for college students attending Parsons College.
It was a community meeting place for all religious denominations in the area. And somewhere in there, Bill Woody ran a cobbler's workshop, crafting boots and shoes by hand. One house, carrying all of that.
Then in 1858, Bill Woody and community members built a two-story frame meeting house right there on the property. That building did just about everything a town could need — it served as a church, a masonic hall, a town hall, a common school, and later became the home of Parsons College, which was chartered in 1874. One piece of ground, one family, and an entire community taking shape around them.
Elisabeth Lydia Woody died in 1879. Bill lived until 1915. They are both buried in the Veal's Station Cemetery.
The marker calls them examples of rugged individualism that expanded the state and country in the nineteenth century. And after everything — the December departure, the six-month walk, the ox-hauled lumber, the house that became a town — I don't think there's a word in that description worth arguing with.
What the marker says
William (Bill) Woody (1824-1915), one of the first Anglo settlers in Parker County, was born in Roane County, Tennessee. While living in the eastern Tennessee hills bordering North Carolina, he married Elisabeth Lydia Farmer (1822-1879) in 1846. In December 1846, six weeks after the birth of their son, the Woody family set out to Texas on foot with few possessions. Six months later, they arrived in Honey Grove in Fannin County where they met up with other family members and established a working farm. In 1851, the family traveled to White Settlement in Tarrant County where they stayed until their home was built here by 1855. Located in the Veal's Station Community, the Woody family built a story-and-a-half, four-room dogtrot home using hand-sawn yellow pine lumber transported by ox from New Orleans. Once their house was complete, it served several distinct and important purposes for the Veal's Station Community. The property was used as a refuge and stagecoach stop for pioneer travelers, a boarding house for college students attending Parsons College, and a community meeting place for all religious denominations in the area, as well as a cobbler's workshop for hand-cobbled boots and shoes. In 1858, Bill Woody and community members built a two-story frame meeting house on the property which provided a church, masonic hall, town hall, common school, and later Parsons College, chartered in 1874, for the town of Veal's Station. Elisabeth and Bill Woody are buried in the Veal's Station Cemetery, both examples of rugged individualism that expanded the state and country in the nineteenth century.