Franklin Columbus Woodard
Grapeland, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(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.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Franklin Columbus Woodard was one of those restless nineteenth-century figures who wore many hats in a single lifetime. An Alabama boy who came to the Texas piney woods around 1850, he trained first as a teacher, then earned a medical degree in 1887, and a decade later added the pulpit to his résumé as an ordained Baptist minister. In Grapeland he tended patients, preached, and led the town as mayor and school board president—raising fifteen children along the way.
Why it matters
His life traces the way a single educated citizen could knit together medicine, faith, education, and local government in a small Texas town still finding its shape after the Civil War.
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Themes & tags
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