James B. Woods
Liberty, Liberty County, Texas
Marker Inscription
James B. Woods, the third representative of the Municipality of Liberty to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence, was born on January 21, 1802 in Kentucky. He arrived in Texas in 1830 and settled in the Atascosito Libertad area of Mexico (now Liberty, Texas). Woods was among the earliest lawyers to practice in the Liberty District and was known as a brilliant lawyer and speaker. On January 25, 1831, Woods was granted a half a league at this site. Due to his education, background and profession, Woods easily became involved in politics and, in 1834, was elected Alcalde (Mayor) of the Liberty District. He represented the District at the Consultations of 1835 and, in March 1836, was one of five delegates representing Liberty at the Washington-on-the-Brazos Convention. On March 11, 1836, 34-year-old James B. Woods was one of the men who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. In addition to his civic duties, Woods also served in the Texas Army, Franklin Hardin Company from July 7 to October 7, 1836. He then returned to Liberty and his family to resume his law practice. In 1838, Woods ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress against his brother-in-law, Hugh B. Johnston. That same year, he married Mary Ann White (b.1822), daughter of former Mayor Matthew G. White. James and Mary Ann had three children. In 1851, James Woods killed Alexander Buxton over an election quarrel, and was said to have been remorseful. Tradition states that he was killed or took his own life. He was buried in the White Family Cemetery, three miles southeast of Liberty, with members of his family and neighbors. (2013)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Kentucky-born James B. Woods arrived in Mexican Texas in 1830 and became a brilliant lawyer and orator in the Liberty District, elected alcalde (mayor) in 1834. As one of five delegates from Liberty, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos in March 1836 and served that year in the Texas Army. His life ended in tragedy after he killed a man in an election quarrel in 1851, dying soon after amid remorse.
Why it matters
Woods was among the founding signers who declared Texas independence, representing the Anglo-American settlers whose political and military struggle transformed a Mexican province into a republic.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1830, when James B. Woods arrived, Texas was not yet Texas as we know it—it was a far northern frontier of Mexico, thinly settled and loosely governed. American-born colonists had been streaming into the region under Mexican land policies, drawn by cheap, fertile land. The area around present-day Liberty was known then by its Spanish name, Atascosito, and settlers received their land in the Mexican measure of leagues rather than acres.
Tensions built through the early 1830s between these Anglo-American colonists and the central government in Mexico City. Disputes over immigration, self-government, taxation, and the rights promised under Mexico's 1824 constitution slowly hardened into a movement for autonomy and, eventually, independence. A series of conventions and "consultations" gave the colonists a political voice and, step by step, moved them toward open revolution.
Liberty was one of the settled districts caught up in this ferment. It was organized enough to elect its own officials and to send delegates to the gatherings where the future of Texas was debated. A frontier lawyer with education and eloquence could rise quickly in such a place, because the community had need of exactly those skills and few men who possessed them.
People & events
James B. Woods was born in Kentucky in 1802 and came to Mexican Texas in 1830, settling in the Atascosito–Liberty area. In January 1831 he was granted a half-league of land at this site. Educated and articulate, he became one of the earliest lawyers to practice in the Liberty District and earned a reputation as a brilliant advocate and speaker—gifts that carried him naturally into public life. In 1834 the district elected him alcalde, the Mexican office combining the duties of mayor and local judge.
As the crisis with Mexico deepened, Woods represented Liberty at the Consultation of 1835 and then, in March 1836, was one of five delegates the district sent to the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos. There, on March 11, 1836, at the age of thirty-four, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence—the third representative of Liberty to put his name to it. He did not stop at politics: that same year he served in the Texas Army, in Franklin Hardin's company, from July to October, before returning home to his family and his law practice.
Woods's later life carried both ordinary ambition and genuine tragedy. In 1838 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress against his own brother-in-law and, that same year, married Mary Ann White, daughter of a former mayor; they had three children. In 1851 he killed a man named Alexander Buxton in the heat of an election quarrel—by tradition he was deeply remorseful afterward—and he died soon after, whether by another's hand or his own the record does not settle. He was buried in the White Family Cemetery, among family and neighbors.
Its place in the American story
Woods was one of the fifty-nine men who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the Republic of Texas. That single act places this Liberty County lawyer inside one of the pivotal episodes of nineteenth-century North America: the birth of an independent republic that would, within a decade, be annexed by the United States and become a flashpoint in the nation's westward expansion.
His life traces the whole arc of the Anglo-American experience in early Texas. He arrived as a colonist under Mexican law, prospered under it, held office under it as alcalde—and then joined the movement that broke Texas away from Mexico entirely. In that turn from loyal citizen to revolutionary he stands for thousands of settlers whose loyalties shifted as the promises they believed they had been given seemed to slip away.
His story also refuses to flatter. The frontier that rewarded Woods's talents was also a violent, unsettled place where a political dispute could end in a killing, and where the line between law and personal honor was thin. Remembering that alongside his signing of the Declaration gives a fuller, more honest picture of the founding generation than heroism alone would allow.
If you visit
This is a monument on the land Woods himself received as a grant in 1831, so the ground beneath you is part of the story. Take a moment to register that scale: a single man was given a half-league of the Texas frontier here, and from this district he rode to help declare a republic into being.
Read the marker for the shape of a whole life, not just its famous moment. The signing of the Declaration is the peak, but the inscription also carries the frontier lawyer, the elected alcalde, the soldier, the husband and father, and finally the tragedy that closed his story. That fullness—triumph and sorrow together—is what makes the marker worth lingering over.
Liberty is one of the oldest towns in Texas, and a stop here fits naturally into a road trip tracing the state's founding era. If you make the visit, let it prompt a broader reflection on how ordinary settlers in small districts like this one became, almost by circumstance, the founders of a nation. The White Family Cemetery, where Woods was buried among his kin, lies southeast of town, a reminder that these founders were also simply neighbors laid to rest close to home.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · James B. Woods
- · Mary Ann White
Related events
- · Signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence
- · Convention of 1836
Themes & tags
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