Near Burial Place of Governor George Tyler Wood
Point Blank, San Jacinto County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1795-1858) Born in Georgia, where he fought in Indian wars, was a merchant, and member of State Legislature. In 1839, he moved with family to Texas, settling in this area. He was a member of 6th Congress of the Republic of Texas, 1841-1842; a delegate to the 1845 Annexation Convention; a member of first Senate of the state, 1846-1847. He resigned from the Senate to raise a regiment and fight in the Mexican War. While a senator, he introduced a bill to create Tyler County. Woodville, the county seat, was named for him. So was Wood County, created later. Governor of Texas, Dec. 21, 1847 - Dec. 21, 1849, Wood rallied state defenses against recurring Indian depredations, particularly around Corpus Christi, in Navarro County and along the Red River. Boundary disputes arose in Santa Fe County (then in Texas, now in New Mexico). Governor Wood advocated sales of public lands to liquidate the public debt. He also urged establishment of public schools. Texas laws were coded at his request. He established the state library and had state penitentiary built. Wood married in 1837 in Georgia Mrs. Martha Evans Gindrat, a widow with three children. Several other children were born to George and Martha Wood. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Georgia in 1795, George Tyler Wood came to Texas in 1839 and rose through the Republic's Congress, the 1845 Annexation Convention, and the first state Senate, which he left to fight in the Mexican War. As governor from 1847 to 1849 he rallied defenses against frontier raids, urged public schools and land sales to pay the state debt, and had Texas's laws codified, its library founded, and its penitentiary built. He is buried near here.
Why it matters
Wood helped steer Texas across the pivotal threshold from independent republic to American state, laying institutional foundations — schools, laws, a library — that outlasted him.
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Related people
- · George Tyler Wood
- · Martha Evans Gindrat
Related events
- · Annexation of Texas
- · Mexican-American War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Governor George Tyler Wood
Coldspring, TX
George Tyler Wood came to Texas from Georgia in 1839 and settled along the Trinity River, rising through the Republic's Congress and the Annexation Convention. He left the state Senate to fight in the Mexican War, and his battlefield reputation carried him to the governor's chair in 1847. His single term wrestled with Indian conflict, the Santa Fe boundary dispute, and a heavy public debt, while establishing a state library and penitentiary.
Walker County
Huntsville, TX
Walker County was carved from Montgomery County in 1846, the year Texas joined the Union, and first honored Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, a leading advocate of annexation. In 1863 the county was pointedly rededicated to Captain Samuel H. Walker, the daring Texas Ranger who fell fighting in Mexico during the U.S.-Mexico War. Huntsville has served as its county seat throughout.
George Tyler Wood
Point Blank, TX
Born in Georgia in 1795, George Tyler Wood came to serve the young Texas nation, sitting in the Congress of the Republic of Texas in 1841–42 before winning the governorship of the new state in 1847. He led Texas through its early statehood years and rests here beneath the simple epitaph, "Here sleeps a just man."
The Robert Tod Robinson House
Point Blank, TX
Robert Tod Robinson, a planter who came to Texas from Alabama, built this house in 1857 on high ground near the meeting of waterways and land trails, close to the property of Governor George T. Wood. He raised a large family here in a log home fronted by wide double verandas in the style of his native state. Siding covered the logs in 1919 and the facade was altered in the 1970s, but a descendant still owns and preserves it.