Woodsboro Square
Woodsboro, Refugio County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A land development project of W. C. Johnson and George P. Pugh of Danville, Illinois, this town along the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway was laid out in late 1906. A post office was established in the Bonnie View Land Company Hotel in 1907, and the town was named for Captain Tobias D. Wood, who had sole his Bonnie View Ranch to Johnson and Pugh. A public square was included in the official town plat in 1908 and it became the center of the economic growth and civic enterprises that characterized the early development of Woodsboro. The Woodsboro Commercial Club was founded in 1914. Among its more lasting contributions was a waterworks installed in the town square. The town was incorporated in 1929. The plaza remains a center for civic activities in Woodsboro. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Woodsboro was born of the railroad age. Illinois developers laid the town out in late 1906 along the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway, naming it for rancher Tobias D. Wood, whose Bonnie View Ranch they had bought. A public square anchored the 1908 plat and became the hub of civic life, from the Woodsboro Commercial Club to a town waterworks, and the plaza remains a gathering place today.
Why it matters
Woodsboro shows how railroads manufactured towns across South Texas, with promoters platting instant communities around a depot and a square.
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Related people
- · Tobias D. Wood
Themes & tags
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