Colonel Wm. L. Moody

Moody's fortune was made after Fairfield. He ran a mercantile and cotton business with his brothers, then opened a cotton factor's firm in Galveston in 1866. He helped found the Galveston Cotton Exchange in 1872 and served several terms as its president, and in 1894 his company built the first dockside cotton compress in Texas. A Democrat close to governors Coke and Hogg, he was known as the only free silver banker in Texas and was considered a possible Treasury secretary had Bryan won. The Handbook of Texas says he was buried in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

What the plaque says

Colonel Wm. L. Moody (1828 - 1920) Came to Texas from Virginia, 1852. Organized and was captain of Co. G, 7th Texas Infantry, the first Freestone County unit to go into battle in the Civil War. Captured at Fort Donelson, Tenn., Feb. 1862. exchanged, soon won promotion to colonel for bravery on battlefield. Commended for personally leading and rallying men in hand-to-hand combat in thick woods. Wounded and returned to Texas, where he served till war ended. In 1866 moved to Galveston. Became leader in financial business, philanthropic and civic affairs. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 19 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 25 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.
• Old Fort Parker — 26 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.

More markers nearby

• W.L. Moody Confederate Reunion Grounds — steps away
• Fairfield Female College — 0.3 mi
• James Bonner Rogers — 0.5 mi
• David Hall Love — 0.5 mi