First Election in Wood County

Wood County grew fast in its first decade. The Handbook of Texas says it was cut from Van Zandt County and organized in 1850, and named for George T. Wood, governor of Texas from 1847 to 1849. Quitman, the county seat, was named for John A. Quitman, a former governor of Mississippi and a figure of the Mexican War. Wood County had 17 enslaved people in 1850; by 1860 there were 923, about a fifth of the population, and the county produced 1,108 bales of cotton. Caddo people had lived in these timberlands for centuries before.

What the plaque says

First Election in Wood County Under a large post oak (300 ft. NW) on Gaines Greer's farm, Aug. 5, 1850, Wood County was organized. Commissioners Reuben Elledge, Joseph Fisher, George Greer, Henry Stout, and Gilbert Yarbrough met with 20 other men to choose site for county seat and elect first officials. Elected were the chief justice, D. O. Norton; county clerk, Ambrose Fitzgerald; treasurer, Henry W. Norton; tax assessor-collector, Gilbert Yarbrough; sheriff, Henry Stout; and county commissioners, Daniel Center, P. M. Gunstream, William Rice, Peter Rozell. Historic oak survived until it was killed by lightning, 1950s. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Governor Hogg Shrine — 7.3 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.
• Tyler State Park — 16 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 22 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 24 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• New Hope Baptist Church — 2.2 mi
• William Jesse McDonald — 4.1 mi
• Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan — 4.2 mi
• Government Projects in Mineola — 4.2 mi