The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 20, July 1916 - April, 1917 Page: 275

Governor George Thomas Wood

The scars on Mr. Wood's legs made by arrows in the Creek War
were texts for many Indian stories, which entertained the chil-
dren. There were also many stories of the Mexican War. In one
battle with the Mexicans a bullet was deflected from his body by
his watch. After another battle Colonel Wood came across a lit-
tle Mexican child which had been abandoned; he placed it in
charge of a Mexican woman and for the two years that it lived
sent means for its support.
Early in 1858 her father carried Mary to Galveston and placed
her in Cobb Seminary. The boat conveying her was the Governor
Pease. At the mouth of the Trinity it struck on a sand-bar and
remained for several days before a tide washed it off. In June
she returned on the Bayou City, a fine steamboat, fitted up luxu-
riously and giving elegant service for that day. She landed at
Lynchburg, which was the shipping point for a large area of
country, was met by her brother, and went by private conveyance
across Tarkington's Prairie, stopping for the night at the Tarking-
ton farm half way between Lynchburg and Cold Springs and
twenty miles from Ben Ash Hill.
Mrs. Wood was born in 1809, so was five years of age when
he was fighting with the Creeks. She was first cousin to General
Clement C. Evans, and between them a familiar correspondence
was carried on throughout her life. General Robert Toombs was
among those personal friends of Colonel Wood whose letters were
treasured for many years.
Mrs. Wood owned many negroes at the time of her marriage;
thirty of them were brought to Texas; but Colonel Wood was never
voluntarily a slave holder. He bought five negro men in New
Orleans, and through pity for her condition purchased a negress
and child from a neighbor. He considered slaves unsafe invest-
ments, believing that when the abolitionists should become suffi-
ciently powerful slaves would be emancipated. When in Wash-
ington in 1850 he wrote to General Bee that abolition would be
inevitable.
When the Wood negroes on Ben Ash Hill reached the side of
their field adjoining that of a destitute neighbor, they cultivated
both crops alike. When Governor Wood died after a brief ill-
ness, the owner of that field said to fifteen-year-old Mary, "Well,
daughter, the poor man's friend is gone."

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