National Governors Association

GEORGE T. WOOD, born in Cuthbert, Georgia is said to have had less than four years' schooling. He became a merchant and served in the Georgia state legislature in 1837 and 1838 prior to moving with his family to Texas, where he established a cotton plantation in what is now San Jacinto County. He was a member of the House in the Sixth Texas Congress (1841), the State Constitutional Convention (1845), and the Senate (1846). He commanded the Second Texas Regiment of Volunteers as Colonel of militia in the Mexican War. It was at Wood's insistence as governor that the state legislature created Santa Fe, encompassing the eastern half of present-day New Mexico. Also, like his gubernatorial predecessor, Wood was staunch in his defense of Texas's land claims westward to the Rio Grande and dispatched representatives to organize the area. However, officials of the U.S. Army of Occupation refused to accept the Texans' credentials. Wood's subsequent indecision about the appropriate course of action to take with respect to Texas's western land claims led to his defeat for reelection in 1849, and he retired to his San Jacinto County plantation. He died at his home in San Jacinto County.

Sources:

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 9. New York: James T. White & Company.

Texas State Library & Archives Commission

Governors of Texas, 1846-present