Wood County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 44,843. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

is Quitman. The county was named for George T. Wood,

governor of Texas The governor of Texas heads the state government of Texas. The governor is the leader of the executive and legislative branch of the state government and is the commander in chief of the Texas Military. The current governor is Greg Abbott, w ...

from 1847 to 1849.

History

The first documented European exploration of what is now Wood County took place in the late 18th century, when

Pedro Vial Pedro Vial, or Pierre Vial (c. 1746 in Lyon, France – October 1814 in Santa Fe, New Mexico), was a French explorer and frontiersman who lived among the Comanche and Wichita Indians for many years. He later worked for the Spanish government as ...

, was sent on expeditions by the Spanish governor of Texas. After marching all the way to Santa Fe in 1787, he headed east to Natchitoches. The following year, he passed through today's Wood County on his way back to San Antonio. Some archeological evidence suggests that a French trading post stood along Mill Race Creek in the early 1700s near the site of the modern town of Hainsville. The French may have build a military post called Fort Ledout near Black Oak in Wood County, but other than the archeological evidence, little is known about any possible French settlements. An important archeological discovery made by a hunting party in 1887, southeast of Hainsville and north of Bromley, suggests that Native Americans may have engaged in a battle either between different tribes or with the Spanish. Despite finding many relics, including a cross, tomahawk pieces, a Spanish coin, and several broken muskets, no written record of any such encounter has been found. Some Spanish and Mexican land grants were issued in the area, but settlement was sparse until after the Texas Revolution. The first White settler was Martin Varner. He built his home near the southeast side of what is now Hainsville at least by 1824. The first organized settlement was at Webster in 1845. In 1850, after Texas was annexed to the United States, the Legislature authorized the forming of the county from Van Zandt County. In 1849, residents of what was then Van Zandt County north of the Sabine River, petitioned the legislature for the county to be reorganized. Reasons included that the majority of the population lived north of the river, and that travel to Jordan's Saline, then the county seat, was difficult in winter. Wood County was created and Van Zandt was reorganized with territory from adjacent counties.

Early industry

Early industry included a number of sawmills, gristmills, steam mills, and cotton gins. A jug factory operated north of the Big Sandy Creek in the 1850s. A second jug factory was built some years later near Holly Creek. Two brick kilns are known to have been located in the area of Winnsboro. Wigley Furniture Company began operating in Mineola in 1874. A cane and rawhide-bottom chair factory opened in 1886. Tie-cutting became a major industry in the county in the 1870s with the coming of the railroads. Pine Mills, Perryville, Ogburn, Merrimac, Peach, and Fouke got their start as sawmill towns.

Civil War era

Wood County had only 17 slaves by 1850, but that number ballooned 10 years later to 923, estimated at about 20% of the population. Wood County voted for secession by a 70% majority. The two delegates to the Secession Convention, though, both opposed secession. The first soldiers raised for the Confederacy in Wood County were Company A, 10th Texas Cavalry Regiment. A training ground called Camp Flournoy was established east of Quitman. Another company called the Wood County Rebels was formed on August 5, 1861. They then requested active duty as cavalry.

Coming of the railroads

The Texas and Pacific Railroad came through the southern portion of the county in 1873 and formed a junction with the International and Great Northern Railroad at Sodom, which was later renamed Mineola, on a Longview-to-Dallas route. The railroads came to the northern portion of the county in 1876, when the East Line and Red River Railroad laid track from Jefferson to Greenville. This segment later was absorbed by the Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas Railroad. The Texas Shortline Railroad also ran between Alba and Grand Saline in Van Zandt County.

Discovery of coal

Coal was discovered in the Alba area in sometime before 1900. The operating mines were for lignite coal.

Discovery of oil

Oil was discovered in Wood County in 1941, and the county produced of oil per year by 1948. Developed oilfields in Wood County include the Pine Mills Oilfield and the Alba Oilfield.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (7.3%) are covered by water.

Adjacent counties

* Hopkins County (north) * Franklin County (northeast) * Camp County (northeast) * Upshur County (east) * Smith County (south) *

Van Zandt County Van Zandt County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas, in the northeastern part of the state. As of the 2020 census, its population was 59,541. Its county seat is Canton. The county is named for Isaac Van Zandt (1813–1847), a me ...

(southwest) * Rains County (west)

National protected areas

* Little Sandy National Wildlife Refuge

Demographics

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.'' As of the census of 2000, 36,752 people, 14,583 households, and 10,645 families were residing in the county. The population density was . The 17,939 housing units averaged . The

racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

of the county was 89.11% White, 6.12% African American, 0.55% Native American, 0.20% Asian, 2.93% from other races, and 1.09% from two or more races. About 5.72% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. Of the 14,583 households, 26.70% had children under 18 living with them, 61.50% were married couples living together, 8.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.00% were not families. About 24.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.20% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.42, and the average family size was 2.85. In the county, the age distribution was 21.80% under 18, 7.90% from 18 to 24, 22.90% from 25 to 44, 26.40% from 45 to 64, and 20.90% who were 65 or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.10 males. The median income for a household in the county was , and for a family was . Males had a median income of versus for females. The per capita income for the county was . About 10.80% of families and 14.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.50% of those under age 18 and 10.30% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation

Wood County includes the intersection of two major U.S. highways; US 69 and US 80 intersect in the city of Mineola's downtown area. Texas Highway 37 connects Mineola and Quitman off US 69.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 69 U.S. Route 69 (US 69) is a major north–south United States highway. When it was first created, it was only long, but it has since been expanded into a Minnesota to Texas cross-country route. The highway's southern terminus (as well as ...

U.S. Highway 80 U.S. Route 80 or U.S. Highway 80 (US 80) is a major east–west United States Numbered Highway in the Southern United States, much of which was once part of the early auto trail known as the Dixie Overland Highway. As the "0" in the rou ...

State Highway 11 * Texas 37

State Highway 37 * Texas 154

State Highway 154 * Texas 182

State Highway 182

Farm to market roads

Wood County includes all or part of these Texas Farm To Market roads: * Texas FM 14

FM 14 *

FM 17 *

FM 49 *

FM 69 *

FM 115 *

FM 288 *

FM 312 *

FM 514 *

FM 515 *

FM 778 *

FM 779 *

FM 852 *

FM 1254 *

FM 1483 *

FM 1643 *

FM 1647 *

FM 1795 *

FM 1799 *

FM 1801 *

FM 1804 *

FM 2088 *

FM 2225 *

FM 2422 *

FM 2455 *

FM 2659 *

FM 2869 *

FM 2911 *

FM 2966 *

FM 3056

Railroads

Wood County is currently served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

Texas Eagle The ''Texas Eagle'' is a daily passenger train route operated by Amtrak between Chicago and San Antonio in the central and western United States. Prior to 1988, the train was known as the ''Eagle''. Trains #21 (southbound) and 22 (northbound) ...

passenger railway line. The railroad tracks which run through the southern portion of Wood County and through Mineola are currently owned and operated by Union Pacific.

Airports

Wood County is served by three airports, located in Mineola, Quitman, and Winnsboro: * Mineola Wisner Field is identified as 3F9. This airport was established in 1917, and has been operated by the same family owners since 1926. * Wood County Airport (Mineola/Quitman Airport) is a public airport owned by Wood County. * Winnsboro Municipal Airport is located south of the city of Winnsboro and is a municipally owned airport facility.

Media

Wood County is in the Tyler-Longview media market. It is currently served by two local newspapers, and daily newspapers and television stations from other parts of the East Texas area.

Newspapers

Wood County has five newspapers published within its borders: ''Wood County Now, Wood County Monitor, Winnsboro News, Yantis Tymes'', and ''The Community Chronicle''. The ''Winnsboro News'' also serves Franklin County, as Winnsboro is split between the two counties. ;'' Wood County Monitor'' In August 2016, two of the county's longstanding newspaper operations, the '' Mineola Monitor'' and the '' Wood County Democrat'', were merged by their owner, Bluebonnet Publishing. Prior to that, the ''Mineola Monitor'' operated under its own masthead in Mineola, and the ''Wood County Democrat'' operated under its own masthead in Quitman. Staffing at the newspapers did not change, and the staffs of both newspapers were merged. ;''Winnsboro News'' '' The Winnsboro News'', founded in , is a weekly newspaper in Winnsboro, serving Wood and Franklin Counties. In August 2003, the newspaper gained notoriety for publishing an editorial by publisher Tom Pendergast outing a LGBTQ couple living in the city. ;''Wood County Now'' In 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a free news source available by social media and online was established. Owner Amanda Duncan originally created the social-media accounts to keep residents informed of the pandemic and rising case numbers, and to help showcase small businesses that were financially struggling. Within eight months, the news outlet grew to be the largest social-media and online news source in Wood County.

Radio stations

Wood County is served by two local radio stations. ;KWNS KWNS is a Southern Gospel radio station located in Winnsboro. It broadcasts at 104.7 FM. ;KMOO KMOO is located in Mineola, broadcasting at 99.9 FM. The country music station is currently owned by Hightower Radio. The station was formerly operated by Sam Curry, its founder, who founded it in 1963. Under Curry's tenure, the station was referred to by its ownership and on-air personalities as, "K M Double O," and on-air personalities were not allowed to call the station "KMOO," with the last three letters pronounced in a manner similar to a noise made by cattle. Curry sold the station in 1995 when he planned to embark on a race for Wood County judge as a Democrat, a race he ultimately lost.

Government

Wood County is represented in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...

by the Republican Bryan Hughes, a lawyer in Mineola and a native of Wood County. The county is split between two different U.S. congressional districts, the First and the Fifth Congressional Districts. Thus, the county is represented by Congressman Louie Gohmert and Congressman

Lance Gooden Lance Carter Gooden (born December 1, 1982) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Texas's 5th congressional district since 2019. His district includes parts of eastern Dallas, as well as a large swath of exurban and ru ...

. The county is currently represented in the Texas Senate by

Kevin Eltife Kevin Paul Eltife (born March 1, 1959) is an American businessman and former politician from Tyler, Texas. A Republican, served in the Texas Senate from 2004 through 2017. He was sworn in on August 15, 2004, after winning a special election to ...

. The current county judge is Lucy Hebron, elected in 2018. As county judge, Hebron is both the county's chief administrator and judge of the constitutional county court, which handles misdemeanor cases. In 2017, former Sheriff Jim Brown and former Chief Deputy Miles Tucker were arrested for various offenses stemming from a shooting incident over access to an oilfield lease. Two of the felony charges were dismissed, however four misdemeanor charges remain pending.

Historic election results

In spite of an increasing number of voters in every U.S. presidential election since 1992, the percentage of registered Wood County voters turning out to vote in presidential elections has fallen about 10% between 1992 and 2012. ; 1992 general election, presidential race ;1996 general election, presidential race ;2000 general election, presidential race ;2004 general election, presidential race ;2008 general election, presidential race ;2012 general election, presidential race

Education

Early schools

There were a number of so-called "subscription schools" in Wood County after 1854, when free public schools in Texas were on the rise due to legislative action. In 1852, a log schoolhouse in the western part of the county near Chaney Crossing on Lake Fork was built. By 1854, school was being taught in Quitman. By 1859, Quitman had three schools that required tuition to be paid. On January 8, 1884, the Texas legislature required the county to be divided into free public school districts. The school districts established by the legislature were Quitman, Lone Star, Myrtle Springs, Forest Hill, Cartwright, Caney, Rock Hill, Forest Home, Winnsboro, Chalybeate Springs, Spring Hill, Smyrna, Cold Springs, Shady Grove, Center Point, Pleasant Grove, Floyd's Common Ridge, Mount Pisgah, Liberty, Sand Springs, Fletcher, Pleasant Divide, Friendship, Lone Pint, Salem, Webster, Persimmon Grove, Cottonwood, Macedonia, Concord, New Hope, Dyess, Mount Enterprise, and "Albia" (Alba). Free school districts for African Americans were established at Quitman, Cedar Tree, Robinson's Chapel, Muddy Creek, Mount Zion, Tranquil, Center, Hawkins, Shiloh and "District 48" which encompassed all of the district west of Lake Fork.

School districts

Portions of the county are served by 11 separate independent school districts, serving students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade: Alba-Golden ISD, Big Sandy ISD, Como-Pickton ISD, Harmony ISD, Hawkins ISD, Mineola ISD, Pittsburg ISD, Quitman ISD, Union Hill ISD, Winnsboro ISD, and Yantis ISD.

Colleges and universities

Jarvis Christian College Jarvis Christian University (JCU) is a private historically black Christian college in Wood County, Texas. It was founded in 1912. It had a total undergraduate enrollment of 867 in the fall of 2019. History Although formal instructional p ...

is located in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Wood County, near Hawkins.

Culture

Wood County is home to a number of historic and natural preservation sites, Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks, special districts, and cities and businesses with special designations from various national and state bodies.

National Register listings

See National Register of Historic Places in Wood County, Texas

Landmark districts

Mineola Downtown Historic District

Main Street cities

* Mineola * Winnsboro

Museums

Mineola History Museum

Institutions and businesses with special state designations

Texas Business Treasure Award recipients (Texas Historical Commission Designation)

* Broadway Barber Shop (Mineola) * Wisener Field (Mineola) * First National Bank of Winnsboro * R.H. McCrary Hardware (Winnsboro)

Communities

Municipalities and incorporated towns

The following are municipalities and towns which are incorporated under the laws of the state of Texas, meaning they have elected governments and officially recognized municipal, town, or village governments. * Golden *

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kin ...

* Hawkins * Mineola * Quitman * Winnsboro * Yantis

Unincorporated settlements and towns

The following are towns in Wood County, Texas which are not incorporated but recognized as active settlements through community centers, churches, and similar geographic, historic, and physical landmarks. * Cartwright *

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

* East Point *

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

* Fouke * Golden * Hainesville *

Hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

* Holly Lake Ranch * Liberty * Little Hope * Macedonia * Mount Enterprise * Mount Pisgah * New Hope * Oak Grove * Peach * Perryville * Pine Mills * Stout

Small communities, ghost towns, and former settlements

Wood County previously had a number of settlements. In 1884, there were 35 settlements in the county at which the Texas Legislature ordered schools to be established. * Black Oak * Caney * Cedar Tree * Center Point * Chalybeate Springs * Coldwater * Cottonwood * Dyess * Fletcher * Floyd's Common Ridge * Forest Hill * Forest Home * Friendship * Lone Pint * Lone Star * Merrimac * Mount Zion * Muddy Creek * Myrtle Springs * Ogburn * Persimmon Grove * Pleasant Divide * Pleasant Grove * Robinson's Chapel * Rock Hill * Salem * Sand Springs * Shady Grove * Smyrna * Spring Hill * Tranquil * Webster

Notable people

* Willie Brown, California politician * Bryan Hughes, Texas state representative *

Bobby Ray Inman Bobby Ray Inman (born April 4, 1931) is a retired United States Navy admiral who held several influential positions in the United States Intelligence Community. Early years Inman was born and raised in the community of Rhonesboro, Upshur Coun ...

, U.S. Navy Admiral * Ray Price, singer/songwriter; member of the Country Music Hall of Fame * Harold Simmons, American billionaire businessman *

Sissy Spacek Mary Elizabeth Spacek (; born December 25, 1949) is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for four Britis ...

, Academy-Award-winning actress *

Kacey Musgraves Kacey Lee Musgraves (born August 21, 1988) is an American country singer. She has won six Grammy Awards, seven Country Music Association Awards, and three Academy of Country Music Awards. Musgraves self-released three solo albums and one as Texa ...

, musician * Mack Tuck, professional basketball player and coach

References

External links

* * {{coord, 32.78, -95.38, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX_source:UScensus1990 Populated places established in 1850 1850 establishments in Texas