Texas. Governor (1847-1849 : Wood)

George T. (Tyler or Thomas) Wood, governor of the state of Texas, held office from December 21, 1847 to December 21, 1849. Born in Georgia on March 12, 1795, Wood was a veteran of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend at nineteen and served in the Georgia state assembly. In 1839, he brought his family and 30 slaves to Texas where he settled a plantation along the Trinity River. Wood served in the Sixth Congress (1841) and the Annexation Convention of 1845. He resigned his seat in the state senate to become a regimental colonel in the Mexican War. Considered by his men to be a hero at the Battle of Monterrey, he was slighted by James Pinckney Henderson in the general's report; the incident may have been decisive in Wood's election as governor in 1847. Issues in his administration included increased defense of the frontier against Indians, payment of the large public debt, and establishment of Texas' right to the territory east of the Rio Grande above El Paso. Wood was defeated by the anti-Houston faction in 1849. He made two more unsuccessful attempts at re-election before he died on September 3, 1858.