12/21/1847: Governor Wood takes office

[Craig Tx]

On this day in 1847, George Tyler Wood took office as the second governor of the state of Texas.

The Georgia native had fought in the Creek Indian War at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, where he met Sam Houston and Edward Burleson. He moved to Texas in February 1839 and settled on the Trinity River. Wood served in the Texas Senate in 1846 and fought in the Mexican War. He was elected governor in 1847, defeating James Miller, Nicholas Darnell, and Jesse J. Robinson. Wood's administration devoted much time to the debt question, frontier defense, and the New Mexico boundary dispute. Wood was defeated by Peter Hansborough Bell in his bid for reelection in the fall of 1849 and died in 1858.