Agenda

 

8am-9am: Coffee and Donut Meet and Greet

 

9am-9:30am: Registration and Name Tags

 

9:40am – 10:40am: Why are we here?  The Story of James and Isabella Wood

 

10:50am – 12:00pm: Business Meeting and Auction

 

12:00pm – 1:00pm: Lunch

 

1:pm – 1:30pm: Quick clean up from lunch

 

1:30pm: Depart for local tours. (PLEASE CARPOOL FOR THESE TOURS. PARKING IS LIMITED IN SOME OF THE LOCATIONS.)

1. Milford Cemetery
2. Old Brandon Cemetery
3. Brandon Cemetery
4. White Rock: Home of James and Isabella Wood

 

4:00pm(ish): At the conclusion of the tours, you are invited to join Jana and Jerry for light refreshments  at the home of James and Isabella Wood.  Enjoy visiting under the trees!

 

 

Tour Locations

Milford Cemetery

Water Street

Milford, Ellis County, Texas

Coordinates: 32.12683, -96.94102

 

The Milford Cemetery is the burial place for the following people:

 

James Wood, patriarch

Immigrated to Texas from Scotland in 1851

First Naturalized Citizen of Hill County

Born 24 Aug 1799, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Died 27 Nov 1871, Brandon, Hill County, Texas at his home on Pecan Creek

 

Isabella Wood, matriarch

Immigrated to Texas from Scotland in 1851

Born 19 Aug 1806, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Died 5 May 1887, Brandon, Hill County, Texas at the home of RA and Isabella Ferguson

 

James Franklin Ward, Grandson of James & Isabella Wood, Son of Jeanette & Ben Ward

Born 22 Sept 1868, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

Died 14 Sept 1870, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Luella Ward, Granddaughter of James & Isabella Wood, Daughter of Jeanette & Ben Ward

Born 3 March 1872, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

Died 7 April 1872, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Lillias Park Ferguson, Daughter of William and Frances Park, Wife of John Macy Ferguson

Born 12 March 1846, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Died 17 March 1873, Hill County, Texas

*Lillias was a child of William and Frances Park.  The Park family immigrated with the Woods.  When the parents died in Leon County enroute to the Colony of Kent (Bosque County), James and Isabella Wood raised her and her brother Archibald (Arch, Archie).  Brothers David and William were raised by the Ridgeway family.  The Ridgeways had cared for the sick immigrants and helped bury William and Frances.  The descendants of David and William did not know what happened to their siblings.  They also thought that the parents had died at sea.

 

Emily Isabella Ferguson, Daughter of Lillias Park and John Macy Ferguson

Born 3 April 1870, Arkansas

Died 16 April 1879, Hill County, Texas

*Emily’s father was John Macy Ferguson, a nephew of Robert Andrew Ferguson (RA) who married James and Isabella Wood’s daughter, also Isabella.

 

John Patterson, Husband of Jane Wood (daughter of James and Isabella)

Born 1830, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Died 9 Feb 1877, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

*John Patterson immigrated to Texas with James and Isabella Wood and their family.  He was Jane’s second husband.

 

Old Brandon Cemetery

FM 1243

South of Brandon, Hill County, Texas

Coordinates: 32.03140, -96.96830

 

Monroe Frazier, First husband of Jane Mason Wood, daughter of James and Isabella

Born 1833, Sugar Creek, Benton, Arkansas

Died 27 May 1862, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

Monroe returned from Civil War service and died soon thereafter from illness.  He and Jane had two children, a third was born two months after the father, Monroe, died.

 

Mary Isabella Frazier, Granddaughter of James & Isabella Wood, Daughter of Jane Mason Wood and Monroe Frazier

Born 2 Aug 1855, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

7 May 1856, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Brandon Cemetery

FM 1243

South of Brandon, Hill County, Texas

Coordinates: 32.02420, -96.96920

 

*Only the daughters of James and Isabella Wood and their husbands are included below.  Each of them has several generations of their descendants buried at this cemetery.  To find someone specific, access the cemetery on Findagrave.com or view the book inside the tabernacle at the cemetery.  The families tend to be buried very near one another.

 

James Ransom Davis, Son-in-Law of James & Isabella Wood, Husband of Margaret Wood

Born 8 Feb 1829, Hickman County, Tennessee

Died 30 May 1898, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Margaret Wood Davis, Daughter of James and Isabella Wood, Wife of James Ransom Davis

Born 9 May 1831, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Died 24 February 1899, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Isabella Wood Ferguson, Daughter of James & Isabella Wood, Wife of Robert A. Ferguson

Born 28 Jun 1835, Glasgow, Scotland

Died 4 Dec 1916, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Robert Andrew (R.A.) Ferguson, Son-in-law of James & Isabella Wood, Husband of Isabella Wood Ferguson

Born 26 Jan 1826, Lincoln County, North Carolina

Died 6 March 1910 Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Jane Mason Wood Frazier Patterson, Daughter of James & Isabella Wood, Wife of 1. Monroe Frazier, 2. John Patterson

Born 27 Dec 1832, Lanarkshire, Scotland (headstone says 1883, 8 other sources say 1832)

Died 29 Dec 1915, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Jeanette Wood Ward, Daughter of James & Isabella Wood, Wife of Benjamin Ward

Born 10 Jun 1848, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Died 3 Jan 1918, Brandon, Hill County, Texas

 

Benjamin W. Ward, Son-in-Law of James & Isabella Wood, Husband of Jeanette Wood Ward

Born 24 Apr 1843, Walker County, Texas

Died 9 Jan 1914 Pecan Creek, Hill County, Texas (at the original home of James & Isabella Wood.)

 

Wood Family Homestead

Home of Jana and Jerry Burch

992 FM 1243

South of Brandon, Hill County, Texas

Coordinates: 32.0047, -96.5828

This home was built in 1846 by Elisha Smith Wyman.  The road in front of the house was constructed by the Republic of Texas in 1840 to connect Holland Coffee’s Trading Post on the Red River with points further south, like Austin, San Antonio, and beyond.  This road is the only Republic of Texas road in Hill County.

The home was originally a dog trot (dog run) structure with two rooms on either side of the open run.  Hand-hewn white limestone chimneys were located on the north and south sides of the home.

James and Isabella Wood purchased the home from Wyman in 1852, one year after arriving from Scotland.

The home served as a meeting place for local politics.  A voting box was located in the front yard in 1853 when the decision to create Hill County from Navarro County was voted on.  Several other elections took place here as well.

Wyman’s Spring is located across the road.  It continues to provide clean, clear water even in the most severe drought conditions.  This was an important feature of the homestead and made the home an attractive place for people to stop.  Eventually, in the 1860s, the home was also a stop for the stagecoaches that traveled between Dallas, Waco, Austin, and San Antonio as there were only three houses on the road between Dallas and Waco.

When James died in 1871, Isabella was left with the homestead and 200 acres.  The original amount being a full survey of 640 acres.  The remaining land was divided amongst the four surviving daughters and John Patterson.

Sometime between the death of James in 1871 and her own death in 1887, Isabella moved in with her daughter, also Isabella, and son-in-law, Robert Andrew (R.A.) Ferguson.  At this point, daughter Jeanette moved into the home with her husband, Benjamin Ward, and their family.  The home remained in the care of the Ward family line.  The last owner was Glenn Ward, who died in May of 2014.

Glenn’s death meant the house was now abandoned.  The house was in terrible condition.  Jana and Jerry Burch worked for three and a half years to find and contact the Ward heirs and move the sale through the courts.

On January 2, 2018, the home was purchased by the Burches and the fifteen-month restoration began.

Jana and Jerry are excited to share the home of James and Isabella Wood with you.  Please look for labeled items that relate to the Wood, Patterson, Frazier, and Ferguson families.