Inscription
Zadock Woods, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, was born in Brookfield Township, Massachusettes. In 1797 he married Minerva Cottle, who bore six children. The Woods family moved to Missouri about 1802 and established a "fort" in Woodville near Troy, Missouri. During the War of 1812, Lt. Zachary Taylor garrisoned at Woods Fort and Woods himself served with Andrew Jackson at New Orleans.
Financially ruined as a result of a business venture with Moses Austin, Woods decided to join Austin's Texas Colony in 1824. Settling first in Matagorda County, he later moved his family north on the Colorado River to Fayette County. There his home near West Point, called Woods Fort (or Woods Prairie) became a traveler's safe haven from Indian raids.
In 1842 Woods and two of his sons, Norman and Henry, joined a force of men from Fayette County recruited by Capt. Nicholas M. Dawson to fight with Matthew Caldwell's command against Mexican forces at Salado Creek. On Sept. 18, 1842, Zadock Woods was killed in a skirmish that later became known as Dawson Massacre. His son Henry managed a daring escape, but Norman, severely wounded in the battle, was captured and imprisoned in Perote Prison, Mexico. Zadock Woods was buried in a mass grave by Salado Creek but his body was reinterred six years later at Monument Hill in La Grange.
Information from book: Texas Cemeteries by Bill Harvey
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