William and Elisabeth Woody Homestead

William (Bill) Woody (1824-1915), one of the first Anglo settlers in Parker County, was born in Roane County, Tennessee. While living in the eastern Tennessee hills bordering North Carolina, he married Elisabeth Lydia Farmer (1822-1879) in 1846. In December 1846, six weeks after the birth of their son, the Woody family set out to Texas on foot with few possessions. Six months later, they arrived in Honey Grove in Fannin County where they met up with other family members and established a working farm. In 1851, the family traveled to White Settlement in Tarrant County where they stayed until their home was built here by 1855. Located in the Veal’s Station Community, the Woody family built a story-and-a-half, four-room dogtrot home using hand-sawn yellow pine lumber transported by ox from New Orleans. Once their house was complete, it served several distinct and important purposes for the Veal’s Station Community. The property was used as a refuge and stagecoach stop for pioneer travelers, a boarding house for college students attending Parsons College, and a community meeting place for all religious denominations in the area, as well as a cobbler’s workshop for hand-cobbled boots and shoes. In 1858, Bill Woody and community members built a two-story frame meeting house on the property which provided a church, masonic hall, town hall, common school, and later Parsons College, chartered in 1874, for the town of Veal’s Station. Elisabeth and Bill Woody are buried in the Veal’s Station Cemetery, both examples of rugged individualism that expanded the state and country in the nineteenth century.

William and Elisabeth Woody Homestead is a historical marker in Springtown, Parker County, dedicated in 2018. It is one of 74 historical markers documented in Parker County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 205 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 32.9226, -97.6829 near Springtown. The nearest cataloged historic site is Lantz (cemetery), about 0.7 miles away. Others within a short drive include Veal's Station Cemetery, Veal's Station, and Woody Cemetery.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5507019996. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.