United States / West Point, TX

Woods Prairie Cemetery. Woods Prairie Cemetery Zadock Woods (d. 1842), veteran of the War of 1812 and one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, brought his family to settle in this area in 1828. He built a fortified home on land deeded to his son, Montraville, and established a cemetery here for his family and neighbors. The first burial is said to be that of a ranch hand. Another alleged early grave belongs to Stephen Cottle, brother of Woods' wife Minerva. He died c. 1828, and tradition holds he is buried north of his sister's plot; hers is the first marked grave, dating to 1839. Zadock Woods himself is not buried at the cemetery. Killed at the Dawson Massacre of 1842, he is buried at Monument Hill State Historic Site in La Grange, in a vault with others who fell with him. A veteran of the massacre who survived capture and then imprisonment in Mexico is buried here, though. That survivor, Joseph C. Robinson, lived until 1861 and was honored here with a Texas Centennial marker in 1936. To protect and preserve the cemetery property, which is the resting place of many early Texas pioneers, J.A. Darby, M.E. Darby, T.C. Moore and A.W. Young purchased the site in 1875 and deeded it to their heirs. The pioneer graveyard serves as a reminder of the area's early history. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002 #12854

?, West Point, TX, United States

Texas Historical Marker #11880

St. Peter Lutheran Church and Prairie Valley Cemetery. Sixteen families led by the Rev. R. Osthoff organized this church in 1896. The congregation met at the schoolhouse and Knights of Honor Lodge. Dietrich Hermann Wessels donated two acres for a church and cemetery across the road from the lodge hall in 1900. The first burial was that of Heinrich Georg Wessels in 1900. The St. Petri congregation was recognized by the Missouri Synod in January 1901; the church building was completed in February. Most of the grave inscriptions before the 1930s are in German. Church services were held in German until 1935. Burials in the cemetery are almost all those of church members, including the charter families. With about seventy members and more than 121 graves, both church and cemetery remain active. (1999) #11880

640 Prairie Valley Road, West Point, TX, United States

Texas Historical Marker #05902

Site of Woods' Fort. Used by colonists of this vicinity as a protection against Indian attacks . 1828-1842 fortified residence of Zadock Woods, veteran of the War of 1812. One of the old "Three Hundred" of Austin's colonists. Oldest man killed in the "Dawson Massacre" September 18, 1842. #5902

?, West Point, TX, United States