Biography

Henry Gonzalvo “Gon” Woods (1816–1869)

Henry Gonzalvo “Gon” Woods, the youngest son of Zadock Woods and Minerva Cottle Woods, was born Feb. 18, 1816, in Troy, Missouri. His parents were among Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred colonists and arrived in Texas in December 1824. Gon grew up on the Texas frontier and spent much of his life as a rancher, Indian fighter and defender of the early settlements.

After the Woods family moved from Matagorda County to the upper Colorado River, Gon narrowly escaped capture by Indians in 1828. The family settled about nine miles west of John H. Moore’s fort, in an area that would become closely associated with the Woods family for generations.

When the Texas Revolution began, Gon joined the fight. He participated in the Battle of Gonzales and the Battle of Concepción in October 1835. Although he was not present at the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836, he later served for three months as a Texas Ranger.

His military service continued in the years that followed. In February 1839, he fought under John H. Moore against the Comanches at San Sabá Presidio. The following month, he served with Edward Burleson against Vicente Córdova. In 1840, after a brief period of jury service in Fayette County, he again joined Moore in an expedition following the Battle of Plum Creek. In March 1842, Gon took part in the pursuit of Mexican general Rafael Vásquez after another Mexican incursion into Texas.

The defining event of Gon Woods’ life came later that year.

In September 1842, he rode with his father, Zadock Woods, and his brother, Norman Woods, toward San Antonio with the volunteer company commanded by Nicholas Dawson. Near the Salado River, the company encountered a much larger Mexican force in what became known as the Dawson Massacre. Gon was one of only two Texans to escape. His father was killed, and Norman was wounded and captured.

The Woods family account of Gon’s escape became one of the most dramatic stories associated with the massacre. Amid the confusion of the battle, he managed to reach the edge of the fighting. A Mexican lancer attempted to ride him down, but Gon seized the man’s lance, pulled him from the saddle, killed him and escaped on the lancer’s horse.

Before Norman Woods died in Perote Prison in Mexico on Dec. 16, 1843, he asked his brother to care for the family he had left behind. Gon honored that request. On Oct. 30, 1844, he married Jane Boyd Woods, Norman’s widow. Together they raised Norman’s five children as well as four children of their own.

In 1856, the family moved from Fayette County to Shiloh in DeWitt County, where Gon became a successful rancher and horse breeder. He was also associated with several early improvements in the area. He built what was described as the first sawed-lumber, two-story house in the county and brought the first cotton gin and first cook stove into the community.

During the Civil War, Gon enlisted in the Confederacy in 1863 and organized the Shiloh Home Guard, serving as its captain. Illness, however, prevented him from taking an active military role.

Jane Woods died in 1866 and was buried in the Woods Cemetery at Shiloh.

In the turbulent years following the Civil War, the Woods family became caught up in the violence surrounding the Sutton-Taylor Feud. In the fall of 1869, Gon was deputized to pursue an alleged murderer named John Kerlick. On Nov. 28, 1869, Kerlick ambushed and killed him.

Henry Gonzalvo Woods was buried beside Jane in the Woods Cemetery at Shiloh.