Page Contents for Oakwood, Texas

Statistics & Facts

Government

Historical Events

Schools.

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Statistics & Facts

The Texas state capital is Austin.
The population of Oakwood is approximately 527 (1990), 510 (2010).
The approximate number of families is 237 (1990), 212 (2010).
The amount of land area in Oakwood is 2.688 sq. kilometers.
The amount of surface water is 0 sq kilometers.
The distance from Oakwood to Washington DC is 1209 miles.
The distance to the Texas state capital is 144 miles. (as the crow flies)
Oakwood is positioned 31.58 degrees north of the equator and 95.84 degrees west of the prime meridian.

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Oakwood City Government

Oakwood City Hall
Highway 79
Oakwood, Texas 75855
Phone: 903-545-2131

Oakwood Historical Events

1979
The Recovery of the Laing Family Tartan
In July, 1979, the treasurer of his old church in Oakwood called and told him that a local farmer was building a pond next to the graveyard. This would flood 56 graves, two of them in the name of Laing. The graves belonged to George H. Laing, his great-great-great grandfather who died in 1853, and his wife Barbra. For a detailed account including pictures, see the above link.

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1917, April 15
Death date for Oscar Wiley

Born 1839 in Dallas County Alabama
Died April 15, 1917 in Oakwood Texas

In 1858 he was united in marriage with Miss Maggie, a daughter of James McCall, of Tennessee. Mr and Mrs Wiley have had 5 children:
Samuel B, Oscar, Kate, Emma and Minie. Oscar is a book-keeper in the Groesbeck National Bank. The children have all received good education in this city. ( Taken from A Memorial and Biographical History Of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas, Published by Lewis Publishing Company in 1893-Chicago)

O Wiley's first wife having died, he married Addie Hannon, daughter of Moses Wright and Caroline Hannon, on March 28,1894 in Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas. The following children were born:
Brace Hannon Wiley - born January 6,1895 - died May 22, 1962
Callie Gertrude Wiley - born March 1,1896 - died June 24,1915
Roddy Rawls Wiley - born October 1,1897 - died March 4, 1958

O. Wiley was elected Justice of the Peace of the Groesbeck Precinct, which position he held until 1888. In that year he was elected County Treasurer, was re-elected in 1890 and in 1892 was a candidate without opposition. Mr Wiley owned 500 acres of land, 350 acres of which is under a fine state of cultivation with good improvements.

Other statistics for Wiley Surname:
Addie Hannon
Born August 2, 1867 in Groesbeck, Texas
Died January 23, 1944 in Oakwood, Texas

Roddy Rawls Wiley
Born October 1 1897 in Groesbeck Texas
Died March 4, 1958 in Oakwood Texas

Frances Louise Davis
Born October 3, 1902 in Kemah,Texas
Died June 15, 1960 in Teague, Texas

Roddy Rawls Wiley and Frances Louise Davis married
September 9, 1922 in Texas City, Texas

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Late 1800's
Excerpts from Through the Years by Frances Jane Leathers 1946
Women in the Workplace
Lorena Dodgen (Berryhill) was the first girl to work for the public inOakwood. This took a great deal of courage, for in those days, everyonefirmly believed that a woman's place was in the home. the women werenever able to resist the temptation of looking at all these prettythings, beautiful silks, lawns, batistes and exquisite laces, but theynever dared to make a purchase of a woman and would have to leave thestore their eyes gazing longingly behind.

In 1870 the Hannon family had come to Texas and built a spacioushome in the Liberty community. As the Hannons had been a family ofwealth, any merchant would have been proud of his patronage. One dayGeneral Hannon went into the Dodgen store and purchased, at one time,materials in the amount of fifty dollars to be made into clothes for hisfamily. Later Mrs. Hannon was seen making purchases of Miss LorenaDodgen. The other women's eyes bulged out and they too began to flockinto the store to buy the long-wanted luxuries. The sales began to soarand Mr. Dodgen soon had a thriving business.

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late 1860's

The story is told that on Lincoln's birthday years after the war, Mr Gorman went towent to the bank and to his amazement found it to be closed. Seeing it's president hard at work in the rear of the building, he rapped on the door until Mr.Wiley came to open it. "What's the reason I can't put my money in this bank today?" he shouted. "Why, this is Lincoln's birthday," the bank presidentinformed him. " Lincoln's birthday! The h... it is! You don't mean you'reclosed on his birthday! It just beats the h... when your dad an d my dadchased the S.O.B. all over the United States trying to kill him, and nowyou close your bank on his birthday!"excerpt from "Through the Years" by Frances Jean Leathers

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1827, December 14
Moses Wright Hannon
Born Dec 14, 1827 in Baldwin County Georgia
Died June 3, 1897 in Oakwood, Texas

Caroline R Mastin
Born June 7, 1836 in Rhome, Georgia
Died August 10th, 1909 in Oakwood, Texas

Moses Wright Hannon and Caroline R. Mastin married
Nov 10, 1859 in Montgomery Alabama

Oakwood Schools

Oakwood High School
802 Holly St.
Oakwood, Texas 75855-9512
Phone: 903-545-2140 Fax: 903-545-2310