By Ashley Hughes.
Hays County residents might not know that the only memorial on the San Marcos courthouse grounds is dedicated to Peter C. Woods.
Who?
“The memorial is a large fountain on the east side of the courthouse dedicated to Colonel Woods,” Richard Kidd, Hays County Historical Commission member.
Kidd is also the editor and director of a documentary about Woods.
“The only other monument [near the courthouse] is for Jack (C.) Hays and is technically located around the street corner, not on courthouse grounds.”
The Daughters of the Confederacy built the fountain memorial to honor Woods.
A replica of a Civil War era gunboat, created for a documentary by the Hays County Historical Commission, depicts a battle on the Red River. The film helps local residents get to know Col. Peter C. Woods, for whom a fountain monument sits on the grounds of the Hays County courthouse square. The commission wants to raise money to restore the fountain, but members weren’t sure if enough residents knew who Woods was. The film, directed by Richard Kidd, will be screened in May. (Photos by Tom Bender) |
“The Woods Memorial is in terrible condition,” Kate Johnson, chair of the Hays County Historical Commission, said. “I was thinking we could restore the memorial, and then I realized that no one really knows anything about him.”
Johnson decided there should be a documentary about Woods since so few people knew anything about his life.
“I’m usually the person in charge of raising the money for these things,” Johnson said. “This is the most expensive documentary we have ever produced. It has been exciting.”
The $75,000 allocated budget that Johnson had to work with included the most expensive prop – a gunboat that cost about $25,000. This full-sized replica was launched in Lake Travis, which was temporarily transformed into the Red River in Louisiana to shoot the film.
It took five days to build the gunboat. The entire Lake Service, Inc. crew was there to complete the vessel for the documentary.
This iron gunboat is a 34-by-80-foot ship replica covered in 40 gallons of paint and completely hollow in the middle. Or at least it was until it got destroyed, as called for in the script, of course.
“The Lake Service people did a great job,” Johnson said.
The filming began in January and they are hopeful that the documentary will be ready to watch by May. The majority of it was filmed in Hays County.
“We used a lot of ranches and areas without telephone poles and cars,” Kidd said.
Johnson’s favorite part of the film is the Civil War scene when the gunboat is fired upon.
“It’s so awesome,” Johnson said. “You don’t see a Union gunboat everyday. It was so well-built. The re-enactors were wonderful and we filmed on a beautiful day.’”
So who is Col. Peter C. Woods? He was a hero of the 32nd Texas Calvary and a San Marcos physician. He studied medicine at the Louisville Medical Institute and practiced in Mississippi, where he married Georgia Virginia Lawshe. In 1854, he relocated with his family to Hays County, just outside San Marcos.
He served with the 32nd Cavalry from the beginning of the Civil War until its end when returned to San Marcos and lived there until his death in 1898. He practiced medicine for 44 years, and had a small in-house clinic in his San Marcos home. Woods was active in the government and was even a part of the Constitutional Convention that took place in Austin.
“This was too great of a story not to tell,” Kidd said.
The documentary will feature all of the battles that went along with that, both on land and in water, using 30 re-enactors who play the Confederate and Union soldiers who fought in these battles.
“It’s been fun organizing the reenactments,” Johnson said.
The Historical Committee will have showings of the documentary at designated locations around Hays County.
“It’s fun doing these documentaries,” Johnson said. “It’s a way for us to communicate with the general public. We’re pleased to get to educate people about their history.”
This is the Hays County Historical Commission’s sixth documentary. For five years the Historical Commissions has been producing these type of documentaries for the public.
“This is just part of a series of documentaries in Hays County,” Kidd said. “All of these get distributed to surrounding schools and libraries. There’s been a lot of interest and support as we’ve had the showings.”
