Family of
Wood Walter Bouldin
 

Wood Walter Bouldin
 

Wood Walter Bouldin, M. D., of Bay City was not only one of the highly skilled physicians and surgeons of Matagorda County, but he also owned and operated a drug store, and owned considerable farm land which he inherited and which he developed after taking charge of the land. He was proud of being descended from honorable ancestors, tracing an unbroken line back to Thomas Bouldin of Shelborne, England, born in 1523, whose grandson, Thomas III, came to Virginia in 1610, being captain of the good ship Swan which brought the first settlers to Jamestown. They were numbered among the eminent families of Virginia, and have furnished judges, congressmen and educators to the public service of the state. His immediate one traces back in this country to Col. Thomas Bouldin and his wife Nancy Clarke. Their eldest son, Thomas, born in the early part of the eighteenth century, married Martha Moseley, and their son, Green, born in 1831, married in 1858, Alwilda Compton, and they were the parents of Doctor Bouldin. On his mother's side, Doctor Bouldin was descended from the Comptons of Nashville, Tennessee. This pride of birth was natural and admirable. Money cannot purchase gentle blood, not give honorable achievements to those already dead. Both the Bouldins and the Comptons were people of integrity, upright in their dealings connected with much of historic value in their several communities, and responsible for advancement along professional and cultural lines.
 

Bouldin was born in Austin County, Texas, March 25, 1866. His father, Green Bouldin, was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and during the war between the states he served in Company K, Terry's Texas Rangers of the Confederate Army. During the battle of Perryville he was wounded in action, but recovered sufficiently to return to his company, and he was discharged in June, 1865. Returning to civilian life, he bravely took up the struggles of the reconstruction period, and was engaged in farming until his death, which occurred on his ranch in Austin County, Texas, January 1, 1874. His wife was born July 2, 1841, a daughter of Thomas D. M. Compton and his wife Eliza Doxey, of Nashville, Tennessee. Seven children were born to Green Bouldin and his wife.

Following his attendance of the public schools of Washington County and Soule University, Chappell Hill, Texas, Doctor Bouldin took his medial training in Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, and was graduated there from in 1891, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For three years thereafter he was engaged in the practice of his profession at Chappell Hill, and then, in 1894, came to Bay City, where he assumed control of his landed interests and established himself in a general practice, in which he has since continued, building up a wide and valuable connection.

In political faith he was a Democrat, but he never had either the time or inclination to enter public life. He belonged to the Matagorda County Medical Society, the Texas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Long a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, he served as commander of the Ninth Brigade, Texas Division, from 1925 to 1928, and assistant surgeon on the staff of the division commander.

Bouldin died on March 14, 1929, at the age of sixty-two, as a result of a gunshot wound inflicted on February 19 by a hired hand while at Bouldin's farm on Caney Creek. At the time Bouldin was one of the wealthiest men in Matagorda County. He was buried at Chappell Hill, Texas. His sister, Florence, survived him and lived until September 11, 1945. She was active in many civic organizations, especially the Bay City Public Library.

Texas Under Many Flags, Clarence W. Wharton, American Historical Society, 1930

Matagorda County Genealogical Society Publication, Oak Leaves, Vol. 8 #3, May 1989
 

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