Under a large post oak on Gaines Greer's farm on August 5, 1850, Wood County was organized. Commissioners Reuben Elledge, Joseph Fisher, George Greer, Henry Stout, and Gilbert Yarbrough met with 20 other men to choose the site for the county seat and elect the first officials. Elected were chief justice D. O. Norton, county clerk Ambrose Fitzgerald, treasurer Henry W. Norton, tax assessor-collector Gilbert Yarbrough, sheriff Henry Stout, and county commissioners Daniel Center, P. M. Gunstream, William Rice, and Peter Rozell. The historic oak survived until it was killed by lightning in the 1950s.