WOZENCRAFT, ALFRED PRIOR
WOZENCRAFT, ALFRED PRIOR (1859–1917). Alfred Prior Wozencraft, lawyer and soldier, was born on July 1, 1859, in Dallas County, Arkansas, to William Thomas and Amelia Grant (Oliver) Wozencraft. He was raised on the family farm and received his education at home under the tutelage of his mother. He obtained his license to practice law in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in January 1882, but by May of that year he had become a member of the Dallas, Texas, bar and entered the office of Welborn, Leake, and Henry in that city. A year later he opened his own company, McLaurin and Wozencraft, which in 1890 became the legal representative of the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company of Texas. Wozencraft became a member of the Queen City Guards and the Dallas Rifle Company and was captain of the Dallas Artillery Company, which under his command won numerous prizes in interstate drill competitions. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor in 1895, during his tenure as city attorney of Dallas (1890–98). He resigned this position in May 1898 and was appointed adjutant general of Texas by Governor Charles Culberson, in which capacity he mustered Texas troops into United States volunteer service during the Spanish-American War. Wozencraft served until January 1899 and was then appointed brigadier general of the Second Brigade of the Texas Volunteer Guard. He resigned this position in 1902. In 1909 he became general attorney for the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company, but in 1916 he stepped down to become consulting attorney because of poor health. In 1891 Wozencraft married Virginia Lee Wilson, who died in 1893; they had one son, Frank W. Wozencraft. Alfred Wozencraft was a thirty-second-degree Mason, an Elk, a Shriner, and a Knight of Pythias. He died of heart trouble in Newport, Arkansas, on April 13, 1917, and was buried in Dallas.
Dallas Morning News, April 13, 1917. Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler [Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916]).