DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Daniel Montague, first surveyor of Cooke County. Now, most folks who shaped early Texas came up from the South — Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas. So right away, Daniel Montague stands a little apart.
Born in Massachusetts, in 1798, he made his way to Texas in 1836, and what he found waiting for him wasn't exactly a quiet life. He accepted the post of Surveyor for the Fannin Land District, a job that sounds like it might involve a lot of paperwork and careful measuring. And it did.
It also involved helping settlers locate their claims, and fighting Indians, and carrying a rifle in your field kit just to make it home at the end of the day. That last detail is worth sitting with for a moment. Rifles.
In the field kits. Not for sport — to stand off Indians. That was the job.
The risk of life wasn't occasional. It was constant. And like most surveyors of the era, Montague took land as pay for duty that asked everything of a man.
Then came 1843, and Montague joined the Snively Expedition — an effort to capture Mexican traders trespassing in the Republic of Texas. A few years after that, 1846, he was serving as a Captain of Company in the Mexican War. The man did not sit still.
When Cooke County was created in 1848, the choice of County Surveyor wasn't a hard one to make. Daniel Montague got the post. He knew the land.
He had bled alongside it. And Texas, in its particular way of honoring men who gave themselves to its making, eventually did something that very few places do for very few people. They named a county after him.
The marker notes he shares that distinction with Surveyor-Senator John H. Reagan, another man the state saw fit to honor that way. Daniel Montague lived until 1876.
He came from Massachusetts, and Texas claimed him completely.
What the marker says
Born in Massachusetts. Moved to Texas 1836. Accepted post of Surveyor, Fannin Land District, helping settlers locate claims and fight Indians. Joined Snively Expedition to capture Mexican traders trespassing in Republic of Texas, 1843. Captain of Company in Mexican War, 1846. When Cooke County was created, 1848, Montague was named County Surveyor. Like most surveyors, took land as pay for duty that called for constant risk of life. Rifles to stand off Indians were in field kits. Like Surveyor-Senator John H. Reagan, Montague was honored in having a county named for him. (1968)