DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Lake Creek Settlement, up in Montgomery County. Now settle in, because this story starts long before Texas was Texas. Long before Stephen F.
Austin's colonists ever laid eyes on this stretch of land, the Coushatta Indians were already moving through it — traveling a trade road called the Coushatta Trace, running all the way from Louisiana into Texas. They knew something worth knowing: this land was a corridor, a crossroads, a place where people passed and stayed and came back. That fact would prove out, again and again.
When Austin's second colony took shape in the Mexican State of Coahuila and Texas during the Texas Colonial Period, the clock on the Lake Creek Settlement started ticking — back to 1825. On June the fourth of that year, Stephen F. Austin put his name to a contract with the Mexican government, committing to bring five hundred families from the United States into this territory.
Five hundred families. That's not a trickle, that's a tide. By 1831, some of those families had found their spot — settling in between the West Fork of the San Jacinto River and a stream called Lake Creek, in what is now Montgomery County.
That makes the Lake Creek Settlement the earliest known Anglo-American settlement in the entire county. Let that land a moment. The earliest known one.
Then along comes William W. Shepperd — W.W., as folks knew him — a colonist out of North Carolina. In 1835, he purchased a tract sitting in the northwestern-most corner of the John Corner League.
And W.W. Shepperd was not a man who let land sit idle. He opened a store on the property, the first business in the area.
He ran a gin and a stockyard. He served as Postmaster. And then, in July of 1837, he went ahead and founded the town of Montgomery right there at the site of his store.
Fresh water from Town Creek drew settlers in, fed their crops, watered their livestock. Nearby trade routes did the rest — turning this settlement into a stop, a meeting place, a name people knew. Now, if you need proof that these Lake Creek settlers were woven into the big story of Texas, consider this: a number of them fought in the Texas Revolution.
One of them, John Marshall Wade, manned one of the famous Twin Sisters cannons at the Battle of San Jacinto. The Twin Sisters. Those guns are legend, and a Lake Creek man had his hands on one of them when it mattered most.
The Coushatta walked this land first, and they left a trace — literally. Everything that followed walked that same corridor. That's the Lake Creek Settlement.
What the marker says
Long before the arrival of Stephen F. Austin’s colonists, the Coushatta Indians traveled through the lands that would become the Lake Creek Settlement upon the Coushatta Trace, a trade road from Louisianna into Texas. Located in Austin’s second colony in the Mexican State of Coahuila and Texas during the Texas Colonial Period, Lake Creek Settlement traces its origins to 1825. On June 4, 1825, Stephen F. Austin signed a contract with the Mexican government to begin the introduction of five hundred families from the United States. In 1831, some of the families settled between the West Fork of the San Jacinto River and a stream called Lake Creek in today’s Montgomery County. The Lake Creek Settlement is the earliest known Anglo-American settlement in the county. In 1835, William W. “W.W.” Shepperd, a colonist from North Carolina, purchased a tract in the northwestern-most corner of the John Corner League. Shepperd opened a store on the property, the first business in the area. He also operated a gin and stockyard and was the Postmaster. In July 1837, Shepperd founded the town of Montgomery at the site of his store. The area’s proximity to Town Creek and available fresh water attracted settlers and provided for their crops and livestock. In addition, nearby popular trade routes aided in the community’s growth, serving as a trade stop or meeting place. A number of Lake Creek settlers fought in the Texas Revolution, including John Marshall Wade, who manned one of the famous “Twin Sisters” cannons during the battle of San Jacinto.