Town of Montgomery

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the town of Montgomery, Texas. Way out in the piney woods of Montgomery County, a man named W. W.

Shepherd had the notion to put down roots and build something worth sticking around for. He founded the town in July of 1837, and that was just the beginning. Before the year was even out, Montgomery County itself was created, on December the fourteenth, eighteen thirty-seven.

That's a lot of history packed into one calendar year. Then came eighteen forty-eight, and the town was incorporated. Now here's where it gets interesting.

Somebody had to decide where the seat of Montgomery County would be planted, and that job fell to a group of commissioners. Nine men, to be exact. James Mitchell, Pleasant Gray, William Robinson, Elijah Collard, Charles Barnett, Joseph L.

Bennet, Dr. B. B.

Goodrich, D. D. Dunham, and Henry Fanthrop.

Nine men looked around at what was available and pointed right at Montgomery. Selected it as the county seat, and it held that honor for a good long while. Before the Civil War, Montgomery was an important trade center, the kind of place where goods moved and deals got made and the whole region depended on what happened in that town.

It kept the county seat until eighteen eighty-nine, which means it carried that distinction for decades. The State of Texas thought enough of this story to erect this marker in nineteen thirty-six. A town founded by one man's vision in July of eighteen thirty-seven, chosen by nine commissioners to anchor an entire county, and still standing to tell the tale.

What the marker says

Founded in July, 1837 by W. W. Shepherd Incorporated in 1848 Montgomery County was created December 14, 1837 James Mitchell, Pleasant Gray, William Robinson, Elijah Collard Charles Barnett, Joseph L. Bennet Dr. B. B. Goodrich, D. D. Dunham and Henry Fanthrop, Commissioners, Selected Montgomery as the County Seat and it remained as such until 1889 Important trade center before the Civil War Erected by the State of Texas 1936