History of Montgomery
In 1825 Stephen F.
Austin was able to bring settlers and colonists into the area that is now the
western half Montgomery County. In 1830 settlers named Owen and Margaret
Shannon established a trading post with Indians. A telegraph written on July 4th
1837 by W.W Sheppard, a land agent, was written and advertised a new county
that would be formed. In the same telegraph he named the county Montgomery and
advertised land to be sold. After several petitions on November 30, 1837 a bill
creating the county of Montgomery passed the senate, and soon after on December
14, 1837 Sam Houston Signed an act creating Montgomery County. Montgomery
County was the third County formed under the Republic of Texas
Montgomery was originally a large trading post
where a stagecoach, telegraph lines, and railroad intersected. Montgomery soon
became very successful attracting many professionals and business men like Dr.Price who owned much land
and slaves and was also a farmer and trader. Two early businessmen were
brothers Peter J. Willis and Richard S. Willis. Peter J. was a personal friend
of Sam Houston, who was said to spend many hours visiting Montgomery. By 1848
Montgomery had become so popular that an act was passed to incorporate it as a
town with Nathaniel Hart Davis as mayor. The town of Montgomery is the
oldest in the county,
After the Civil War Montgomery was not the
same, the population dwindled and railroads changed how people traveled.
Montgomery continued to be the capitol city until 1889, when it was moved to
Conroe through popular vote.
William Harley Gandy
compiled a study of the history of Montgomery in 1952. In this thesis he used
as much information from documents as possible but also used second hand
sources. “Not only were the original documents used extensively, but also
secondary source material from books, news papers, and magazines. Much of the
data concerning the towns and communities was obtained verbally through
interviews with old time residents of the various places.”
Kameron K. Searle also wrote a report but only sited primary
sources. “Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to
what actually happened during an historical event or time period.”
My Opinion
I think the thesis by William Gandy is the
better history of Montgomery. When you include second hand information by the
residents and people that actually experienced the history I think you come
closer to the truth. William Gandy’s report was much longer and had much more
information than Kameron K. Searle. Even
though using primary sources are more reliable because the information is
definite, I think you lose a large piece
of information when you cut out the people that lived here in Montgomery.