The Early History

of

Historic Montgomery County, Texas

The 175th Birthday of Historic Montgomery, Texas was Celebrated on July 7, 2012 - Montgomery Texas Founders Day!!!

Montgomery Texas Founders Day - 175th Birthday

Click here to download the pdf file, The Early History of Montgomery, Texas. This is a 58 page booklet about the early history of Montgomery, Texas prepared for those interested in the most up-to-date research on the early history of Montgomery County and the founding of the Town of Montgomery. It is a very usueful tool for 4th and 7th grade school children in the Montgomery Independent School District (MISD) who are working on the annual history scavenger hunt.

   The early History of Montgomery County, Texas has been searched and researched by Kameron Searle for almost a decade.  Using primary documents almost exclusively, Searle has discovered a number of critical errors in Montgomery County's earlier published histories. It is time to replace the myth and folklore previously held up as the early history of Montgomery County with the actual facts contained within the numerous and readily available primary sources dating from the time of the events themselves.

   Searle re-discovered the Lake Creek Settlement a pre-Republic of Texas settlement in Stephen F. Austin's Colony.  Once discovered, Searle began to appreciate the historical importance of the Lake Creek Settlement to the early history of the Town of Montgomery as well as Montgomery County.  In studying the Lake Creek Settlement and the historiography of Montgomery County, Searle also discovered that the story of a Montgomery Trading Post, cited as fact in just about every history of Montgomery County, Texas, was actually an invention of a woman by the name of Mary Davis in 1925.

July 8, 1837 - Advertisement for the Town of Montgomery

   In 2008, Searle introduced a number of his surprising discoveries regarding the early history of Montgomery County to several genealogical and historical societies in Montgomery County including the Lone Star Chapter of the Sons of the Republic of Texas and the Montgomery Historical Society.  His presentations and his papers have created a great deal of renewed interest in the research, study and correction of early Montgomery County history.  Searle continues his talks and presentations and plans on publishing a book about the early history of Montgomery County in approximately two years.

    Below are a series of articles being written by Kameron Searle for the Texas History Page.  These articles will be edited and included in Searle's forthcoming book on the early history of Montgomery County, Texas.  Searle has no desire to hide his research from the general public prior to publication.  In a display of intellectual openness, he encourages anyone to point out any errors they may find or corrections that need to be made in his work.  He also strongly encourages other researchers and students to use his data as a starting point for their own research.

   Much more will be added to these articles from Searle's extensive collection of documents, so bookmark this page and keep checking back.

 

See the Lake Creek Settlement entry on the Handbook of Texas Online written by Kameron Searle

 

History of the Lake Creek Settlement

Evolution of the Montgomery Trading Post Myth

History of the Indian Trading Post

John Wyatt Moody

Methodist Church - Montgomery, Texas 

 

  • Marriage of Charles Bellinger Stewart
    Article about the marriage of Charles Bellinger Stewart during the darkest days of the Texas Revolution while he served as a delegate to the Convention at Washingto-on-the-Brazos in March 1836.

  • Owen Shannon Will
    Last will and testament of Owen Shannon. Probate records from the estate of Owen Shannon a citizen of Austin's Colony in the State of Coahuila and Texas, Mexico.

  • Owen Shannon Died in 1834
    Evidence that Owen Shannon died in 1834. This page also explains why Owen Shannon only had one quarter of his Headright League left at the time of his death.

  • Montgomery County, Texas Commissioners Court March 1,1838
    Minutes of the first Montgomery County Commissioners Court meeting on March 1, 1838. W. W. Shepperd induced Commissioners Court to make the Town of Montgomery the county seat of Montgomery County, Texas.

  • Montgomery County Centennial Monuments
    In 1936, two monuments were erected in Montgomery County, Texas to commemorate the centenary of Texas Independence. One monument commemorating the founding of Montgomery County and another commemorating the founding of the Town of Montgomery, Texas.

  • Austin's Register of Families
    Stephen F. Austin's Register of Families proves that Andrew Montgomery and Owen Shannon were farmers and NOT the owners of a trading post.

  • Act Creating Montgomery County, Texas
    Text of the Act creating Montgomery County, Texas on December 14, 1837.

  • Shepperd, W. W.
    Biography of W. W. Shepperd, early Texas settler and founder of the Town of Montgomery, Texas.

  • W. W. Shepperd - First Postmaster of Montgomery, Texas
    W. W. Shepperd was the first postmaster of Montgomery, Texas. Documents and records.

  • C. B. Stewart Attorney for W. W. Shepperd
    Copy of a note signed by John Crane in behalf of W. W. Shepperd. Notes on back are in the handwriting of C. B. Stewart as attorney for W. W. Shepperd concerning filing with the probate court of Montgomery County, Texas

  • Shepperd Sells Town of Montgomery to McCown for Slaves
    In 1839, W. W. Shepperd sold his interest in the town of Montgomery, Texas to James McCown. The sale was unusual because James McCown paid Shepperd for the town with seven slaves.

  • Founding Towns - A Shepperd Family Tradition
    Towns founded by the Shepperd family in North Carolina, the Republic of Texas and the State of Texas.

  • Town of Montgomery Incorporated - 1848
    In 1848, the Town of Montgomery, Texas was incorporated by the Texas Legislature. Chapter 191. An Act to Incorporate the Town of Montgomery. Copy of Act with transcription.

  • Charles B. Stewart
    Biography of Charles B. Stewart written by Sam Houston Dixon in 1924. Stewart was the first Secretary of State of Texas and a signer of the Texas Declarartion of Independence.

  • The First Montgomery County Courthouse - Texas
    Historical information about the first Montgomery County courthouse in Montgomery County, Texas.

  • Jacob Shepperd
    Biography of Jacob Shepperd, early Texas settler and revolutionary soldier in the Texas army in its fight for independence against Mexico. Jacob Shepperd saved the life of Santa Anna by delivering an express from Sam Houston to the Texas army.

  • Alfred and Matilda Morris House
    The Alfred and Matilda Morris House in Montgomery, Texas. Also known as the Patton House. Matilda Parmer was the daughter of Martin Parmer who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.

  • 1845 Montgomery Patriot Advertisment - Lake Creek Settlement
    Advertisement for lots in the town of Montgomery, Texas in July 2, 1845 editon of the Montgomery Patriot newspaper. Makes clear reference to the Lake Creek Settlement.

  • Help Wanted - Montgomery Prairie
    Historian asks for your help in finding specific documents and information relating to the Montgomery Trading Post or Montgomery Settlement.

  • Help Wanted - Lake Creek Settlement
    Historian asks for your help in finding specific documents and information relating to the history of the Lake Creek Settlement prior to the founding of the Town of Montgomery, Texas in 1837.

  • Help Wanted - Major John Wyatt Moody
    Where did Major John Wyatt Moody get his military rank? Help wanted. Author seeks your help with a question about Texan J. W. Moody.

  • Help Wanted - George M. Crittenden
    Trying to get information about Geroge M. Critteden for a Montgomery County, Texas history book that is being written. G. M. Crittenden is said to have written a group of Grimes County Texas history papers commonly referred to as the Critteden Papers.

  • Zachariah Landrum and Related Families
    Zachariah Landrum family and related families in Austin's Second Colony, the Lake Creek Settlement, Washington Municipality, later Washington County and later Montgomery County, Texas. Includes Landrum, Springer, Worsham and Rankin.

  • Montgomery Founded in Two Phases
    The town of Montgomery, Texas was founded by W. W. Shepperd in two distinct phases. History.

  • No Shannon Trading Post in 1826
    There was no trading post being operated by Owen or Jacob Shannon near the current location of Montgomery, Texas in 1826 as many poorly researched histories teach. Documents prove that the Shannons were still living in Nacogdoches as late as 1830. 

 

1845 Advertisement in Montgomery Patriot

Sale of Lots in the Town of Montgomery

Montgomery Patriot

July 2, 1845 Edition of the Montgomery Patriot, Page 4

Sam Houston Memorial Museum

Special Thanks to Mac Woodward, Curator of Collections

   In writing his book, Searle is seeking to correct a number of problems that have severely interfered with the accurate reporting of Montgomery County history.  Famed historian, David Hackett Fischer, in his book Historians' Fallacies, (New York, Harper and Row, Inc., 1970), has provided a number of rules of thumb for writing history.  On page 64, Fischer writes:

   "Fourth, the burden of proof, for any historical assertion, always rests upon its author.  Not his critics, not his readers, not his graduate students, not the next generation. Let us call this the rule of responsibility."

   With one or two exceptions, this responsibility has been shirked by Montgomery County historians.  Many Montgomery County historians provided no footnotes or citations for any of their sources.  They just made dogmatic assertions regarding various aspects of Montgomery County history without providing any specific sources or supporting evidence. 

   Another major problem in the reporting of Montgomery County history has been false citation.  Many institutions of higher learning view false citation as academic fraud.  For example, the University of Virginia Honor Committee states that academic fraud includes includes:

False Citation: "False citation is falsely citing a source or attributing work to a source from which the referenced material was not obtained.  A simple example of this would be footnoting a paragraph and citing a work that was never utilized."1

   Georgetown University also addresses false citation in its "2015-2016 Georgetown Honor System, III., D.," as follows:

False citation is academic fraud. False citation is the attribution of intellectual property to an incorrect or fabricated source with the intention to deceive. False attribution seriously undermines the integrity of the academic enterprise by severing a chain of ideas which should be traceable link by link.2

   In an effort to correct the problems of no citation and false citation found in some earlier Montgomery County histories, Searle has deliberately overcompensated by providing his own form of instant citation.  Though using some footnotes, Searle has tried to provide as much data regarding every source, especially primary documentary sources, immediately following the first use of each source in his histories.  The reader will know instantly where a particular record or document came from without having to go all the way to the end of the web page to look it up.  And in most cases the reader will be able to see an actual scan of the source document.  

   Another serious problem in the writing of Montgomery County history has been the overuse of secondary and tertiary sources and the failure to verify the accuracy of those sources.  Searle believes that, "A history, whose author draws conclusions from other than primary sources or secondary sources actually based on primary sources, is by definition fiction and not history at all."  Having found so many critical errors in Montgomery County histories, Searle has gone the other way.  He has focused almost exclusively on primary historical sources to discover and re-construct the true early history of the county.

   Far too many Montgomery County historians have relied solely on what previous Montgomery County historians have written without doing any of their own research or making any effort to verify the conclusions of their predecessors.  The satirist, Max Beerbohm, put it best when he wrote, "History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another."  This is what has happened to much of the reporting of early Montgomery County history. The most outstanding example of this of course is the oft repeated story of the Montgomery Trading Post.  Begun as folklore presented in a high school student's history essay in 1925, it was repeated so often that it has now been elevated to a point where it is regularly presented as an unquestionable fact.

___

1 https://honor.virginia.edu/academic-fraud; Accessed July 30, 2020

2 https://honorcouncil.georgetown.edu/system/policies/standards-of-conduct/;Accessed July 30, 2020

 




Click to Read and Print a Free Copy of the Early History of Montgomery, Texas - First Edition

Read and/or print a free copy of Kameron Searle's 56 page book The Early History of Montgomery, Texas - First Edition by clicking the image above OR to order the 56 page softbound 2nd Printing send $6.00 plus $3.00 postage and handling (check or money order) to the address below. Either one is an essential tool for students, historians and genealogists researching family and ancestors who lived in the Lake Creek Settlement prior to the founding of the Town of Montgomery, Texas in 1837. Hundreds of copies of the free PDF have been downloaded already. Get your free copy today.

Discover, Understand, and Preserve.

 




To report errors and corrections regarding any of the articles

listed on this page, contact Kameron K. Searle at,

ksearle1@pdq.net

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Mr. Kameron K. Searle

9111 Katy Fwy, Suite 202

Houston, Texas 77024

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Telephone: 713-880-4529