The Early HistoryofMontgomery County, Texas
Kameron K. Searle 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. 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 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. In writing his book, Searle is seeking to correct a number of problems that have severely damaged the 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:
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 in its Statement of Academic Fraud includes:
Georgetown University also addresses false citation in its "2009-2010 Undergraduate Bulletin, Academic Regulations, IV. The Honor System, (3) (c)" as follows:
In an effort to correct the problems of no citation and false citation so rampant in various 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. 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 book 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 to 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. 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.
1845 Advertisement in Montgomery Patriot Sale of Lots in the Town of Montgomery
July 2, 1845 Edition of the Montgomery Patriot, Page 4 Sam Houston Memorial Museum Special Thanks to Mac Woodward, Curator of Collections ___ 1 http://www.virginia.edu/humanbiology/new_site_files/research_thesis/academic_fraud.htm 2 http://bulletin.georgetown.edu/regulations6.html
To report errors and corrections regarding any of the articles listed on this page, contact Kameron K. Searle at, -- Mr. Kameron K. Searle 602 Sawyer, Suite 460 Houston, Texas 77007 -- Telephone: 713-880-4529 |
