The First Montgomery County Courthouse

Montgomery County, Texas

  By Kameron Searle 

   This is the history of the first Montgomery County courthouse as preserved in the minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court.  It is really quite amazing just how much information about the first courthouse of Montgomery County is contained within the minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court.

   The town of Montgomery, Texas was founded by W. W. Shepperd in partnership with J. W. Moody in July of 1837. 

   Montgomery County, Texas was created by an Act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas which was signed into law by President Sam Houston on December 14, 1837.  The Act provided that Montgomery County would be included in the third judicial district, that the district courts would be held on the fourth Mondays of April and October each year, and that the county courts would be held on the second Mondays of February, May, August and November.

   The Act creating Montgomery County also appointed James Mitchell, Pleasant Gray, William Robinson, Elijah Collard, Charles Garnett [Garrett], Joseph L. Bennet [Bennett], B. B. Goodrich, D. D. Dunham, and Henry Fanthorpe [Fanthorp] as "commissioners with the power and authority (any five of them concurring) to select a proper place for the seat of justice" for Montgomery County. These commissioners were also given the power and authority to obtain by purchase upon the faith and credit of the county

   Sec. 2.   Be it further enacted, That the said county of Montgomery shall be included in the third judicial district, and the district courts thereof shall be holden at the county seat of said county, on the fourth Mondays of April and October in each and every year, and the county courts for said county shall commence and be holden on the second Mondays of February, May, August and November.

 

   Sec. 3.   Be it further enacted, That James Mitchell, Pleasant Gray, William Robinson, Elijah Collard, Charles Garnett, Joseph L. Bennet, B. B. Goodrich, D. D. Dunham, and Henry Fanthorpe, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners, with power and authority (any five of them concurring) to select a proper place for the seat of justice for said county, and to obtain by purchase upon the faith and credit of the county, or receive by donation such quantity of land as will be sufficient for the erection of public buildings, and for defraying such other expenses of said county as said commissioners may deem expedient and that the land so purchased or donated shall be under the superintendance and control of the board of commissioners of said county.

   Sometime between December 14, 1837 and January or February of 1838, these commissioners made their deciscion and selected the town of Montgomery as the seat of justice.  A few Montgomery county records were recorded in the town of Montgomery in February of 1838 and one or two others may have been filed as early as January of 1838.  It is a fact that Montgomery County had begun to functon as a county prior to the first Commissioners Court meeting.

[Scan one or two February 1838 documents filed in Montgomery here]

   The first Commissioners Court meeting was held on March 1, 1838.  At that meeting, W. W. Shepperd donated an equal half undivided interest in 200 acres of land to Montgomery County.  These 200 acres of land were due south and adjacent to the 200 acres of land on which the original town of Montgomery had been founded in July of 1837.

The president placed before the board the written

act of donation of W. W. Shepperd to the County of Mont-

gomery of an equal half undivided interest in the Town

of Montgomery and Sixty acres of pine land adjoining –

donated for County purposes and it being put to question

whether said donation should be accepted it was unanimous-

ly received – and the question being also whether the

place of the Town presented by C. B. Stewart as agent for

W. W. Shepperd should be received the same was also

unanimously received and adopted

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 1. 

   At the March 1, 1838 Commissioners Court meeting, the Commissioners intially toyed with the idea of building a courthouse.

Resolved by Martin P. Clark proposing that

the Committee be appointed to contract for and to

superintend the erection of the necessary public build –

ings – provided the Court house shall not cost

exceeding one Thousand Dollars and Jail one thousand

Dollars – when B. B. Goodrich, William Rankin and

William C. Clark were appointed said Committee –

 poposed that Lemuel Smith Draughtman and Mechanic

be requested to draft a plan for courthouse and

public buildings –

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 3.  The courthouse and jail proposed were outrageaously expensive for a brand new county with no money. 

   We find more details regarding the courthouse in the minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court on the fourth Wednesday of April 1838 we find the following:

B. B. Goodrich for himself and Wm. M. Rankin and W. C.

Clark, made a report in relation to the purchase of a

Court House for said County which was ordered to be

filed in the Clks Office.

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 14. 

On motion, Resolved that the Committee - heretofore

appointed for that purpose be and they are hereby

authorized to contract for building a Jail provid –

ed the amount shall not exceed the proceeds of the

Sale of Public Lots in the Town of Montgomery,

after deducting the amount appropriated for build-

ing the Court House, and further provided that the

expense of building the Jail shall not exceed the

sum of Two thousand five hundred dollars which was

adopted -

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 15. 

   On the second Monday of October 1838 the minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court provide the following information about the Montgomery County Courthouse:

Lemuel Smith presented his account against

the County of Montgomery for For removing Court House, mak-

ing Bar, Judges Seat, Jury Boxes &c as per contract with

the Commissioners appointed for that purpose at the March

Term 1838 - for $200   which was allowed, and ordered to be

paid out of any money in the Tressury not otherwise

appropriated -

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 18. 

   The idea of building a courthouse had given way to the more practical idea of buying or renting a pre-existing building to be  used as a courthouse. 

Ordered that in the event the House

purchased by the Commissioners on the part of the

County for a Court House in the Town of Montgomery

for the sum of Eight hundred dollars shall not be

paid for as per contract within one year from

the date hereof, then and in that case the house

shall revert to W. W. Shepperd and that he shall

be entitled to reasonable rent for the same for

the time it shall have been occupied as a Court

House.

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 19. 

   The first courthouse of Montgomery County Texas was a house that was to be purchased from W. W. Shpperd for $800.00.  If not purchased within a year, W. W. Shepperd was to be paid rent for the time the county used the house as a courthouse.

   In 1839, W. W. Shepperd, the owner of the courthouse, sold his interest in the town of Montgomery to James McCown.  He also sold his interest in the courthouse to James McCown.  We find a record of this sale in the April 7, 1840 minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court.

Wm. W. Shepperd the original proprietor of the

Town of Montgomery who donated a portion of said town to

the County of Montgomery under contract made

and entered into between the said Wm. W. Shepperd and

the Board of said County Commissioners bearing date

the      day of            1838       made shewing that he had

sold and conveyed to James McCown his portion of said

Town tract together with the house occupied as a

Court House - whereupon it is ordered that the said

James McCown be recognized by this Court as the owner

and proprietor and possessed of all the right and

privileges in and to the said Town of Montgomery

and the Court house which the said Wm. W. Shepperd

was entitled to previous to the aforesaid sale and

conveyance to the said James McCown

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 59. 

Since the County had never purchased the house that was being used as a courthouse from Shepperd, the county owed him rent in accordance with the minutes of the

Ordered that William W. Shepperd be allowed

the sum of Two Hundred and Twenty five dollars for the

rent of the Court house previous to the 22d October 1839

to be paid him out of any monies that are shall come into

the County Treasury not otherwise appropriated receivable

in Audited Claims or Promissory notes of the Government

at this current year value at the time he shall receive the same

 

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 60 and 61. 

   The Montgomery County courthouse was originally below the hill in what was the "old town of Montgomery."  See the minutes of Tuesday, January 5, 1841:

Ordered by the Court that the proposal and contract of James Alexander McCown (1) agent for the proprietors of the town of Montgomery to move the Court house to the hill and to erect offices for County purposes be accepted

   See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 76.

   McCown trades courthouse and town square for one half interest in the town of Montgomery.