Montgomery County
Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created from Washington County -- December 14, 1837 -- Organized the same year -- Named in honor of -- Richard Montgomery -- 1736-1775 -- Brigadier General in -- the Continental Army -- County seat, Montgomery, 1837 -- Conroe, since 1888
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Montgomery County was carved from Washington County on December 14, 1837, during the days of the Republic of Texas, and organized that same year. It was named for Richard Montgomery, the Continental Army brigadier general killed in the 1775 assault on Quebec. The county seat began at Montgomery in 1837 before shifting to Conroe in 1888.
Why it matters
The county's creation marks the young Republic of Texas organizing its frontier, while its name links Texas to the heroes of the American Revolution.
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Related people
- · Richard Montgomery
Related events
- · Creation of Montgomery County (1837)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Montgomery County Courthouses
Conroe, TX
Montgomery County was the third county created by the Republic of Texas, established by act of Congress on December 14, 1837, in response to a settlers' petition, and its sprawling original boundaries later gave rise to several neighboring counties. The town of Montgomery served as the first seat, where log cabins and a wood building housed county government until 1889, when an election moved the seat to Conroe. A brick courthouse rose here in 1891, and the present Art Deco building was completed in 1936 amid the prosperity of the Conroe oil boom, later expanded as the county grew.
New Bethlehem Cemetery
Cut and Shoot, TX
This burial ground has served the crossroads community later known as Cut and Shoot since the early 20th century, when families settled near the Conroe-Cleveland and Willis-Waukegan roads. Annie Amelia Peel conveyed land here for a school, meeting house, and cemetery, though the graveyard sat unused at first for want of a fence to keep livestock out. By the 1930s, when floods cut off roads to other cemeteries, residents began burying their dead here—Evalyn A. Davis Kelley was the first, in 1934—and it grew into the community's principal graveyard.
Site of the Home of Dr. Charles B. Stewart
Montgomery, TX
This site marks the home of Dr. Charles B. Stewart (1806–1885), a founding figure of Texas who served in the 1835 Consultation and became the Republic's first Secretary of State. A signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, he later represented Montgomery County at the 1845 Constitutional Convention that brought Texas into the Union and served in the state legislature. The State of Texas erected this monument in 1936, the state's centennial year.
Lake Creek Settlement
Montgomery, TX
Long before Stephen F. Austin's colonists arrived, the Coushatta people traveled the Coushatta Trace, a trade road running from Louisiana into Texas across these lands. Settled beginning around 1831 within Austin's second colony, the Lake Creek Settlement became the earliest known Anglo-American community in what is now Montgomery County. In 1835 W.W. Shepperd opened the area's first store, and from it in 1837 he founded the town of Montgomery; a number of Lake Creek settlers, including John Marshall Wade of the 'Twin Sisters' cannons, fought in the Texas Revolution.