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 and other primary source documents. 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.
First we will examine the Act that created Montgomery County to see what it has to say
about the Montgomery County seat, the County Court and the District Court.


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 Fantorpe, 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.
The source for this document is Laws of the Republic of Texas, In Two
Volumes, Vol. II, Printed by Order of the Secretary of State, Houston, Printed at the Office of the Telegraph,
1838, pages 33 and 34.
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.
Sometime between December 14, 1837 and February of 1838, these nine commissioners made
their decision 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. It is a fact the Montgomery County had begun to
function as a county prior to the first Montgomery County Commissioners Court meeting on March 1, 1838.
Montgomery County Clerk, Deed Book A, p.
15
From Mary Corner to Julia T. Stewart, Montgomery County Deed Book A,
pp. 11-15
Republic of Texas
County of Montgomery
Before me Jesse Grimes Chief Justice of the County aforesaid on the 26th day
of February 1838, personally appeared Martin P. Clark and Gwynn Morrison witnesses to the within Title
from Mary Corner to Julia T. Stewart who each and Severally Swear that they Saw Mary Corner and Julia T.
Stewart and Charles B. Stewart Sign and Seal the within Title as aforesaid, on the date therein
mentioned and enumerated, and that they thereunto set their names as witnesses. Given under my hand
in the Town of Montgomery on the above date,
Jesse Grimes Chief
Justice
County
Court
Montgomery
County
Filed of Record 26th Feby 1838
Recorded 28th Feby 1838
Gwynn
Morrison
Clerk &
Recorder
The nine commissioners had already located the county seat of
Montgomery County in the Town of Montgomery (the so-called "old town of Montgomery under the hill)
by February 26, 1838.
Vol. A, p. 20
From Government to Mary Corner, Montgomery County Deed Book A, pp.
16-20

Sworn to and Subscribed to before me in the
Town of Montgomery this 26th February 1838. And I
affix my private seal there being no county seal yet established
Jesse
Grimes
Chf Justice County
Cour
Montgomery
County
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 Montgomery 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 unanimously 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
initially 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
buildings – 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 outrageously
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:
See Montgomery County Clerk, Minutes of the Montgomery County
Commissioners Court 1838-1845, page 14.
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:
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.
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. Shepperd 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.
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
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. The county seat may have jumped to the top of the hill on
March 1, 1838, but the courthouse remained below for almost three years. The Commissioners do not contract
with James McCown to move the Courthouse to the hill until January 5, 1841. The courthouse has been at the
old site of the county seat under the hill since early 1838. At this point James McCown still owns the
Montgomery County courthouse building.
James McCown Trades Courthouse and Public Square for County's One Half Interest in the
Town of Montgomery

602
A
James McCown
-to-
County of Montgomery
Republic of Texas
County of Montgomery
Know all men by these presents that I James McCown of the Republic and County aforesaid in consideration of a
donation made by the Court of County Commissioners of the County aforesaid to one hundred acres of land
being the same which William W. Shepperd of the County aforesaid donated as a site for the County seat of
said County of Montgomery, do hereby relinquish all my right
title, claim and interest in and to the following described tracts of Land (viz) [Land Description]
- together
with the Court house and two offices - one for the County Clerk, the other for the district Clerk
situated thereon, with all the furniture and appurtenances thereunto belonging...
In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand and seal (a scroll) this third
day of April AD 1843
In presence of the undersigned
witnesses
James McCown [Seal]
Isaac McGary John
Park
See Montgomery County Clerk, Deed, Vol. A, p. 620.
Close Up

"...together with the Court house and two
offices - one for the County Clerk, the other for the district Clerk situated thereon, with all the
furniture and appurtenances thereunto belonging..."
Here the Montgomery County Commissioners' Court traded its one half undivided interest
in the Town of Montgomery to James McCown giving him the complete title in the remaining land in the town of
Montgomery and giving Montgomery County the complete title to the Montgomery County Courthouse, the County
Clerk's office, the District Clerk's office, and the Public Square.
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