Montgomery’s First Part II

This local man was the cause of the first riot in the town of Montgomery. This was a young man, early twenties, strong, black man working as a cowhand on my father’s ranch. An annual crop of young horses had to be broken to ride to tend the cattle "running" on the free ranges miles away from home. There were two young cowhands who did the breaking of the young horse, both African Americans and both very good at their job. Miller Taylor and "Chinch" Womack were keen competitors, both did a lot of bragging on themselves, but they were good. A tent show came to Montgomery and camped out on the town’s square where the community house sits now. A couple of weeks before the show got to town, billboards and advertisements were nailed up on the roads leading into Montgomery. One of the attractions was a wager the show made offering $100 to anyone who could ride a famous "bucking" or "pitching" outlaw mare they owned. Their ads said no man had ever been able to ride her over three "jumps". At that point in time one hundred dollars was a fortune. There was great excitement at our place and two weeks of fussing and squabbling between Miller and Chinch who would get to try to ride the show’s outlaw mare first. Finally the Saturday show came and Chinch had won the right to be the first attempted rider. The largest crowd ever to gather for a tent show crowded the camp ground. Every black friend and every family member came to see Chinch ride. They came from Dobbin, Spring Branch, Old Dacus, The Brownwood Settlement, Keenan, Ryals and the large Lake Creek-The price farm and ranch. My brother John Martin, grown up with Miller and Chinch heard the details from many of the viewers. The mare was led out, saddled and blindfolded. She had been trained to stay still until the rider mounted, but when the blindfold was taken off, she went into action. She would rear straight up, then down came her head between her front legs and shortly after the rider was off. Only that didn’t happen to Chinch. No matter what the horse did, there was no "daylight" between Chinch and the saddle. The mare pitched furiously toward a barb wire fence about where the Jeptha Davis house stood. She attempted to jump the fence, got her feet tangled and fell. In falling, she never fell on her side, but quickly got up again, and Chinch was still sitting "tall in the saddle!" The mare turned back toward the tent and gave a few more loose jumps and stood still Chinch dismounted and when the show attendant came to get the horse, he claimed that when the mare fell, that constituted a "no ride". When the crowd understood that they were not going to pay Chinch for a fair and thorough ride. A big shout arose from the audience. Quickly the show people gathered in a group with sticks and axe handles, hoes and cowwhips threatening the great number of Chinch’s friends. That group pushed forward, pocket knives came out more than one pistil was displayed and the group began cutting tent ropes, tents, and pushing over booths and though the local law enforcement was there, they turned their backs to the show people. It was evident very quickly that the tent show was going to lose much more than they owed Chinch, and pretending it was all a misunderstanding they paid Chinch for his fair and square ride on the mare, purported to have never been ridden before.

Some of the first improvements to the tools or ways of making a living can be attributed to some of our early residents of the Montgomery community. To claim some of the "Firsts" in the county might be disputed as there is little written evidence left by these "inventors".

I like to claim the first tanyard for us and the first pottery factory, and the first law firm, the first doctor, the first plant nursery, the first telegraph line, the first ox train carrying the cotton to Mexico to serve the Confederacy, but if there is evidence that Montgomery was not the first to have the improved type of cotton gins or sawmills. I will claim that the firsts happened at the same time that others might claim the honor.

Those of us who have always called Montgomery home. Will always claim it to be the first.

Westmont Ranch, Montgomery, Texas. Home of Smart Highbrow Doc, son of Color Me Smart

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