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Wednesday, November 12, 2003
I've Been Thinking, Historical Account of the Montgomery Area
by Narcissa Martin Boulware
"Be
Careful What You Wish For"
The headlines of the Conroe Courier dated Feb. 17, 1949 read, "Highway 105 Officially Opened" which topped off more than one hundred years of gradually improving the roads leading to the village/town/city of Montgomery. That highway opened up a whole new world in Montgomery County. Today, fifty-four years later Highway 105 has become a nightmare to the now grown-up City of Montgomery. I was born and raised within a couple of miles of Montgomery and today when I travel some of the roads when I would ordinarily encounter few travelers, now even the most outlying trails leading into the city are getting dangerous. I meet drivers who are determined to pass, no matter how fast they must go to pass drivers who exceed the posted speed limit by many miles per hour, drivers who will not tolerate the speed limit driver and who will make known their need to pass the speed observant driver by loud blasts of their horns or cutting over so close as they pass as to almost hook bumpers or who shout out ugly orders as they go by even sometimes shaking a fist as they speed on. The sum up is, "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it." I've been thinking about all the excited celebrated when the great ribbon cutting opening took place at the cross roads of 105 and 149. Several of the local newspapers did write-ups on that day's event and by all accounts it was a very cold day in Feb. 1949.
In a story by about a much loved County Judge J.H. Lee, one of his platforms in a political race for Judge was to build a highway from Silsbee, through Kountze, Cleveland, Montgomery, Navasota on to Brenham. He did not succeed until he got help from two prominent men H.M. Crighton of Conroe, the owner and operator of the Crighton Theater in Conroe, which incidentally survived through the ups and downs of the last fifty years in Conroe and today is once again a beautiful place of entertainment. There is quite a lot of great theater going on in that building to today, with many locals taking part.
Then Judge Lee got the attention of the prominent sons of Montgomery's Robert A. Powell. This man was a member of the well-known family who were much involved in the early history and growth of the village/town of Montgomery. Robert Powell was a member of a family who put immense value on education and became the lawyer-advisor to the communities surrounding the town of Montgomery. He lived on the original Powell homestead, just south of the New Cemetery on Old Plantersville Road. He is commonly known and rightly so, as the "father" of the consolidation of the Montgomery schools. R.A. Powell was elected to the House of Representatives for the Montgomery District #27, serving during the years of 1925, 1926 and 1927. It was during those years that the consolidations of the Montgomery schools were completed.
Judge Lee continued to pursue his dream of his proposed highway and he was able to convince the four Road Commissioners of that time, Pct 1 Leslie Doughty of Willis, Pct. 2 U.E. Allen of Conroe, Pct 3 J.W. Goodson of Magnolia and Peter Willis Davis for our Pct 4. Following the input of Judge Lee and gaining the strength of all four widely separated Road Commissioners, a group of local business men and leaders of their communities traveled to Beaumont to a Chamber of Commerce meeting to pledge their support toward the development of Highway 105. Among those who attended the meeting was Jack Hill, a member of the Davis family representing Peter Willis Davis Road Commissioner of Montgomery Pct. 4, J.E. Pace, prominent farmer and ranchers, living on Jackson Switch road south of Dobbin, representing the Pct. 3 area, T.H. McMurrough and Bryon Shannon, pledging the help of Dobbin and that section of the proposed Hwy 105, Monroe Dennis, Montgomery developer of the first all-service garage in Montgomery, B.G. Post and F.L. Powell well known merchants in Montgomery and lastly the highly professional Dr. F.A. Young , who's home and office was the two story house on the corner of Caroline Street and what was known at that time as Main St. The City of Montgomery today calls that Liberty Street.
Montgomery was on the move, while the citizens and elected officials were struggling to get Bonds passed to finance Hwy. 105 and pass muster with the State Highway Department. They got help from Senator Colson.
Part two next week |
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