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As one story goes, a trading post was established by Andrew Montgomery in 1823 near the Lower Coushatti Trace and the Loma Del Toro crossroads—west of the current city of Montgomery—to trade with local Native Americans, local historian and ancestor Robin Montgomery said. Andrew arrived in the area by 1820 working as a courier in James Long’s army.

Robin said the trading post became the seed of the Montgomery Prairie—which formed over time as the Montgomery, Shannon, Greenwood and Pierson families traveled through the area. In 1829, Andrew relinquished ownership of the trading post to his aunt, Margaret Montgomery, and her husband Owen Shannon.

“This [story] was directly handed down,” Robin said. “The family story my dad and uncle used to tell is that Andrew established this post somewhere around 1823.”

The town of Montgomery was established near the trading post in July 1837, and in December 1837 it was followed by the creation of Montgomery County—which named the town as its county seat. Robin said the town was named Montgomery after the tradition formed around the trading post.

However, local historian Kameron Searle challenges the story. He said a trading post did exist, but it was instead established by William Waters Shepperd in 1835 within the Lake Creek settlement. Searle said the Montgomery story is not supported by primary evidence.

“When you read these early histories, all of the early historians in Montgomery County were mistaken,” Searle said. “The myth got started early, but it was just one history after another building on this mythological idea that there was somehow a trading post known as the Montgomery Trading Post.”

Searle said the Lake Creek Settlement was the area’s first colony and was formed through land grants awarded by Stephen F. Austin in what is known as Austin’s second colony. Working as an empresario in the name of the Mexican government, Austin was authorized to distribute land to about 500 families in 1825, and he did so beginning in 1831.

“Among those 500 additional families were these settlers that settled into what became western Montgomery County,” Searle said. “Some people will argue that there were settlers earlier than that in the county, but nobody had received any land grants until 1831.”

In 1835, Shepperd established his store in the Lake Creek Settlement and it quickly became a community center, Searle said. Shepperd then established the town of Montgomery near his store in 1837 and would eventually donate land to Montgomery County—which sold the tracts of land to fund construction of county buildings.

“I believe Shepperd knew the county was being created, and he was setting up the town in anticipation of it being the county seat,” Searle said. “He founded the town in association with Col. John White Moody.”

Searle said he believes Moody—who was the auditor for the Republic of Texas—named the town Montgomery. Moody previously worked as the county clerk of Montgomery, Alabama.

“So this is where the name of the town came from. Then of course the county was named after the town,” Searle said. “Nobody named Montgomery had anything to do with the naming of the town.”

However, Robin’s daughter, Joy, said she believes the trading post may have been conveyed from Andrew Montgomery to his aunt, who in turn conveyed the property to Shepperd at a later date. Joy said she also has documentation of the Montgomery estate signed by Shepperd following the death of Andrew’s father, William.

“[The stories] all converge,” Joy said. “It is just layers of history. Ours is earlier. Then it became the Shannon’s. Then it became the Shepperd’s.”