Montgomery County Historical Commission presents MHS President Billy Ray Duncan with Prestigious Award

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX -- The preservation of history is a commitment, and for those who have been in the game long enough, and have made a distinctive impact, those people are few and far between. The President of the Montgomery Historical Society, Billy Ray Duncan, is such a man, and the Montgomery County Historical Commission awarded him the ‘William Harley Gandy Distinguished Service Award’ this past Monday for Mr. Duncan’s dedication to keeping the history of Montgomery alive. The award was presented by Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough, at the Conroe Chamber of Commerce building in downtown Conroe.

The William Harley Gandy Distinguished Service Award is presented at the discretion of the Montgomery County Historical Commission, with the approval of Commissioners Court, to those special individuals, corporations or organizations who have exhibited distinguished leadership, initiative, and dedication to the preservation of the history of Montgomery County. Billy Ray has done extensive research on Texas history and personalities telling to all who will listen. His stories and anecdotes are full of interesting information and in most cases very funny.

“Billy Ray has been deserving of this award for such a long time,” said Montgomery County Historical Commission Chairman Larry Forester. “This is an award for a person is who considered an unsung hero, and Mr. Duncan is deserving of this honor for his observation and promotion of Montgomery County History.”

Eight years ago, Mr. Duncan began reenacting General Sam Houston at Montgomery Historical Society events, and especially enjoys those events when kids are present, learning history from a place General Houston actually visited, passing through Montgomery many times on his way to and from Huntsville. Billy Ray has researched the life of General Sam Houston, who not only led the ragtag Texian Army to victory over the Mexicans at San Jacinto, but was the the Republic of Texas’s first president. Houston also was a congressman and governor of Tennessee, state representative and senator from Texas, as well as its governor. Houston made frequent stops in the town of Montgomery before his death in 1863. Billy Ray’s study of the man has inspired him to collect period clothing similar to that of the Texas leader, which plays its part in his reenacting engagements. Billy Ray's knowledge of Bear Grease, and how it was used in hair care and other household uses will astound anyone who is brave enough to ask. General Houston is said to have used Bear Grease in his daily regimen.

Billy Ray is also an organizer, along with Society member Eva Rains, as well as a participant in Montgomery’s annual ‘Voices from the Past’ cemetery tours each October, and the ‘Christmas in Historical Montgomery’ home tours each December, both of which are sponsored by the Montgomery Historical Society and supported by the Montgomery County History Taskforce.

Duncan was born in Montgomery, and knew the ways of the farm growing up. He grew up on his family’s land northeast of Historic Montgomery, located on old Bethel Road (now FM 1097). There he and his siblings were engaged in many common farm chores. He would wake up at 3 a.m. to milk 60 cows at the local dairy in town before heading to school, learning all day, until it was time to get back to the farm for the 3 p.m. milking. For kids to do that today, it could be considered abuse, but that’s how it was back then. And Duncan’s love for the town of Montgomery and its remarkable history have never stopped, with him recognizing its place in history at an early age.

Billy Ray Duncan is a 1960 graduate of Montgomery High School. He was always friends with a girl from Blake Road, named Esther, and in high school they grew close. After Esther graduated, the two were soon married, and started a family in Houston, where he initially worked for a cotton exchange as a grader, then onto the City of Houston with the traffic department, and later to being in charge of railroad crossings in the city. He was also responsible for movie permits in Houston, when all the famous movies in the 1970s and 80s were in production. In the mid-1970s, Duncan began metal detecting, and has made numerous historical finds, including a Republic of Texas naval uniform button that he found in 1976. In the 1990s, Billy Ray and his brother Donald found 3 metal livery stable tokens on property located on the west side of Liberty Street in Historic Montgomery. The tokens stimulated interest in the early history of the town and the Republic of Texas, more than just the old homesteads that populate the town center. The site where the tokens were found, now has a mural on-site dedicated to the livery stable that once stood at the location, and was part of the town’s history.

As President of the Montgomery Historical Society, Duncan is the primary caretaker of seven historic buildings in Historic Montgomery that are owned and maintained by the Society, of which one of the homes belonged to William Harley Gandy. And Billy Ray, during the cooler months has been known to take naps in the house that bears Gandy’s name, along with the man who built the house around 1892, John B. Addison. So we know there are no ghosts located at the Addison-Gandy House.

Duncan’s Historical Society and Montgomery ISD have a special relationship, in that every 7th grader must learn about the significance of Historic Montgomery’s place in Texas history, and actually tour the town center, and visit all the historic houses, the Nat Hart Davis Museum, and write a report for a grade before the end of the school year. Montgomery Historical Society member and teacher Ms. Brenda Beaven’s actually leads students around town in a tour so students can catch the high points of her tour to get the best grades possible.

“It is such an honor to be recognized by the Historical Commission,” said Mr. Duncan. “I couldn’t have done it without the support of my wife Esther, who passed earlier this year. I’d like to recognize the members of the Montgomery Historical Society, and all the support they provided over the years. This is their award, just as much as it is mine.”

The Legacy of Billy Ray Duncan and his work with the Montgomery Historical Society, will have a significant impact on the appreciation of our county’s precious history for generations to come. The historical information that has been and is currently being collected has a home with The Society, and their faithful stewardship of the historic artifacts, buildings and sites in the City of Montgomery cannot be overestimated. Duncan and other members of The Society are indispensable to the heritage tourism programs that draw visitors to Historic Montgomery, and raise the awareness by the city’s residents to their city’s cultural heritage, and that improve the quality of life for its residents.