News From the Lake Creek Settlement - The First Montgomery County Courthouse Was 'Rent to Own'

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX -- The land that comprises Montgomery County was originally part of Washington County. Montgomery County was created on December 14, 1837, by an act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas and signed into law by Sam Houston, the President of the Republic of Texas. In the early days of the Republic of Texas, newly created counties received no money from the cash-poor Republic of Texas to get started. Newly created counties were expected to find enough money to build essential county buildings such as courthouses and jails on their own.

No taxes had yet been levied by the new county and no criminal fines had yet been assessed by the county courts. The coffers were bare. Land deeds and other records needed to be filed somewhere. The County Commissioners Court needed to hold meetings somewhere. The County Clerk and the District Clerk needed offices somewhere. On March 1, 1838, the Montgomery County Commissioners Court selected the town of Montgomery to be the county seat of the newly created county. On that same date, the Commissioners appointed a committee to draft a plan to build “the necessary public buildings.” The Commissioners stipulated that the proposed courthouse should not cost more than $1,000.

But money trickled in slowly. In the end, it was clear to everyone that cash-poor Montgomery County could not afford to have a courthouse built for several years. The town of Montgomery had been founded by W. W. Shepperd in July of 1837. W. W. Shepperd, owned everything in the town of Montgomery including the store, all the houses and buildings, the cotton gin, the mill, etc. The Montgomery County Commissioners Court had no place to turn but to Shepperd.

The first courthouse in Montgomery County was a house owned by W. W. Shepperd. Initially, the county intended to purchase the house that was being used as the courthouse for $800, but if the county did not purchase the house, the commissioners agreed to pay Shepperd a reasonable rent. At a meeting held on the second Monday in October of 1838, we find the following action by the Commissioners’ Court regarding the purchase of a courthouse.

“Ordered that in the event the House purchased by the Commissioners on the part of the County for a Court House in the Town of Montgomery for the sum of Eight hundred dollars shall not be paid for as per contract within one year from the date hereof, then and in that case the house shall revert to W. W. Shepperd and that he shall be entitled to reasonable rent for the same for the time it shall have been occupied as a Court House.”

However, the county failed to pay Shepperd the purchase price of eight hundred dollars within the following year. So, Shepperd still owned Montgomery County’s courthouse. Shortly thereafter, Shepperd decided to sell his remaining interest in the town of Montgomery to a land speculator named James McCown. Shepperd realized a huge profit over his original investment in the land that had become the town of Montgomery and shortly thereafter had become the county seat of Montgomery County. When W. W. Shepperd sold the town of Montgomery to James McCown in 1839, the courthouse was part of the bargain. The minutes of the April 7, 1840, meeting provide the following.

Wm. W. Shepperd the original proprietor of the Town of Montgomery.…made shewing that he had sold and conveyed to James McCown his portion of said Town tract together with the house occupied as a Court House - whereupon it is ordered that the said James McCown be recognized by this Court as the owner and proprietor and possessed of all the right and privileges in and to the said Town of Montgomery and the Court house which the said Wm. W. Shepperd was entitled to previous to the aforesaid sale and conveyance to the said James McCown.

Montgomery County still did not own its courthouse. The courthouse now belonged to James McCown. McCown would own the Montgomery County courthouse until 1843. McCown and the county concluded a real estate transaction on April 3, 1843, in which the county received “one tract of three acres for a public square together with the Court house and two office – one for the County Clerk, the other for the District Clerk situated thereon, with all furniture and appurtenances there unto belong.” Montgomery County finally owned its courthouse.

Today, Montgomery County’s population is over 620,000 and is one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. It is hard to imagine that there was a time when this county could not afford to own a courthouse building.

Kameron K. Searle is a member of the Montgomery County Historical Commission, a regular contributor to The Handbook of Texas Online, and the author of The Early History of Montgomery, Texas. He also served as the historian for the Texas Historical Commission marker for the "Lake Creek Settlement" located at the Nat Hart Davis Pioneer Complex and Museum in Historic Montgomery, Texas.