USA > Texas > Montgomery County > A History of Montgomery County, Texas > Part 6
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The "Grangers" are doing very well here, and are in- creasing in number every meeting. They have opened in this place a Grange store, upon a small scale, which
40 Conroe Courier, April 8, 1932.
4ª Anna Davis Weisinger, "History of Montgomery County, " Historicade Program, October 25, 1949, p. 15.
42 Montgomery County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book A., p. 5€
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is destined to become of great benefit to the farmers; we are told that its effect is being felt already. The Store is under the management of Col. Israel Worsham kept in the building occupied by F. J. Williams.
43
In the same paper an advertisement gave the tuition rates for the newly organized Willis Male and Female College. The advertise- ment stated that Willis was instituted for males and females and that the exercises for the institution were resumed August 1, 1875 and that they would continue for ten months. Tuition rates were two dollars and five dollars a month; a student taking music was charged five dollars extra. The expense of the student, including board, need not exceed one hundred seventy-five dollars for the entire season. 44
The Willis Male and Female College plant consisted of three buildings, the main building, dining room and kitchen, and one other building. The third floor of the main building was used for laboratories and rooms for boarding students, and at one time housed the dining room and kitchen. At one time there were about two hundred fifty students who boarded in the college and in several houses located on the street to the west of the grounds and in nearby homes or board- ing houses. The curriculum of the college provided for the study of 43 The Willis Observer, April 20, 1875.
44 Loc. cit.
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ancient languages, history, mathematics, literature, science, vocal and instrumental music, art, and physical culture. The administrators of the college were Reverend S. N. Barker and wife, George W. Stovall, F. P. Crowe, J. A. Kooken, John W. Hoke, M. A. Kline, and Cyril M. Jansky. 45
A practice at one time of the college was that at a certain hour each week day evening the janitor of the main building would ring a bell which was in a cupola atop the building. The ringing of the college bell was the signal for all boarding students to retire to the study hall of the college for supervised study of two or three hours and those in the homes and the out-in-town boarding houses were supposed to go to their respective study tables and study for a like period of time. 46
By 1886 Willis had the requisite number of inhabitants to incorporate as a town. Upon a petition of forty-nine resident citizens asking for an election to be held to incorporate the town, the County Judge declared an election to be held in the town of Willis at the Market House of R. B. Roach on March 16, 1886. The election was held and by a majority vote of fourteen, the
45 Personal interview of author with Hulon N. Anderson, Conroe, Texas, July 22, 1951.
46 Loc. cit.
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citizens voted against incorporation. 47
Willis continued to grow rapidly, because in the 1890 census it had almost as many people as its rival town, Montgomery -- 832 and 921 respectively. 48
In the 1890's Willis . had a building boom. Many new stores and residents were constructed. Some of the places of business there at the time were T. W. Smith's General Merchandise, Carson and Mckibbin General Store, Sandel's Store, Powell and Walker's Drug, Leslie's Brick Yard, First and Last Chance Saloon, and Pearl Saloon. An opera house was constructed by T. W. Smith in 1893. The local newspaper wrote the following about its construction: Through the courtesy of its owner, Capt. T. W. Smith, an Index representative, was shown through the neat and attractive public hall and Thespian temple, which he has recently had fitted up in the second story of the Caldwell building, at the end of Stewart street. The interior is handsomely painted and comfortably seated with benches of an improved pattern, thereby insuring the unstinted praise of all who may patrionize it. The stage is of modern design, and a handsome drop curtain and scenic appurtenances of a suitable character will soon arrive and be put in place. The room on the south side of the building answers most admirably as a dressing boudior, without encroaching upon the space of the main hall, and an additional seating capacity is the result. Some kind of an entertainment will probably be given upon its com- pletion, in order that the citizens of Willis may be formally introduced to what they have long sadly missed --
47 Commissioners Minutes, op. cit .. Brok B, p. 235. -
48 Richardson, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 1128.
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a pleasant and an attractive public hall. 49
Willis attracted much attention around 1895 because of the tobacco industry started there. In the latter 1890's Willis had developed this industry so well that it became a very much advertised little town. Fine grades of tobacco were grown in the vicinity and T. W. Smith and son, Cwen Smith, encouraged the industry by build- ing a large brick cigar factory and employed more than one hundred men and women to roll the tobacco into cigars. At its peak Willis boasted of seven cigar factories. A large number of big tobacco buyers from the various eastern points would come to Willis each season to buy their tobacco. They claimed that the Willis tobacco had a flavor that could not be found elsewhere. The farmers grew the celebrated "Vuelta Abago" variety of Cuban tobacco and they sent to Cuba each year for fresh seed. 50
The tobacco industy was very successful at Willis until the United States Congress lifted the tariff on Cuban tobacco, which had a very devasting effect on the industry at Willis, due to the fact that Cuba, with cheaper labor, could raise tobacco more cheaply than Willis.
Owen Smith, owner of one of the cigar factories, told a local
49 The Willis Index, October 20, 1893. 50 Conroe Courier, June 30, 1933.
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citizen that the reason the cigar factories closed was because the Cuban employees who worked them wanted to form a union. The union activities were squelched by the employers and thus making the Cubans angry they rolled up gun powder and asafetida in the next shipment of cigars. When the reports came in from the buyers the tobacco industry ceased to exist in Willis. 51
After the tobacco industry faded away the lumber industry appeared in Willis to keep it alive. Today, it has several sawmills and planers that employs much of its population and is the main source of its wealth. It is a quite respectable little village with about nine hundred people who go about their daily tasks while they think of the days when someone styled their town as the "Athens of Montgomery County. " 52
The city of Conroe is the infant municipality of Montgomery County. Although it was not named until sometime later, it had its beginning January 1, 1881 when Isaac Conroe purchased the Joshua G. Smith tract of land. Previous to the year 1881 Isaac Conroe operated a sawmill at Haltom south of Conroe on the International and Great Northern Railroad, and after purchasing the timber land
51 Personal interview of author with Ilanon Moon, Willis, Texas, June 10, 1952.
52 Personal interview cf author with Hulon N. Anderson, Conroe, Texas. July 22, 1951.
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from J. G. Smith, in October he moved his sawmill to the center of the Smith survey. This location was about two and a half miles east of the railroad, at which is the site of presnt-day Beach. After the mill was constructed a tram was built from the mill to the Inter- national and Great Northern Railroad track. The tram was made with wooden rails and spiked with wooden spikes, upon which tram cars were drawn by three mules harnessed in single file. The mules were driven without lines, the leader being trained to keep in the middle of the road and all that was necessary for the driver to do was to sit upon the load of lumber with his foot on the brake and use and eight plat whip which was attached to a stock about six feet long. Some of the drivers became so expert with the whip that with little effort they could knock a horse fly off a mule at one crack. 53
The opening of Isaac Conroe's mill brought new people to the vicinity who were employed by the mill. They settled around the mill and along the tram and at its junction with the main railroad. About 1885 J. K. Ayres built a sawmill near where the Santa Fe section house now stands. 54 This mill also brought to the vicinity more people who settled at the junction of the tram and railroad.
53 Conroe Courier, July 28, 1922.
54 Conroe Courier, June 30, 1933.
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On June 15, 1882 the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe purchased a right-of-way through Montgomery County, and in the latter part of the 1880's the railroad was finished. This line connected with Conroe's tram and crossed the International and Great Northern at that point; therefore the point of the crossing of the two railroads became an important prospect for future industrial expansion. 55
It was after the completion of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe, that is about the year 1886, that Conroe acquired its name. Before that time, the local area was unnamed and the vicinity was just a number of houses about the mills and along the railroad tracks. In an article written by W. M. Conroe, son of Isaac Conroe, the fol- lowing was related concerning the naming of Conroe:
Our home was in Houston and Father made trips to Houston every Saturday or Sunday, and to catch the train it was necessary to flag it at night with a lantern and in the day time with a white handkerchief. It was on one of his return trips from Houston that a Mr. Hoxey, an of- ficial of the road at that time, happened to be a passenger and sat with my father. Father approached him on the matter of making a regular stop and Mr. Hoxey was favorably impressed with the idea, and arranged with my father to sell or have tickets sold for short trips over the I. & G. N. Mr. Hoxey asked father if he had named the place, and the reply was that he had not.
Mr. Hoxey then said why not call it Conroe's switch? Which of course was satisfactory.
55 Martin, op. cit., p. 16.
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Mr. Hoxey is really the man who named the town.
Soon after the above indicent, tickets arrived and on these tickets was printed, "From Conroe's To
The post office department a little later established a post office, Father being the post master, and the place was named Conroe's. All maps and postmarks prior to 1889 carried the name Conroe's. Soon after 1889 the 's was dropped by the post office department and the name Conroe appeared. I wrote the railroad company myself, as they were carrying the name Conroe's which was on the sign at the depot was changed to Conroe, hence this is the way Conroe got its name.
In another article written by W. M. Conroe it was declared that the town site of Conroe, at the beginning of its history, was a dense forest so thick that one might get lost if not familiar with the lay of the land. The area was thickly inhabited by wolves, bear, deer, wild cats, and nearly all manner of wild life. In the article Mr. Conroe claimed he subsisted on venison meat rather than beef. 57
By 1889 Conroe had grown to be a town of probably two hundred fifty or three hundred people. 58
While most of the popula - tion of the county was west of the San Jacinto River, the citizens petitioned the court to hold an election for moving the county seat to Conroe. On April 27, 1889 the election was held and with the com- bined vote of Conroe, Willis, and the mill population of Leonidas 56 Conroe Courier, July 29. 1922.
57 Ibid., April 8, 1932.
58 Weisinger, op. cit., p. 16.
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near Conroe, Conroe with a majority of sixty-two votes won the election. 59
Conroe profited from Willis' mistake, because she did not waste any time obtaining temporary buildings for the county offices. On May 14, 1889 the Commissioners Court met and passed on the following in regard to a temporary courthouse and having the county records moved from Montgomery:
A contract for temporary public buildings was made with Capt. Isaac Conroe, and his residence on lot 8, in block 4, was secured for county offices. A large district court roon, forty feet square, is to be erected on the north end of the lot, as well as a commodious room for the accommodation of the county's safes and records, and the upstairs of the residence is to be fitted up as a grand jury room. For the rent of all this property the county is to pay $25 for the first month, and $50 per month so long as it occupies it thereafter.
The contract for removing the county safes, records, courthouse furniture, etc, was awarded to W. H. Jones for $172. 59; and that for building a temporary jail and moving the cages from Montgomery to Conroe and placing them in it was taken by A. L. Austin for $269.
The records were moved by W. H. Jones from Montgomery to the new location in Conroe on May 17, 1889. 61
59 Ibid., p. 17
60 Commissioners Minutes, op. cit., Book B, p. 473
61 Note of Nat Hart Davis, May 17, 1889, in Addison Collection.
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The que stion of the permanent location of the courthouse and jail was settled by accepting the proposition of Captain J. K. Ayres of his donation of block eight for the courthouse site and block ten for the jail site. 62 This location was in the Ayres Ad- dition of Conroe, which was laid off on the west side of the Inter - national and Great Northern track, and north of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe track. The main business and residential part of the town was on the east side of the tracks and the citizens on May 14, 1889 protested to the court against the location; they claiming that the site chosen was too much of a thicket and undeveloped. To the dismay of the people, the court ignored the protest and on the same day accepted Mr. Ayres' offer. The court ordered advertisements to be placed in the newspaper to architects for plans and specifica- tions for the necessary buildings. 63
The advertisement appeared in the newspaper soon after and it read as follows:
NOTICE TO ARCHITECTS
Notice is hereby given to all parties concerned that the county commissioner's court of Montgomery county,. Texas, will receive plans and specifications for the erection at Conroe, Texas, of a brick court house not to exceed an estimated cost of Ten thousand dollars.
62 Commissioners Minutes, op. cit., Book B, p. 480. 63 Ibid., p. 503
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Said plans and specifications should be filed with the clerk of the county court of Montgomery county, at his office in the town of Conroe on or about 10 o'clock A. M., of the second Monday and 10th day of June, A. D. 1889, at which time they will be opened and considered by the court.
On August 6, 1889, the court gave a contract to Moodie and Ellis of Greenville, Texas to build a brick and steel court- house and jail for the amount of twenty-five thousand two hundred ninety-five dollars. 65
The brick for Conroe's first courthouse were made from clay which was dug close to the Santa Fe railroad tracks. While the building was under construction W. M. Conroe related the follow- ing situation:
While the present court house was built a deer was shot on the corner of the square by one of the men then engaged in work on the structure. He also says that in those early days of the city of Conroe one could not blow a hunting horn in the city limits without having hounds come a yelping from every direction. Packs of wolves howled so loud and vociferously at night that the citizens could hardly sleep. Hunting for all kinds of game was the sport of sports in that day and Mr. Conroe states that he kept primed for the trail and enjoyed it to his heart's content. 66
Due to the ideal industrial set-up of Conroe, with the location
64 Scrapbook, Newspsper clipping, in Addison Collection. 65Commissioners Minutes, op. cit., Book B, p. 503. 66Conroe Courier, April 8, 1932.
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of the county seat, two railroads, and numerous sawmills, it is no wonder that it became the leading city in Montgomery County. By 1898 Conroe boasted twenty-four business houses -- three of which were saloons, and three hotels, all doing a good business. 67 By 1900
Conroe led all other towns in the county . with a population of 1009 people. 68
Like all fast growing towns, Conroe has had its share of epidemics and disasters. In October, 1897 Conroe had a yellow fever epidemic. The fever became so alarming that the state health department quarantined the whole county. So many people were sick and dying that there were hardly enough well people to bury the dead and attend the sick. When the quarantine was lifted an article appeared in the local paper expressing the following sentiments of the local citizens:
All hands and the cook were made to feel extremely glad Sunday, when the bulletin board announced that the quarantine was raised to all Texas. It had been on for a week, and our people had been hemmed in without mail, freight or communication of any kind, neighbors being almost afraid to visit each other. Business had grown so tame, that there was hardly anything for sale. Another week of quarantine would have sent all to the country and the town would have become depopulated. If Dr. Guiteras had been in town the boys could have
67 Ibid,, December 9, 1898.
68 Richardson, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 1128.
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had fun furnishing a coat of tar and feathers. 69
On November 15, 1904 J. T. Rucks, County Judge, issued a declaration for an election to be held in the Seller's Building in the town of Conroe on the 10th day of December, 1904, to deter - mine whether or not the inhabitants of the town of Conroe wanted to be incorporated as a municipal corporation. 70 In December the
election was held and the result was as follows:
. The returns of an election held on the 10th day of December 1904, to determine whether or not the inhabitants of the territory herein after mentioned and escribed, should be incorporated for municipal purposes in accordance with the general laws of the State of Texas in reference to townsand cities of more than one thousand inhabitants and examination thereof, and otherwise that said election was in all things held and conducted in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, in refer- ence thereto, and it further appearing from said returns that there were cast at said election in all 105 votes of which 87 were cast in favor of incorporation and 18 against giving a majority of 69 in favor of incorporation.
It is therefore rendered, adjudged, decreed and declared that the inhabitants of the hereinafter described and designated territory are incorporated as a municipal corporation and for municipal purposes the name of which said corporation shall be "The City of Conroe" . . 7.
On January 25, 1905 an election was held to determine the election of the city officials. Those that were elected were Doctor
69 Conroe Courier, October 22, 1897.
70 Commissioners Minutes, Book 1902-1907, p. 384. 71 Ibid., p. 349.
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J. F. Collier, Mayor, R. C. Herbert, City Marshal, W. N. Urquhart, D. C. Tharp, Pete West, John Wahrenberger, and J. Llewllyn, Aldermen. 72
In June 1901 a fire swept through Conroe and practically all of the business portion of the town was destroyed. The town had hardly been rebuilt when another fire visited it on February 22, 1911. Sixty-five places of business were destroyed. 73 It has been stated by those who remember the fire that about four buildings were all that remained of the business section of town. They claimed that while it seemed quite a hardship then, it has proven to be one of the best things that ever happened to Conroe, for out of the ashes of the calamity the determined citizens built a new city of brick business houses, concrete walks, and a perfect water supply. 74
The people of Conroe had voted bonds in 1910 to erect a new school building for twenty thousand dollars. The contract had been let before the fire had destroyed the town, and on the morning after the fire the contractor of the new school got off the train at the depot and to his dismay looked across the smoldering ashes where Conroe had been. It is stated by one of the citizens that the contractor asked
72 Ibid., p. 350.
73 Conroe Courier, June 26, 1913. 74 Loc. cit.
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if they still intended to build the school building. He was told by the citizens that they did; therefore a new brick school went up right along with the new business houses. 75
This building was the first brick school built in Conroe. It was named the J. O. H. Bennette Building in honor of J. O. H. Bennette who had served the school district as president of the Board of Trustees for seventeen years. During his long tenure he contributed thousands of dollars of his own money to help equip and
finance the school system of Conroe. 76 This building stood at the site where the present day community center is now located.
In 1914 the Delta Land and Timber Company built a mill in Conroe which was the second largest lumber manufacturing plant in the South, and it was the most modern sawmill plant in Texas. 77 Another industry of Conroe along about this time was a box factory organized by O. L. Alexander. Conroe also had several cross-tie mills, and when these mills were operating in full blast and the cross-ties were piled high at the intersection of both railroads a
15 Personal interview of author with Hart Addison, Conroe, Texas, May 11, 1952.
76 H. N. Anderson, "History of the Conroe High School"(unpublished paper, Hulon N. Anderson Collection), p. 2.
77 Conroe Courier, June 30, 1933.
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view from the air revealed in Conroe a huge cross. 78 These local mills kept Conroe alive until oil was discovered in 1931.
Conroe's industry stayed much the same from after the first World War up to December 13, 1931 when George Strake, a young oil operator from St. Louis, struck oil on the Theodore Slade survey about three and half miles southeast of the town. 79 A report of the discovery was written in the local paper as follows:
Oil excitement hit Conroe full force last week follow- ing movements at Strake well east of Conroe that have been interperted by oil men as opening a new oil field, size and extent of which is to be determined.
Mr. Strake has drilled a hole about 5, 100 feet deep on the Theodore Slade survey and has set casing, assembled tools and he says he is preparing to try the test by Saturday or Sunday.
Oil men from Houston swarmed into Conroe and they broadcast information that oil sand of at least 35 feet had been struck, that a gas well of several million feet capacity is practically sure and a new oil field
is a strong probability.
80
Strake's well did more for Conroe than anything that had happened in the history of the town. Overnight it became a thriving metropolis of wealth, resembling more a busy scene on the Stock Exchange floor, than a village supported chiefly by the farming and 78 Ibid., April 8, 1932 79 Loc. cit. 80 Loc. cit.
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lumbering industries. Literally thousands of oil men came to Conroe from all parts of the country, all eager to get a slice of the rich find that Strake had made. In a short time the population of Conroe had grown from 2500 to a number estimated variously from five to fifteen thousand people. 81 Every facility of the town was taxed far beyond capacity. Tent cities and mushroom additions were built over night. Hotels were crowded and hundreds were turned away to seek shelter in Houston and other places.
The streets of the town were thronged, parking space was not to be had in the down town area, and at times it was very diffi- cult to walk along the sidewalks in the business section. "Lease hounds" by the hundreds plied their trade and did a lucrative business. Representatives of major oil companies came, saw, and bought an interest in Conroe's field. Farmers who did not, under normal circumstances, come to town over twice each month, were seen from early morning until sunset in town, shopping. Money had been placed in their hands by the leasers so suddenly and unexpectedly, that many of them were at a loss to know what to do with it. So many oil men were searching out old deeds, land tracts, titles, and sur - veys that the courthouse was swamped and people looking through records had to stand in line and wait their turn. Hoarding in Conroe
81 Loc. cit.
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was a thing of the past, for all those who had anything to hoard took it and bought some royalty or a lease. Within a short time it was hard to find a tract of land within ten miles of the Strake discovery well that had not changed hands at least three times.
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Conroe, unlike many of the other oil towns, did not let the taxable oil property and newly acquired wealth slip through her fingers. Immediately her civic-minded citizens took the opportunity to better their community. New business houses, schools, post office, courthouse, community center, and streets were built. Today Conroe boasts of having more paved streets than any other city of its size in the United States. It has a population of seven thousand three hundred thirteen, and unlike some of the other towns of the county, Conroe seems destined to be here to stay. 83
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