With The Woodlands in the midst of its 50-year celebration it is a good time to explore the similarity surrounding the fortunes and personalities of the respective founders of two thriving metropolises of Montgomery County, The Woodlands and Conroe. From the north came Isaac Conroe, while from the south came George P. Mitchell.
Isaac Conroe, as a captain, mustered out of the Union Army in Houston after the US Civil War. Here he became infatuated with the land, enough to return north to marry his sweetheart, Margaret Richardson, in Washington D.C. to soon return to the Houston area. There, Isaac set up a business featuring the hauling of timber to market. On an occasion, a proprietor’s checker was not available to process the sale. Seeing an opportunity, Isaac took control of the process himself. So impressed was the proprietor that he offered Isaac the position.
So positioned, Isaac foresaw further opportunity: forestry was becoming a dominant avenue at the time in the Greater Houston area. In the east, the Houston East and West Texas, HEWT, railroad marked the scene, while nearer to Isaac, in 1873, the International and Great Northern, I-GN, absorbed the more centrally located north-south line previously known as the Houston and Great Northern.
By 1881, Isaac had established a sawmill north of Houston and a few miles east of the I-GN from where he built a tram road following an old Gibbs route to the west, to eventually man a post office off the line initially called Conroe’s Switch. By the mid- 1880s, a line called the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, made its way from the West to link to the I-GN near the post office which dropped the word “switch” to become Conroe. By 1889, Conroe became the county seat of Montgomery County.
Eighty- five later, The Woodlands had its official birth in 1974. The phenomenal energy behind this event reflected that of Conroe, in that both communities trace their founding to magnetic personalities. For the Woodlands, that founder was George P. Mitchell.
While Isaac Conroe emerged from the north, Mitchell came from Galveston to the south, a city and location which marked the path of his personal development and interests. Great was his pleasure to roam the beach exploring the wonders of nature. This passion he linked to his profession of petroleum engineering. In preparation, he possessed the highest honors as a graduate of Texas A&M, from where with his wife, Cynthia Woods, by his side, he rose to birth the Mitchell Energy and Development Corporation.
Following his boyhood appreciation of nature, Mitchell founded the community of his dreams, named The Woodlands. The name is most appropriate as the community encompasses over 200 miles of bike and hike trails, along with some 151 neighborhood parks. Astounding are the national and world famous institutions in his town, such as the grand Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.
George P. Mitchell and Isaac Conroe, one from the north of Conroe and The Woodlands, the other from the south, but both similarly gifted pioneers fundamentally significant in the rise of nationally prominent cities in nationally prominent Montgomery County.
Robin Montgomery is a native of Montgomery County, an author, historian, retired professor and columnist for The Courier.
