We all know the grand story of the gathering at Washington on the Brazos from March first until March seventeenth of 1836. There Texas declared its independence from Mexico on March 2 of that year. Beginning with the founding of that Washington community, let’s trace the linkage of events leading to the birth of Montgomery County.
In 1821, Andrew Robinson, accompanied by members of the Kuykendall family and others crossed to the west side of the Brazos River. Within a year, Robinson was operating a ferry at the old crossing of the La Bahia Road leading to Bahia Settlement as the initial name of the site.
In 1831, Robinson bequeathed one quarter league to his daughter, Patsy, and son-in-law, John W. Hall. By 1835, Hall had purchased the remainder of the Robinson property to establish what he called the Wahington Township Company. The name Washington came from one of his colleagues, Asa Hoxey, who was from the town of Washington in Wilkes County, Georgia, a town taking its name in memory of George Washington.
The new Washington, Texas developed a reputation as a supply point. Attracted to The Bahia Road and feeder roads, merchants and traders flooded the community. By 1835, Washington became the headquarters and concentration point for Texas Army volunteers and supplies.
In the same year, 1835, Washington received the status of the Capital of Washington Municipality. Under the Mexican System a municipality was roughly the equivalent of a county in the USA. By this time, Texas had come to consist of 23 municipalities spread over three larger entities called Departments. These were headquartered, respectively, at San Antonio. Nacogdoches and San Felipe de Austin.
San Felipe was the capital of the Department of the Brazos which reached west to east from the Lavaca to the watershed between the San Jacinto and Trinity Rivers. Within this Department and stretching to both sides of the Brazos was Washington Municipality. The Alcalde or leader of this municipality was Joshua Hadley, whose abode yet stands in the community of Roans Prairie about halfway between Huntsville and Bryan off Hi-way 30. The home site is occupied by the family comprising the famous Jacob Austin Band.
On March 17th, 1836, Washington Municipality became Washington County. The next year, on December 14th 1837, Montgomery County broke off from that county to consist of all or part of six present counties: Montgomery, Grimes, Walker, San Jacinto, Madison and Waller. Officially, the new county included “all that part of the county of Washington lying east of the Brazos and southeast of the Navasota Rivers.” This made clear the western border while the northern border was the Old San Antonio Road and the southern border by 1840 was Spring Creek.
Little did Andrew Robinson realize what he was beginning when he crossed the Brazos in 1821. Grand, is the legacy of Washington on the Brazos.
