On Saturday, May 31, Frank M. Johnson, local historian and Civil War Expert, was the speaker at the Montgomery Historical Society’s semi-monthly membership meeting at the Old Baptist Church on Pond Street in Montgomery. This small, country church is designated a step above being just “on the Texas Historical Register” —it is a Texas Historic Landmark building, where the Baptists’ first service there was September 28, 1850.
Mr. Johnson has written his fourth book, Early Texas Women, and he related the life stories of some of the notable women in the book. One such woman was Angelina, born somewhere in the early 1700s, who was from the Hasinai tribes of East Texas. Mr. Johnson, in his book, writes she served as translator between explorer Marques de Miguel Aguayo “and the Hasinai Chiefs because she spoke Castilian and the language of the Tejas.”
He noted that due to Angelina’s significance and her experiences as translator during those very early Tejas years, “[t]here was Angelina’s village, Angelina River, Angelina County, and even Angelina Forest.” A footnote in the book indicates that Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine Outline refers to her as “Pinewoods Pocahontas.” Incidentally, Mr. Johnson pointed out that, of the 254 counties in Texas, Angelina County is the only one named for a woman!
There are 26 other life stories of early Texas women chronicled in Johnson’s Early Texas Women, which sells for $20. His other books available for purchase are Montgomery County Texas CSA and Rebuke and Forever Silence, all of which will soon be for sale at the N.H. Davis Museum at 14264 Liberty Street in Montgomery. (The museum is open for free tours Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00a – 3:00p. MHS-TX.org; 936.597.4360.)
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