After standing as the lone guard over Montgomery’s Cedar Brake Park for nearly a decade, the Charles B. Stewart statue at the park has company.
On Saturday afternoon, Stewart — an early Montgomery businessman and designer of the Texas flag — was joined by “The Rancher” statue as the newest addition to the Pioneers of Montgomery monument in the park. The monument is on the southern end of the park, facing Texas 105.
ON YOURCONROENEWS.COM: Montgomery County advances plans for state-of-the-art active shooter training facility
When the monument is complete there will be five bronze statues that depict characters that were essential to life in early Montgomery — the businessman, the rancher, the pioneer woman, the farmer and the logger.
The statues are made by Montgomery based sculptor Lynn Peverill who has lived in the Montgomery area for 30 years.
“It was exciting,” she said of having the second statue unveiled. “What was most exciting is now people look at this and know ‘Oh, this isn’t finished.’ Once this is all finished this is really going to be something.”
Early in 1995, the Montgomery City Council agreed to the concept of building a city park on a 5-acre spot on the city’s west end. The park is famous for its century-old cedar trees and it is believed children played in the cedar area since the town was chartered in 1837.
Peverill became acquainted with the park as a teacher’s aide for special needs children in Montgomery ISD. They would bring the children to play at the park. Her husband, William, is a Boy Scout leader and was involved in many projects at the park.
“I have a lot of history with this park and the park is special to me for a lot of different reasons,” she said. “I wanted to do this project for Montgomery and this park because they deserve it.”
Peverill introduced the idea to those in the Montgomery business community like the late Sonya Clover who owned The Clover Patch and others involved in the community such as Cheryl Fox, Shirley Schneider and Bea Rouse.
The monument is fully community funded and Clover began spearheading fundraising events as the president of the Patrons of Cedar Brake Park board. Her husband, Lonnie, also was on the park board.
“She was so proud of this. To have her be like that it was inspirational for me to continue. Even though it was taking a long time, she was always thinking of new ideas to find funds, support and help,” Peverill said.
ON YOURCONROENEWS.COM: Woodlands Mall to welcome township’s first record store as nostalgia fuels mall resurgence
The Patrons of Cedar Brake Park chose the 175th birthday of Montgomery in 2012 to introduce “The Pioneers of Montgomery” historical monument project.
The first person, a life-size sculpture of Stewart was dedicated on Jan. 25, 2014.
“A lot of people in town have been a part of this project for many years,” she said.
Clover died in 2021 and Peverill knows she’d be proud to see the second statue placed. The statues cost roughly $30,000 and are completed by a foundry in South Dakota. The Rancher was funded by a private donation.
“I think Sonya and Lonnie would be happy to see the community — and hopefully county-wide businesses — work to get this project that was so dear to her done,” said Rouse, a member of the Montgomery Historical Society.
In 2018, the park board and historical society joined forces to try to raise funds to finish the monument.
Supporters like Rouse and Fox are continuing the effort today. There is a brick program where members of the community can purchase a brick for their loved ones to be placed in the park.
Rouse wants to revive this program and she’s counting on growth in the Montgomery area to get the ball rolling.
“With hundreds more families and more businesses in the Montgomery area, we can garner renewed interest in the project,” she said.
Should they be able to raise the next $28,000 to $30,000 the statue of the pioneer woman will be placed next opposite of The Rancher.
The pioneer woman statue is mostly completed, but funding is needed to send it to the foundry.
Current donations are being maintained through the Montgomery Historical Society. Email Rouse at brouse0122@aol.com.
