Andrew Ewing was secretary of the prestigious Cumberland Gap group of the 1780s in Tennessee led by James Robertson, the “Father of Middle Tennessee”. Ewing’s duties as chief liaison to Native Americans intrigued the young Andrew Montgomery, a namesake grandson of Ewing. Andrew would eventually establish an Indian Trading Post in an area later known as “Montgomery Prairie,” just west of the present town of Montgomery, Texas where a recently discovered Stephen Austin map of 1822 lists a site as “Montgomery”.
This reinforces the word to this writer’s father and great uncle from Andrew’s youngest son, Bailey Montgomery, that Andrew established the post “around 1823.” This was in the area of a Bedias Indian Refuge as listed on the old maps and just north of an official grant to Andrew’s father, William Montgomery, also known for his Native American connections. Interestingly, Stephen Austin was in the area of Pecan Point, Arkansas in 1820 with his father, Moses Austin, who first came to Texas in that year. It was also in that year that Andrew first came to Texas from the same Pecan Point area, as confirmed by Jesse Grimes and General B. B. Goodrich, both signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
In 1830, between multiple ventures, Andrew received placement in Stephen Austin’s “Registry of Families.” While awaiting a land grant, he received word that his services were needed in the huge grant to the north of Sterling Robertson, nephew of James Robertson. Hence, with his brothers Edley and John, he joined his brother-in-law, J. G. W. Pierson, the assistant director of the Robertson Colony, as the official chief surveyor. Andrew surveyed the private residence of Sterling Robertson, while receiving a grant there in 1835.
While Sterling Robertson was in Mexico, February 13, 1836, the acting governor of Texas appointed Pierson to recruit personnel for service in the Texas Revolution. Parenthetically, the governor also stated: “it will be recalled that this district was surveyed by citizens of Montgomery and Grimes Prairie” (Jenkins, “Papers of the Texas Revolution”, vol. 9,p.156, ). Hence, Montgomery had received its name by then. Still, a difficulty of discerning the source of the town and county name stems from the Land Office documented presence, early, of so many Montgomery family members, by blood or marriage.
To close with a case in point: Upon fighting at San Jacinto then, with Jesse Grimes, tending the survivors of the Ft. Parker Massacre, Andrew received a grant below the area he had originally sought under Stephen Austin but left to his brother-in-law, Franklin Greenwood, to be near to that of his brother, Joel Greenwood, also married to a sister of Andrew. Here Andrew finally settled to marry Mary Farris and sire a large family, near his brother Edley, and for a while, his widowed aunt, Margaret Montgomery Shannon.
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