First Cooke County Surveyor Daniel Montague (1798-1876)

Daniel Montague spent his working life drawing lines on Texas. The Handbook of Texas says he trained as a surveyor in Vermont, ran a Louisiana plantation and settled at Old Warren on the Red River. He led an 1843 fight whose grove took his name. By 1849 he was in Cooke County surveying its boundaries and its county seat, and Montague County is named for him. In 1862 fellow members elected him presider of the jury at the Great Hanging; after the war he moved to Mexico and was the one juror never tried.

What the plaque says

First Cooke County Surveyor Daniel Montague (1798-1876) Born in Massachusetts. Moved to Texas 1836. Accepted post of Surveyor, Fannin Land District, helping settlers locate claims and fight Indians. Joined Snively Expedition to capture Mexican traders trespassing in Republic of Texas, 1843. Captain of Company in Mexican War, 1846. When Cooke County was created, 1848, Montague was named County Surveyor. Like most surveyors, took land as pay for duty that called for constant risk of life. Rifles to stand off Indians were in field kits. Like Surveyor-Senator John H. Reagan, Montague was honored in having a county named for him. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Hanging Memorial — 8.2 mi
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.
• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 14 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.

More markers nearby

• Muenster — 5.9 mi
• Hubert H. Moss — 6.8 mi
• Clark, Randolph Lee (1871-1941) — 6.8 mi
• Gainesville Junior College — 6.8 mi