Montgomery County, C. S. A.

The plaque's "wealthy farm area" rested on enslaved labor. In 1850 Montgomery County held 1,448 enslaved people; by 1860 there were 2,416, nearly half the population, and as many as two-thirds of White families owned at least one. Two of the state's largest slaveholders, George Goldthwaite and G. Wood, each held more than a hundred. Enslaved people made up nearly half the county's taxable property, and 318 of 416 voters chose secession. After 1865 most Black residents became farm laborers or sharecroppers, working for a third or half of the crop.

What the plaque says

Montgomery County, C. S. A. A wealthy farm area in 1861. In Civil War, supported Texas with goods, funds and men. 2 companies from here were in famed Hood's Texas Brigade-- one company had only 9 men in one living by 1865. Young boys, old men and the partially disabled formed 5 home guard and state companies. The county clothed its own soldiers. The Courthouse, then on this site, had a sewing room for that work. Cooperating were homefolk using looms, cotton cards. People ate sparingly, had few new clothes. By 1864, so much was given to war effort that not a store was open in Montgomery. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 18 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.
• Navasota — 23 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 28 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.

More markers nearby

• Town of Montgomery — steps away
• Charles Bellinger Stewart — steps away
• Lake Creek Settlement — steps away
• The Old Methodist Churchyard — steps away