Old Montalba

KETK and Texas Escapes credit William J. Hamlett with the 1881 post office application under the name Montalba, said to mean white mountain, from the white sand on a mountain to the east. The nearest post office then was at Tennessee Colony. Beaver Valley and then Montalba prospered on the Palestine-to-Athens road. The population fell to a low of 50 in 1925, rose to about 300 early in the Depression, stood at 200 in the mid-1960s and declined to 110 in the mid-1970s.

What the plaque says

Old Montalba In area known as Beaver Valley, settled about 1853 -- the year that pioneer P. G. Oldham built his home a half-mile northwest of this marker. This was on the Palestine-Athens Road, the route taken by mail hacks in early days. To the east was a campground where travelers often spent the night, and where later inhabitants of the area used to gather for seasonal religious campmeetings. Near the Oldham home was the Beaver Valley Primitive Baptist Church. Mr. Oldham donated land for a cemetery adjoining the church. Nearby stood a noted early school, Beaver Academy. The church was later known by name "Holly Springs." The first local physician, Dr. T. J. Adams, built his homestead in the woods of Beaver Valley in 1859, and conducted a wide practice until he was past 80. During the Civil War, while the young men of the area were away in the army, an iron foundry in this valley made arms and bullets for the Confederacy. In 1880 a post office was granted under the name Montalba -- suggested by early settler to be Hamlett, inspired by snowclad mountain on the horizon. Mrs. Mollie Hamlett was the first postmaster. In later years Montalba settlement was moved southward, and now thrives as a market and supply point for valley. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 17 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 20 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.

More markers nearby

• Concord Baptist Church and Cemetery — 3.7 mi
• Anderson Campground — 7.2 mi
• Carroll Springs Methodist Church — 8.3 mi
• Tennessee Colony — 8.8 mi