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Isaac
Conroe: Lumberman Pioneered City
Deborah Deggs
Courier
staff
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On Oct. 16, 1881, a
retired Civil War Illinois Calvary captain came into Montgomery County from
Houston looking for a place to make his mark. His name was
Isaac Conroe.
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Conroe bought the J. G.
and Lemuel Smith tract of land that fall and established a sawmill about two
miles east of the present town that bears his name. It was merely a forest,
but that is part of what initially drew Conroe.
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Conroe's first mill was
east of the I&GN Railroad (International & Great Northern) and between the
Santa Fe tracks and what is now Avenue A. He built a tram of wooden rails
and spokes to transport his lumber products to the I&GN.
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He soon selected a
location some two miles east of the present city on the south side of the
Santa Fe line and named it Beach, Texas.
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There he built a
two-story frame building, putting a commissary on the first floor and a
living area upstairs. |
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The store served mill
employees, and those who remember said it had the best weiners in the area.
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A post office was soon
established there and Conroe was the
first postmaster. The captain continued
living in Houston and commuted back and forth on the I&GN. A railroad
official suggested making the new mill site a regular stop and gave it the
name "Conroe's Switch." Printed rail tickets said "Conroe's Switch to
." The name was shortened to "Conroe's" and then simply
to "Conroe." |
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The Smith survey held
two major assets that helped make Conroe a pivotal spot in the county within
a decade of its birth: timber and railroads. The growing town was at the
junction of a north-south railroad and an east-west railroad — the only such
location in the county. Conroe is also near the geographic center of
Montgomery County. |
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Lumbering brought
prosperity to Conroe. The going wage in those days was $1 to $2.50 a day.
The railroads made transporting lumber goods to market an easier task and
many mills sprouted up. The sawmills caused new families to move into the
area and the town thrived. |
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Besides Conroe's mill,
there were many others in the county, including Chandler Hill four miles
west of Conroe on Old Montgomery Road, and further west at Leonidas, Honea
and Keenan. East of town there were mills at Waukegan, Timber, Security and
Foster Lumber Co. at Fostoria. |
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Ellis Oualline had a
mill north of town and there was a mill south of Conroe at Frazier's Switch.
Later, the Grogan-Cochran Mill was established at Tamina. |
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In 1886, local citizens
used rough lumber and homemade desks to establish Conroe's first one-room
public school near the present community of Beach. Open each year for a
five-month term, the Conroe Mill School educated mostly children of mill
workers. |
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Three years later
another prominent mill operator, J. K. Ayres, and some 200 other citizens
petitioned the county to hold an election to move the county seat from
Montgomery to Conroe. On May 6, history records, the combined votes of
Conroe, Willis and the Leonidas mill produced 1,161 votes for Conroe.
Montgomery polled 1,099. |
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The winners lost no
time in cementing the victory. Within a week a temporary building was
designated as a courthouse and Conroe was the county seat.
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The locale was still so
wild a deer was shot on what is now the courthouse square during
construction of the permanent courthouse. |
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Despite several
epidemics and two disastrous fires, the town continued growing. An
unofficial 1889 count showed a population of 250 to 300 citizens. |
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Conroe lost its founder
in 1897. Capt. Isaac Conroe died in his room at the mill of what was then
thought to be acute indigestion, but more likely was a ruptured appendix. He
was 62. |
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In an 1898 interview
with The
Courier, W. M. Conroe, the captain's son said, "Due to the
ideal industrial setup of Conroe, with the location of the county seat, two
railroads and numerous sawmills, it is no wonder that it became the leading
city in Montgomery County." |
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Increasing lumber
industry expansion and the accompanying population growth demanded more
school space. In 1900, Conroe got its first four-room painted school built
near the 300 block of Murray Street. In December 1904, the city was
officially incorporated. J. F. Collier was the first mayor. |
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In the final analysis
of what made "Conroe's Switch" boom rather than bust, historians write that
only the oil industry ranks above timber and the lumber business in
importance here. The rail crossroads helped build Conroe, and Isaac Conroe
left his mark.
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Reprint from the Montgomery County Magazine,
Conroe
Courier, p. 9 & 10, 1990 |
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Home |
Top
|Biography of Isaac Conroe
|Residence of Isaac
Conroe | |Isaac
Conroe: Lumberman Pioneered City | Town of
Conroe |
| Isaac Conroe's
Obituary |Margaret
Richardson Conroe Obituary |
|
Isaac
Conroe: Enterprising Pioneer Who Put Our Town on the Map |
| Isaac Conroe
House |
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