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Mary Alice Hunt moved to Conroe when she was four years old. She
later became an art teacher and wrote her memories of Conroe when
she was a child in the book “Ruts to the Miracle City.”
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In flowing cursive handwriting inside the front cover of her book, “Ruts
to the iracle City,” author and artist Mary Alice Hunt wrote to
her niece, Elsie, that when she was a little girl she and her sister,
Hilda, had few conveniences and no luxuries but they were still
happy in the early 1900s in Conroe. |
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Hunt, whose maiden name was Beazley, was born in 1900 and came to Conroe
in 1904. Her father, Alexander Hamilton Beazley, ran a grocery store in
Conroe in the very early 1900s. |
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She and her sister, Hilda, graduated from Conroe High School. In the
1981 Montgomery County History Book published by the Montgomery County
Genealogical Society, Hunt said she and her sister grew up poor but were
a happy family in the growing city of Conroe. |
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Hunt married rural mail carrier Ted Hunt in 1925. She attended Sam
Houston State University and eventually taught art at Sam Houston
Elementary School for 20 years. She was also the first president of the
Conroe Art League in 1963-64. |
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She also wrote memories of growing up in Conroe in the early 1900s.
Those memories became her book “Rut to the Miracle City.” |
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In 1975 when it was printed, the small hard-bound book with a red cover
was designated as an official history of Conroe by the Bicentennial
Committee of the Montgomery County Historical Commission. |
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The book includes a hand-drawn map of the town of Conroe prior to the
town’s 1901 fire. She also included a legend of what homes and
structures were a part of the town. |
A map of Conroe prior to its 1901 fire featured in “Ruts to the
Miracle City” written by Mary Alice Hunt.
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A map of Conroe prior to its 1901 fire featured in “Ruts to the
Miracle City” written by Mary Alice Hunt.
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In the following passage from the book, Hunt describes Grand Lake which
was a major source of recreation in the early 1900s. Today the lake is
still there and located as a part of the Grand Central Park development
at I-45 and South Loop 336. |
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“Grand Lake is one of the prettiest little bodies of water in the
vicinity of Conroe. It is about three miles long and is surrounded by
large moss covered trees and the banks are dotted with clumps of
palmetto and wild peach trees. |
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Some of my fondest childhood memories are the times our family along
with the Nutter family and one or two other families would load up our
wagons with quilts, a few pots and pans and some groceries and drive out
to the lake for a few days campout. The road out to the lake wound in
and out among the trees and thick underbrush. It was hot and
uninteresting and to us eager children those four miles seemed like an
unending road. |
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When we finally arrived at the spot where we would make camp, all the
children would roll out of the wagon like so many potatoes out of a
basket. While the grown ups unloaded the wagons, staked the horses to
graze and gathered firewood, we children would race one another across a
bare stretch of ground. Not far from where we made camp was a small
creek that flowed into the lake forming a sandbar. |
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Here we children played in the sand until we were tired then swam in the
lake. |
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The mothers sat on the bank watching from the shore or went for a ride
on one of the flat-bottomed boats at the lake. |
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Most of the men spent the daylight hours fishing or seining in the creek
for minnows to use as bait. |
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As daylight drew to an end, a campfire was built and I can imagine yet
the aroma of fish being friend in a great black pot of grease and
potatoes and corn pone roasting in the hot coals. |
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When the last log had burned to brilliant red coals, we lay down on our
quilt pallets to watch the stars twinkle in the black velvet sky and
listen to the crickets chirp, the bullfrogs croak and the hoarse bellow
of the numerous alligators. It frightens me now to think of us kids
swimming in that lake with all those alligators. |
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There is nothing like sleeping under the open sky to turn one’s thoughts
to the One who created it all.” |
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The Courier thanks Montgomery County
Historical Commission Chairman Larry Foerster for the use of his copy of
Hunt’s “Ruts to the Miracle City.” |
Conroe Courier |
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July 29,
2018 |
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