The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900 Page: 267
294 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Thie Old Town of Huntsville.
first Congress of the Republic replaced the old Mexican "municipal-
ities" with counties. The county of Montgomery was created from
that part of the municipality of Washington lying east of the Nava-
sota river, and embracing Pleasant Gray's head-right league. Mont-
gomery county then included the present counties of Montgomery,
Grimes, Walker, Madison, and part of San Jacinto, and was soon
the most populous county of the Republic.
At the time that Huntsville was founded, settlers from "the
States" had already begun to come to this region in considerable
numbers. On the Trinity river, some twelve miles north of the
present site of Huntsville (and within the present limits of Walker
county) a prosperous village had for some years existed with the
ambitious name of Cincinnati. Situated on the highway, between
Nacogdoches and Washington, with river boats plying between her
wharf and Galveston, carrying passengers and freight, Cincinnati
in that early day was a place of considerable importance. Who
knows but that when the Federal government shall have improved
the navigation of the 'Tiinity, Cincinnati-now only a memory-
may arise from its ruins, eclipse Huntsville, its former competitor,
and even rival its great namesake on the Ohio.? Danville was then
another flourishing settlement in this region (now in Montgomery
county). 'Mr. S. R. Smith, one of our oldest citizens, passed through
Cincinnati and Danville in July, 1838, on his way to Houston. He
found the people of Danville attending a great barbecue, and listen-
ing to patriotic speeches in celebration of the "glorious Fourth"-
thus giving evidence of the closeness of the ties that bound them
to their old homes in the United States-ties that were only strength-
ened by the lapse of time, and that finally wrought their inevitable
result, a union under one government of those who were already
one people.
In the period of the infancy of Huntsville, her citizens displayed
that concern for the education of their children that made their
town an educational center. When the place was hardly half a
dozen years old, a substantial school building of brick, known as the
"Brick Academy," was erected by the voluntary contributions of
citizens. 'The land for the site of the academy was donated by
Pleasant Gray, -and is now included within the walls of the peniten-
tiary, near the north front. The name of the first principal of the267
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900, periodical, 1900; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101015/m1/280/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.