Montague County

Montague County (pronounced MON tayg) is in north central Texas on the Oklahoma border, surrounded by Jefferson and Love Counties, Oklahoma, to the north and northeast, Cooke County to the east, Wise County to the south, Jack County to the southwest, and Clay County to the west. Montague, the county seat is 100 miles northwest of Dallas.

Cities, Towns & Communities

Belcherville (Belcher) | Bonita | Bowie | Burlington | Capps Corner | Eagle Point | Forestburg | Fruitland | Hardy | Illinois Bend | Montague – county seat | Nocona | Queen Peak | Red River Station | Ringgold | Saint Jo | Salt Creek Station | Scranton | Spanish Fort | Stoneburg | Sunset

History

The state legislature established the Montague County on Christmas Eve in 1857. The following year, on August 2, 1858, the county was formally organized with its present boundaries carved from Cooke County. The new county was named for Daniel Montague, surveyor of the Fannin Land District and veteran of the Mexican War. Only three villages existed in the county at the time, and none of them was near the geographic center of the county. So an uninhabited area at the appropriate location was identified as the county seat and also named in honor of Daniel Montague. At the time the area of Montague County had less than 1,000 residents. The emergence of large cattle ranches and the continued increase in population attracted railroads to the county in the early 1880s. In 1882 the Fort Worth and Denver Railway reached southwestern Montague County. The railroad enabled the growth of Bowie, Sunset, and Fruitland. Five years later the Gainesville, Henrietta and Western Railway built through north central Montague County and founded Saint Jo, Bonita, and Belcherville. 

Montague County History 1922. Montague County was taken from Cooke County in 1857, and organized August 2, 1858. The county was fairly well settled before the war, was credited with a population of 849 in 1860, but as a result of the depredations of that decade its population in 1870 was only 890. During the ’70s it began to be settled permanently. In one respect, however, it was still on the frontier, since its northern boundary was the Red River, on the north side of which was the Indian Territory, which, without any civil government, offered shelter to many thieves and desperadoes whose depredations of the Texas frontier were long a standing menace to the prosperity of the northern tier of counties. To prevent horse stealing from this source during the ’70s and ’80s a number of vigilance committees were organized in Montague County.

Location

Montague, TX 33° 39′ 53.3772″ N, 97° 43′ 14.1096″ W

See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest