A Brief History of Montalba, Texas
Montalba Is Steeped In Folk History
MONTALBA -- This thickly-settled community had its first white settler back in 1853, identified as Elias Oldham.
The Oldham family built a home in what then was called Beaver Valley. Oldham donated land for a cemetery where in 1860 Holly Springs Regular Primitive Baptist Church adjacent to the cemetery was established.
When in 1880 a post office was established with Mrs. Mollie Hamlett as postmaster, it was named Montalba, located south of Beaver Valley, and Montalba eventually swallowed up most of the inhabitants of Beaver Valley.
The two-room Oldham house in 1878 was bought by D. F. Cook, who enlarged it in 1882, and today the old house --more than 100 years young --has been spruced up by its present owners, W. F. (Frankie) Robertson, 86 and his wife, Maggie Parker Robertson. They've lived there since 1945 and still use water pumped by a windmill hack of the house.
The well under the windmill is only 36 feet deep and stands 15 feet in water never pumped dry even when the mill ran 72 hours on a stretch.
Mrs. Iris Pickle lives where Jim Hamlett and wife had the first Montalba Post Office hack in 1880.
Ira G. Cook and his father had the first Montalba store, opened in 1900, which still stands. It's used now for storage. Ira Cook later served as a Palestine police officer before becoming justice of the peace in Palestine, where his widow has lived many years.
Ernest Beasley, 75, and his wife, Mollie Welch Beasley, first attended school at Pace's Chapel, two miles north of Montalba. They live now in the home hack of the old Cook store on FM 321 across from the modern brick Post Office.
Beasley's parents, George and Alice Beasley, were married in 1900 when George was 24. He was born in 1876 in Alabama and came to the Montalba area at age 8 around 1884.
George Beasley had a series of cotton gins, later run by his son Ernest. Part of the last Beasley gin still stands. "We sold out in 1909 and went to West Texas but had to take the gin hack two years later," Beasley relates.
"In 1914, we ginned 1,400 bales of cotton here in Montalba."
From the old Beaver valley area, Pace's Chapel School moved into Montalba around 1910. Beasley attended Pace's Chapel two years; his wife attended school the first year R was in Montalba.
"Mrs. Lula Sadler was principal and Mrs. Irma Nixon was the other teacher. Miss Cilia Price taught the Pace's Chapel School. She married Hubby Fitzgerald."
Methodist and Baptist churches moved from the Pace's Chapel area to Montalba.
Concord and Bois d'Arc schools later merged with Montalba, which became a 12-grade school with several teachers. Still later, Montalba School was merged with the Palestine Independent School District.
George H. Brooks, 78, and his wife, Mrs. Leona Johnson Brooks, longtime schoolteachers, after 25 years teaching in Houston, retired: Last April, they moved hack to his ancestral two-story home facing State Highway 19 in Montalba. The fine, old house has seven bedrooms.
Mr. Brooks, who is trying to catch up on fishing, landed a 50-pound catfish. "When I saw that fish in his camper, I thought it was a calf," Mrs. Brooks remarked.
Brooks taught school 48 years, his wife 43 years. He retired in 1967, she in 1969.
They had taught at Montalba, Richland, Woden, Tennessee Colony, Harmony, Elkhart, Springfield and Austonio before going to Houston. His father, B. H. Brooks, Sr., built the Montalba home in 1913.
Montalba and adjacent Providence always have been leading agricultural production communities of Anderson County, proud of their community improvement accomplishments. The area now is devoted mostly to livestock growing.
Tejas Girl Scout Council of Dallas has a large Camp Bette Perot wilderness camp at Beaver Creek Ranch, north of Montalba.
On the west side of the sprawling Girl Scout camp, there's a large beaver pond on the Mrs. Georgia Bell place adjacent to the Springfield road, which runs south to Montalba past Holly Springs Church and Cemetery.
Three miles north of Holly Springs on the Springfield road live George Wylie Pinkerton and his wife, Theresa Smith Pinkerton. He was born north on a, ranch on the same place; she was born near Crockett. They've been married 45 years since Christmas Eve, 1929, and have lived at the same place since their marriage.
The house, originally built in 1905, was torn down in 1946 and rebuilt. His father, W. H. Pinkerton, came from Illinois in 1870; the place was settled by Will Davis and bought by W. H. Pinkerton in 1898. It contains 208 acres and Pinkerton has other lands nearby.
The Pinkertons have a book containing minutes of Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church since 1891. Earlier records now are being kept by others who are descendants of early Holly Springs area pioneers.
The old record book kept by the Pinkertons lists 91 members of the church, most of them marked "dead."
A September, 1891, record lists Elder J. S. Collins, moderator, and D. A. Owens, church clerk pro tern (L. T. Roden was regular clerk at the time).
Richie Cook and P. G. Adams were received as members in October, 1890, according to the book.
First names on the church membership roster include: J. A. Brown, N. A. Graham, L. M. Bourchard, S. M. Garrett, L. T.
Roden, S. M. Roden, Elizabeth Adams, L. J. Adams, A. B. Eiland, J. B. Eiland, S. B. Smith, N. A. Smith, E. S. Bourland, J. J. Cook, M. A. Cook, E. S. Roden, C. A. Fox, J. J. Myers, M. J. Myers;
Also, J. F. Roden, Elizabeth Young, Georgia Hart, Harett Hall, Elder Ben Young, Aron Murphy, R. G. Adams, Rickey Cook, Nancy Rush, S. S. Rush, Elias Olaham, Willie Cook, Edna Brown.
And Edie Oldham, Thorn Hogg, Elizabeth Hogg, W. J. Dunnavant, L. W. Self, Ellin Roden, Y. B. Walston, M. A. Hewitt, James Davis, Dock Hanks, Jack McClure, F. M. Dunnavant, Willie Pinkerton, Ida Cook, Georgia Pinkerton and William Henry Pinkerton.