Lake Creek Settlement

The Lake Creek Settlement (ca. 1830s through the 1840s) was a settlement in Stephen F. Austin's Second Colony located in Mexican Texas and later the Republic of Texas. The Lake Creek Settlement was located between the West Fork of the San Jacinto River (Texas) and the stream known as Lake Creek in what is today western Montgomery County, Texas. In July 1837, the town of Montgomery, Texas was founded in the middle of the Lake Creek Settlement.
Background.
In 1821, the Mexican War for Independence severed the control that Spain had exercised on its North American territories, and the new country of Mexico was formed from much of the lands that had comprised New Spain, including Spanish Texas. Because it was sparsely populated, Texas was combined with Coahuila to create a new state, Coahuila y Tejas. 
The new Mexican government was bankrupt and had little money to devote to the military. Settlers were empowered to create their own militias to help control hostile Indian tribes. Mexican Texas faced raids from both the Apache and Comanche tribes, and with little military support the few settlers in the region needed help. In the hopes that an influx of settlers could control the Indian raids, the government liberalized its immigration policies for the region, and settlers from the United States were permitted in the colonies for the first time.
Stephen F. Austin quickly became the first Empresario to successfully establish a colony in Texas. The 1823 Imperial Colonization Law of Mexico allowed an empresario to receive a land grant within the Mexican province of Texas. The empresario and a commissioner appointed by the governor would be authorized to distribute land to settlers and issue them titles in the name of the Mexican government. Only one contract was ultimately approved under this legislation, the first contract granted to Stephen F. Austin. Between 1824 and 1828, Austin granted 297 titles under this contract. Each head of household received a minimum of 177 acres or 4,428 acres depending on whether they intended to farm or raise livestock. The grant could be increased for large families or those wishing to establish a new industry, but the lands would be forfeited if they were not cultivated within two years. The settlers who received their titles under Austin's first contract were known as the Old Three Hundred.
The 1824 General Colonization Law enabled all heads of household who were citizens of or immigrants to Mexico to be eligible to claim land. The law did not differentiate among races or social stature, and people who had been granted occupancy rights would be able to claim the land patent for the dwellings. Immigrants were required to be Roman Catholic and foreigners were expected to learn Spanish. Settlers were supposed to own property or have a craft or useful profession, and all people wishing to live in Texas were expected to report to the nearest Mexican authority for permission to settle.
Approval for settlement contracts for Texas was the responsibility of the state government in Saltillo. They were soon besieged by foreign speculators wanting to bring colonists into the state. Coahuila y Tejas implemented the federal law in 1825. At this time, about 3500 people lived in Texas, mostly congregated at San Antonio and La Bahia. Under the new law, people who did not already possess property in Texas could claim one square league of irrigable land, with an additional league available to those who owned cattle. Soldiers were given first choice of land, followed by citizens and immigrants. Empresarios and individuals with large families were exempt from the limit. Those who had owned land under Spanish control were allowed to retain their property as long as they had not fought on the side of the Spanish during the Mexican War of Independence. Immigrants were subject to the same policies as Mexican citizens, and Indians who migrated to Texas after Mexican independence and were not native to the area would be treated as immigrants.
Establishment.
On May 20, 1825, Stephen F. Austin obtained from the government of the Mexican State of Coahuila y Texas a new contract for the introduction of five hundred families. Austin signed this Empresario contract with the state of Coahuila and Texas on June 4, 1825. This contract was to be completed within six years. Order No. 24, dated March 7, 1827 defined the boundaries of Austin's Second Colony for the purposes of this contract as follows:
Under the 1825 contract, Empresario Stephen F. Austin granted land on behalf of the Mexican government to a number of colonists in 1831. Some of these settlers in Austin's Second Colony received leagues of land along the eastern boundary of the colony in what is today western Montgomery County. Each of these leagues of land contained 4,428.4 acres. Elias R. Wightman surveyed all of these leagues. The chain carriers assisting Wightman in surveying these leagues included, at various times, William Rankin, Mathew Hubert, John Corner, William Atkins and James Rankin. The early settlers who qualified and received a league of land included the following colonists:
Within two years of the arrival of the original colonists in 1831, this settlement between the West Fork of the San Jacinto River and the stream called Lake Creek had already become known throughout Mexican Texas as the "Lake Creek Settlement." This area was also commonly referred to as the "neighborhood of Lake Creek," the "District of Lake Creek," the "Precinct of Lake Creek," or simply as "Lake Creek."
Growth.
After the original settlers received their land grants in 1831, more settlers began to arrive in the settlement. These early families included: Cartwright, Chatham, Galbraith, Garret, Mock, Shepperd, Springer, and Worsham. "Stephen F. Austin's Register of Families" describes a land grant to Thomas Chatham within the Lake Creek Settlement in 1834:
By 1835, the population of the Lake Creek Settlement had become large enough to support a trading post. William W. Shepperd, originally from North Carolina and a brother of United States Congressman, Augustine Henry Shepperd, purchased 200 acres of land on the John Corner League near the middle of the Lake Creek Settlement. There he established the trading post which became known as "the store of W. W. Shepperd on Lake Creek." Shepperd's store quickly became the meeting place and community center of Lake Creek Settlement.
In 1835, John Bricker built a mill and a cotton gin for W. W. Shepperd at this location.
Texas Revolution.
During the Texas Revolution, the Lake Creek Settlement was located in the Washington Municipality. A number of residents of the Lake Creek Settlement fought in the Texas Revolution against Mexico. Soldiers from the Lake Creek Settlement who fought in the Texas Revolution included Jacob H. Shepperd, Mathew Cartwright, William Cartwright, Thomas Chatham, Raleigh Rogers, Jacob Shannon, Evin Corner, John Marshall Wade, A. U. Springer, James J. Foster and John Bricker. These soldiers fought in one or more of the battles of the Texas Revolution including the Powder House Fight, the Battle of Concepción, the Grass Fight, the Siege of Bexar, the battle on the Brazos River at San Felipe de Austin, and the Battle of San Jacinto.
John Marshall Wade manned one of the "Twin Sisters" cannon during the Battle of San Jacinto.
One of the soldiers from the Lake Creek Settlement who fought in the Texas Revolution was Jacob H. Shepperd. Shepperd had attended West Point but withdrew prior to his family's immigration to Texas. Jacob Shepperd fought in the Powder House Fight, the Battle of Concepción and the Siege of Bexar. Jacob Shepperd delivered the dispatch that saved the life of Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna shortly after the Texas Revolution. Texas historian, Henderson Yoakum, provided the following account:
Founding of Montgomery, Texas.
Following the Texas Revolution, the Lake Creek Settlement was located in Washington County, Texas. Washington County was composed of six large precincts. One of these precincts took its name from the Lake Creek Settlement. Washington County Chief Justice, John P. Coles, provided the following description of the boundaries of Washington County to the Secretary of State of the Republic of Texas in early 1837 in which he specifically mentions the Lake Creek Settlement as part of Washington County: 
In 1837, W. W. Shepperd, in association with John Wyatt Moody, founded the town of Montgomery, Texas at the site of W. W. Shepperd's store in the middle of the Lake Creek Settlement. J. W. Moody was the First Auditor of the Republic of Texas and had been the Auditor of the Provisional Government of Texas during the Texas Revolution. Prior to his arrival in Texas, J. W. Moody had been the County Clerk of Montgomery County, Alabama. Notice of the founding of the town of Montgomery first appeared in an advertisement placed in the July 8, 1837 edition of the Telegraph and Texas Register newspaper published in Houston, Texas.
Creation of Montgomery County.
On December 14, 1837, the Congress of the Republic of Texas passed an Act creating Montgomery County, Texas. In the following weeks, the town of Montgomery, located in the center of the Lake Creek Settlement became the county seat of Montgomery County. Montgomery County was initially composed of three large political precincts that had previously formed eastern Washington County: the Viesca Precinct, the San Jacinto Precinct and the Lake Creek Precinct. The Viesca Precinct included most of the territory of present-day Grimes County, Texas (created 1846). The San Jacinto Precinct included most of the territory of present-day Walker County, Texas (created 1846). The Lake Creek Precinct included most of the territory of present-day Montgomery County, Texas. 
An official Texas historical marker was approved by the Texas Historical Commission for the Lake Creek Settlement on January 29, 2016. On May 17, 2016, the Montgomery Independent School District Board of Trustees named the new MISD high school Lake Creek High School after the Lake Creek Settlement. The official Texas Historical Commission marker for the Lake Creek Settlement was dedicated at a ceremony in front of the Nat Hart Davis Museum and Pioneer Complex in Montgomery, Texas on February 25, 2017. Lake Creek High School, the second comprehensive high school in the Montgomery Independent School District, opened on August 21, 2018.