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Photographer's
Note:
The Montvale
Cemetery and Marker are about three miles southeast of Sterling City on US 87.
- Barclay
Gibson
Historical
Marker TextMontvaleThe
community of Montvale was established in 1884 when the pioneer settlement of St.
Elmo was relocated here. Then a part of Tom Green County, Montvale was located
on the Shafter Military Trail, an early road from Fort
Concho.
A community school, the earliest in the area, was in operation
by 1886. Three years later the town was platted by H. B. Tarver, the surveyor
for Tom Green County. It is believed the settlement was named for a nearby hill
referred to in Tarver's field notes as Mt. Vale.
Early businesses in Montvale
included the saddle and harness shop of R. B. Cummins and the general store and
blacksmith shop of B. Z. Cooper. The town was also the site of a Methodist church,
a hotel, a post office and a variety of stores. About 1889 R. B. Cummins started
the town of Cummins (5.4 miles northwest) upriver
from Montvale. Both settlements began to decline in 1891 with the establishment
of Sterling City
(3.5 miles northwest)
as the seat of government for the newly created Sterling County.
A community
cemetery is all that remains of the townsite of Montvale, a pioneer settlement
that played an important role in the area's development. |
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Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
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