History Taskforce

Members of the History Taskforce met with students at Lone Star College - Kingwood on April 28th during a history-themed cultural exhibition. We helped students start their family trees and provided links via QR code to free resources. We explained some of our successful projects which can be found at Historytaskforce.org.

Wednesday morning, state, county and city officials and citizens honored J. GOLDSTEIN DuPREE, who served as one of twelve Black state legislators in the 12th Texas Legislature during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period in the early 1870s. It is believed that he is buried in an unmarked grave in the historic African American Montgomery Memorial Cemetery.

The marker memorial ceremony was held at the Montgomery Memorial Cemetery which recently was recognized with a county historical marker. The ceremony was organized by our MCHC member T J WILKERSON who served as the Master of Ceremonies and organized the program. Also participating in the ceremony were State Representative WILL METALF, County Judge MARK KEOUGH, and Montgomery city mayor SARA COUNTRYMAN.

Recently, our area had the opportunity to experience the site of Big Boy. The Union Pacific Railroad Company Locomotive, also known as Union Pacific 4014, is the type built in 1941 by the American Locomotive Company to haul heavy freight trains. Seeing Big Boy as it approached the city of Springs’ train stop was impressive even for me and many others, judging by the crowds it has generated everywhere it has traveled. Given the fact, I’ve had opportunities to travel the world, this Big Boy was something. One can only imagine what a young African-American boy, born of ex-enslaved people in a time of great prejudices and blaring signs of everything not accessible to him, would have thought the first time he saw a massive black steam engine approaching his hometown of Willis, Texas, in 1876. Such was the case of Ned Eastman Barnes born in 1866 in Danville, Montgomery County, Texas with parents probably sharecropping during this post Civil War environment. Willis was a tiny rural area at the time with mud streets, candle lights, kerosene and oil lamps, log cabins, or rough wood structures for housing, horses, and buggies, or walking as the only modes of transportation; railways must have seemed almost mythical.

Due to segregation, African-American children like Ned Eastman Barnes were allowed a fifth-grade education in their local area. If a child wanted to have the opportunity for advanced learning, they would have to leave the area because those opportunities did not exist for these young, poor black children like Ned Eastman Barnes. As a child, working as a houseboy for the T. W. Smith-Owen family, listening as this sometimes lumbering, sometimes roaring, but always moving train coming to and through his hometown and dreaming of seeing the conductors, addressing various challenges on this equipment, and imagining ways to improve those challenges. He would one day file and receive eight patterns for improvements in this system. He would also receive two additional patents in other areas for other mechanical and structural improvements.

Having had no mechanical engineering education and yet developing a mechanical engineering aptitude, for many of us today seems impossible, but for those in the Barnes community of the time knew it was a fact. He was well-known and appreciated in his community among his family, church, family, and friends. It must not have been easy because, at the time he received his first patents, there were probably many other applications denied. Looking at the life Ned Eastman Barnes, one gets the impression nothing came easy, even trying to list his occupation on the 1900 census. The enumerator left this area blank, yet the community at the time knew he identified himself as an inventor. His occupation was not listed until the 1910 census when he had received approval for four of his patents. He would go on to get a total of 10 patents, and one of those was shared with Berger Edmond.

Ned Eastman Barnes died in 1952 and is buried in Willis, Montgomery County, Texas, his hometown.

C. Stubblefield Walker

The Historical Commission's recent receipt of county reimbursement grant funds highlights the strong commitment of the Commissioners Court to historic preservation. These funds, designated for qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit historic organizations, are instrumental in supporting the preservation of the county's cultural heritage. An excellent example of this commitment is the History Taskforce, which received a grant for their restoration efforts on the Thomas Chapel Church in Willis, TX. This funding not only aids in the physical restoration of the site but also helps maintain the community's connection to its historical roots. The Commissioners Court's dedication ensures that such projects can continue, fostering appreciation for local history and heritage.