TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Frederick (Fred) Senator Montier

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY (August 5, 2025): Frederick (Fred) Senator Montier was born 171 years ago TODAY, August 5, 1854, in Lavaca, Texas (today Port Lavaca). He was the oldest son of parents David and Mary Montier. Fred’s father David had emigrated from France to Maryland in the 1830’s with his brother Timothy. The brothers were cobblers. Timothy met Miss Mary Kelley, who had emigrated with her parents from Ireland, and they were married in New Jersey in 1838. Shortly afterward, the couple, along with David, sailed to Galveston, where they lived for a few years before moving to Lavaca. Drawing on their skills as cobblers, they started a shoe company. Timothy died in 1850 and left Mary a widow with 3 small children. David and Mary then married in 1853. In addition to Frederick (1854), David and Mary had three other sons Timothy (1858), Emil (1860) and Charles (1862). 

In an April 1937 Houston Chronicle article, published shortly before his death, Fred shared a story about a sunny morning, 74 years earlier, in October1862 when he was just a boy. “Port Lavaca was bigger than it is now,” he said, “and there was a good deal of fishing and freight boats plying the bay. There had been quite a bit of talk, of course, about the war and some of the young patriots had joined the ranks of Lee, but it seemed far away, and business went on as usual,” he remembered. “Until one day,” he said,” when someone sighted two ships sailing up Matagorda Bay. The town shook with alarm when it was learned the ships flew the northern flag. A boat was dispatched with daredevils to go out and hail the ships and learn what they wanted. Signals passed and the boats sped back. ‘Take the women and children to the ravine’, they shouted as they sprang to the wharf, ‘The Yankees are going to shell the town!’" He told how the gunboats gave plenty of time for the women and children to find safety, but then the shelling began. Fred shared how he and his parents scampered from their home to watch the bombardment from the bluff south of town near where in the 1930’s the corporation ditch ended, and the Oblate Fathers of San Antonio had a summer school. He said that they watched black puffs of smoke spout from the gunboats and out of each puff would fly a black iron ball. The cannon balls fell all about the town and one even went through the roof of his own home. History records show that a total of 252 rounds were fired into Port Lavaca but caused no loss of life and Port Lavaca remained in confederate hands until November 1863. You can read more about this historic event at https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=173656.

Fred’s father David passed away in 1875 when Fred was 20 years old. At the time of his death, David was a part of the Calhoun County Court, serving as the Justice of the Peace for Precinct #2 since 1871. Today’s Commissioner’s Court structure wasn’t established until a year later by the 1876 Texas Constitution. 

Fred married Francisca Gaines of Victoria, Texas on December 16, 1885. They had seven children between 1888 and 1905. Their children were Francis Frederick (Frank), Rosena Latita, Constant William, Mary Grace, Maude Ettie, Charles Peterson, and Pauline Arcelia. Fred owned the first bakery in Port Lavaca, operating it out of his home located at the corner of Ann and Live Oak Street. The bakery oven was a brick rectangle about 6 ft by 12 ft, set on a concrete slab, with a heavy layer of sand on top. He added confectionery to the baked goods line in 1894, a year before his mother Mary passed away. In 1896, he began serving a variety of dishes out of his home and Fred became the first bottler of soft drinks in the county, when he opened the Port Lavaca Bottling Works in 1902. Fred was elected Justice of the Peace in 1892 and served several terms until 1911.

In 1904, Fred merged his various ventures and opened the Shellfish Café at the corner of East Railroad and Commerce St. The Shellfish Café was a French bakery which soon became well known throughout Texas for its seafood and especially for Fred’s original crab omelet. Fred operated the Café until 1927, when Fred’s eldest son Frank took over full management of the business. The Café was moved to the location on Commerce at U.S. 87 (Main Street) in 1928. Frank’s son-in-law Herluf Westerholm took over the business in 1946, calling it the Shellfish Restaurant and relocating it to Highway 35 in 1965. The Shellfish Restaurant was closed in 1985. Stay tuned for future Tombstone Tuesdays about Frank and other members of this family and the beloved Shellfish Café.

Another interesting fact about Fred Montier is that in 1928, he, along with Florence Blardone and Ima Smith, formed the Port Lavaca Cemetery Association, a non-profit corporation. 

In the mentioned 1937 Houston Chronicle article, 82-year-old Fred Montier is described as being “loved by all who knew him. He lives so much in the past and likes to dwell on the days when he sailed freight on the bay 3 generations ago.” 

When Fred passed away on April 23, 1937 at the age of 82, he was the oldest living citizen who had been born in Port Lavaca. He is buried in the Port Lavaca Cemetery next to Francis. Happy Birthday in Heaven Mr. Montier!

Port Lavaca, Texas 1840-1990

Tombstone Tuesday is written and compiled each week by Jody Weaver and Sheryl Cuellar of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, sharing the people and stories behind Calhoun County's history.