Bowie Knife made by Alfred Hunter before 1836

Click Here for more pictures of this Knife

Click Here for a picture of another Alfred Hunter Bowie Knife with its original sheath

Contact:

Luke Crump lives with his wife Pam Crump in Corpus Christi, TX. Phone = (361) 991-0619 Email = PamCrump@PamCrump.com

Description of the knife:

At the base of the blade it is inscribed "Alfred Hunter Superior Cutlery".  [Alfred Hunter produced these knives in New Jersey as early as 1830.]

The knife (including handle) is 14" long.  The blade is 9" long, and the handle is 5" long.

The knife blade near the base has what I understand is called a Spanish notch.  [Its function seems to be uncertain.]

The blade is in very good, relatively untarnished condition with no pitting and has a sharp edge. The edge was likely sharpened in the past, but not within the last 50 years. There is a tiny nick in the edge (visible in the pictures) about 1/4” out from the Spanish notch. The blade is 1/4” at its thickest part.

It has a hand guard that looks to be made of nickle.

The handle is ivory with carvings on all 4 sides. There are some very old stress crack lines on one side of the ivory handle, but the handle is tightly secured to the blade with no looseness at all.

There is a metal (nickle or silver?) escutcheon (namplate) on the handle with an engraved name that is a little worn, but appears to be "J L Helms" (the "e" could be an "o" and the "s" could be an "e"). Escutcheons found on Alfred Hunter knives were likely added by the owner after acquiring the knife.

Inside an outer leather covering is a sheath, very likely the original that came with the knife. [Click Here to see the comparison to another Alfred Hunter knife and its original sheath.]

The sheath inside the outer leather covering has a metal band 1-1/2” wide at the opening end (with thin leather lining inside the metal band). It also has a metal tip about 2-1/4” long, which is detectable through a tiny opening in the outer leather covering near the tip. The leather covering is handsewn and more roughly made than would be the original sheath for this knife, but it is certainly nearly as old as the knife itself and is in remarkably good sturdy condition and a snug fit for the inner sheath, which in turn is a snug fit for the knife.  The leather covering also has an intact leather belt loop handsewn to the back of the leather covering. There are no tears in the leather other than a small 1/4” tear worn on one side of the top of the 1-3/4” wide belt loop in the top fold. There are a couple of very small 1/4” scrapes on the surface of the leather (visible in the pictures). There is a pencil point sized opening at the point of the leather covering, just enough to see the metal underneath upon very close inspection.

History of the knife:

This knife was taken off of a Mexican Army soldier on 21 April 1836 at the Battle of San Jacinto by a Texian Army volunteer, McGrady Montgomery.

McGrady Montgomery was born to Issac Montgomery and his wife Martha McClure near Owensville, IN on 23 May 1812, the youngest of 8 children (6 boys, 2 girls). When war broke out in Texas in 1836, he was in Louisiana, where he volunteered with others to come to the aid of the Texians. He fought with General Sam Houston’s Texian Army at the Battle of San Jacinto on Sunday, 21 April 1836. The battle was rather short with the small band of Texians capturing the superior forces of the Mexican Army of General Santa Ana in a surprise attack early on Sunday morning. During that battle, McGrady took a Bowie knife from a Mexican soldier.

After the war was won, McGrady went back home to Indiana, where on 14 January 1841 he married Minerva Lucas. They had 5 children (4 girls and 1 boy) born between 1841 and 1851. McGrady moved his whole family (including his parents) to Texas to claim his bounty land in Austin County, TX. They left Indiana 11 November 1852, and arrived in Texas to claim their land on 6 December 1852. They settled a mile or two south of a town called Sempronius (no longer exists). They had one more child (a girl) born in 1859. McGrady died 19 September 1878 at the age of 66 and was buried in the family graveyard near Sempronius.

After McGrady’s death, the Bowie knife went to his only son, Fielding Lucas Montgomery. Fielding never married, dying 24 February 1911. He left the knife to his nephew, William McGrady Crump (son of James Waddie Crump and his wife America Montgomery). William was born on 16 November 1872 and lived in Kenney, Austin County, TX, where he once served as mayor. William never married. He died 30 September 1959 and was buried in nearby Bellville, TX. He left the knife for his nephew, William Lucas Crump (son of Fielding Lucas Crump and his wife Anna Belle Eldridge). When William Lucas Crump died in 1981, his widow, Jean Ray Crump gave the knife to their son, William Lucas Crump, Jr. (the current (2006) possessor of the knife, and the author of this document).

Documentation of the history of the knife:

I can produce documentation showing that McGrady Montgomery did fight with the Texians at the Battle of San Jacinto.

He is listed in published books:

The Heroes of San Jacinto. By Sam Houston Dixon and Louis Wiltz Kemp. The Anson Jones Press, Houston, TX, 1932

Rrepublic of Texas Pension Application Abstacts (A project of Austin Genealogical Society). By John C. Barrron, etal. Morgan Printing and Publishing, Inc, Austin, TX, 1987

McGrady Montgomery, Austin Co., 2 July 1874, approved. Age 62. From Jul 1836 he served in Capt. J. Price’s company of Col. Chas. H. Harrison’s regt. He received bounty warrant #9250. Miller Francis and S.Y. Reams, Austin Co., both served in the AOR, but not with the applicant. B.F. Foster, Austin Co., affirmed service of the applicant and was also a veteran himself. Nehemiah Cochran, Austin Co., affirmed identity. (p. 242)

The Montgomerys and Their Descendants, By D.B. Montgomery. J.P. Cox Publisher, Owensville, IN, 1908

McGrady (spelled “McGrada” in this book) Montgomery’s parents and siblings are written up in some detail on pages 243 to 249. There is a lot more detail information on his parents and on the siblings who remained in Indiana.

McGrada [sic] Montgomery, tenth child of Judge Issac Montgomery, married a Miss Lucas of near Owensville, Ind., and moved with his father to Texas in 1851. He has at least two children living in or near Semfronius [sic], Austin county, Texas – Fielding L. and Miss Maggie Montgomery. (p. 249)

I can produce genealogical records of the relationships of all of the family members.

Click Here for a Genealogical Chart

While digging through my old family genealogical records, I did find an old handwritten note from my great aunt (Maggie Crump Amsler) to my grandmother (her sister-in-law) (Anna Belle Eldridge Crump) asking how to contact my father (William Lucas Crump) to arrange for him to get the knife that her brother (William McGrady "Mac" Crump) left for him.  The note was not dated, but is obviously old, and would have been written shortly after the death of my great uncle on 30 September 1959.  The note was written on a blank check form from Citizens State Bank of Hempstead, TX (where Maggie lived).

Anna Belle - Please send me Wm. Lucas' new address.  Bro. Mack left him the historical Bowie knife, which our grandfather Montgomery took off of a Mexican in the battle of San Jacinto.  The attorney probating the will wants to send him a receipt to sign that he got the knife.  Tell him to sign the receipt & return to the attorney.  I have the knife & will bring it down to him when I come - or if he passes this way to stop & I will give it to him.

Thank you,  M.C.A.

I have tried internet searches to identify the man whose name is on the nameplate, but have been unsuccessful so far.  [I speculate that Helms must have been captured or killed by the Mexican army during their march from Mexico up to San Antonio and then on to San Jacinto (near present day Houston).] So far I have found only one Helms listed on the roles of volunteers in that war. Wilson Helms was in Captain Winn’s Company (First Regiment Texas Volunteers). He and his entire company were captured and executed (except one man was spared execution) by the Mexican Army on 27 March 1836.