History of Cut & Shoot Texas

One of my comments on my last post asked how the small, oddly named town got its name. I had no idea, but in my mind I had dreams of a town named for a descriptive, yet quaint kind of farming or prospecting metaphor. Not so.

Here’s what I found:

Cut & Shoot is a city in eastern Montgomery County, Texas, United States, about 6 miles east of Conroe and 40 miles north of Houston. The population was 1,158 at the 2000 census, at which time it was a town; the community only became a city in August 2006.

The City Hall of Cut and Shoot, Texas

According to local legend, Cut and Shoot was named after a 1912 community confrontation that almost led to violence. According to differing versions of the story, the dispute was either over:

• · The design of a new steeple for the town's only church, or
• · The issue of who should be allowed to preach there, or
• · The conflicting land claims among church members.

Whatever the circumstances were, a small boy at the scene reportedly declared "I'm going to cut around the corner and shoot through the bushes in a minute!"

This statement apparently stayed in the residents' minds and was eventually adopted as the town's name.

Sadly, the townsfolk must not have been all with us. I mean come on! You’re building a church and having a fight about the steeple, BEFORE you even have a name for your town? What kind of people are we talking about?

And then the best name you can come up with is something a boy yelled about cutting around a corner and shooting through some bushes…I can’ believe the town lasted more than a week. What’s more I guess they’re lucky the town’s not called, “I stepped in dog poop!”

Using Cut & Shoot logic I’m surprised we don’t have a string of towns across the state called, “Tag, you’re it!”, or “Dad! I’ve got to pee!” or “Here, pull my finger!”

And there you have it…more that you ever wanted to know about the less than romantic name origins of an obscure little town in southeast Texas.

Note:

I could be wrong, but I do believe my mother actually lived in Cut & Shoot back in the 1940’s. Maybe I should ask her about the name. However, by the time she lived there those poor people had been living with that goofy name for over 30 years. My guess is that boy had been strung up, or run out of town long before she got there.