Spartanburg County, South Carolina - Chapter 25: The Montgomery Family, 1900

Chapter 25: The Montgomery Family

Ill our researches into the "Genealogical History of" the Family of Montgomery," including the Montgomery pedigree compiled by Thomas Harrison Montgomery of Philadelphia, and published in 1863, we find that the families referred to in said volume descended from distinguished ancestry. The earliest records we have of the family place its origin in the north of France in the ninth century. Its history leads up to the present through an unbroken succession of ten centuries in length, as shown by accompanying chart to said vol-- ume, the first known of the name being Roger de Montgomerie, w^ho was "Count of Montgomerie before the coming of Rolle" in 912.

Throughout the entire succession of generations in this family w^e find the familiar names of Alexander, William, Hugh, James, John and Robert, and among the females Mary, Elizabeth and Margaret.

During the period mentioned a number of these occupied the distinguished positions of earls, lords, and baronets in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Some of the descendants of these were distinguished soldiers of the Revolution and in the War of 18 12 with Great Britain. Among this number we would mention General Richard Montgomery, whose name in Revolutionary annals is specially identified with the siege of Quebec,, where he lost his life, December, 1775, and Brigadier- General John Montgomery, of New Hampshire, who,, during the war of 181 2, defended the harbor of Portsmouth against the attacks of the British..

The original ancestor of the Montgomery family that made settlement in the present connty of Spartanburg was John Montgomery, Scotch-Irish, who emigrated from north of Ireland to Pennsylvania before the Revolution, and subsequently to Spartanburg in 1785, and settled on North Tyger River, near Snoddy's Bridge. He married in Pennsylvania to Rosa Roddy, and by this marriage had seven children, as follows :

Alexander, who married Miss Samons ; John,* who married Margaret Miller ; James, who married a Miss Walker ; Robert, who never married ; Hugh, who married a Miss Reynolds ; Margaret, who married Edward (Neddy) Clemont ; and Mary, who married James Morton.

Of the sons mentioned, Alexander had thirteen children, and among these we gather the names of Alfred, Anoldus, Robert, Mathias, Edward, Elias, John and Minerva. The last named married Curtis Bradley.

Hugh Montgomery had eight children, viz. : John, James, Thomas, Walker, David, Elias, Mary and Elizabeth. Of these, Mary married Gross, and Elizabeth married Shadrach Barton.

John Montgomery, Esq., one of the sons mentioned, was a man of considerable prominence and influence in his day, being above the average in intelligence and general information. He was a progressive farmer and carried on the business of blacksmithing and woodwork. - He was a manufacturer of wagons at a time in the history of Spartanburg District when imported wagons were unknown. By honest industry he accumulated a handsome property. He was a good provider, hospitable in his home, and a progressive citizen. He was for many years a magistrate, appointed by enactment of the

General Assembly of South Carolina, and was an efficient officer in this capacity. He was a soldier of the war of 181 2, being orderly sergeant in the company of Captain James Brannon, which was known as the Old Artillery Company, and which paraded for a half century or more at Timmon's Old Field prior to the outbreak of the civil w^ar.

His death occurred in 1847 or '48. As already stated, he married Margaret Miller, daughter of Michael Miller, who was a very remarkable woman for her day and generation. She w^as born near the close of the Revolutionary war, September i6th, 1786, and died in 1882, in the 96th year of her age. For eighty years or more she had been a consistent and faithful member of the Presbyterian Church at Nazareth. Her life was marked by her love of the Bible and her intelligent comprehension of its contents. As her physical constitution was of the iron type, so her mental faculties were strong and vigorous. She studied the Bible attentively, carefully and prayerfully all through life, and committed to memory large portions of it, and also many of Newton's hymns. The treasures which she gathered in early youth proved to be a great comfort to her in old age. All through her long life duty was to her a word full of meaning. Living remote from her church (Nazareth), she and John Smith, a neighbor and a useful and acceptable elder in the same, organized and conducted a Sunday-school near her dwelling, which was sustained for thirty years. Old and weary of the world, she passed away as gently as the wave dies along the shore when the storm is over.

The children of John and Margaret (Miller) Montgomery were thirteen in number, viz.: Nancy Miller, married Dr. Andrew B. Moore first, and Colonel Samuel N. Evans second ; Rosa Roddy, married John Chap-

Of these only three are living at this writing (1900) : B. F. Montgomery, Rusk county, Texas; Mrs. Hannah Evins, Welford, S. C, and Mrs, Margaret Moore at Spartanburg. One of the sons. Prater S. Montgomery, contracted disease during the civil war from which he died at its close, leaving a wife and three children, viz. : James, John, and Mary (Mrs. Daniel, now deceased).

Of the grandsons of John and Margaret Montgomery five gave up their lives on field of battle in the civil war between the States, viz.: Andrew Charles Moore (i8th Regt., S. C. V.) , son of Dr. A. B. and Nancy Moore, killed second Manassas ; W'arren Davis Chapman (Richmond Battalion), son of John and Rosa R. Chapman, wounded below Richmond and died a few days afterward; Captain Michael M. Cunningham (6th Regt., S. C. V.), son of William and Mary Cunningham, killed in Virginia; Robert Scott Montgomery (Texas Regiment), son of B. F. and Harriet Montgomery, killed at Franklin, Tenn.; and John Oscar Montgomery (i8th S. C. Regiment), son of Michael M. and Martha Montgomery, killed at second Manassas.

Robert Scott, Benjamin Landrnm, Emily IMargaret, Francis B., Mary Crawford, William C., Anna Caroline, Sarah Cornelius and Joseph Oscar. At this writing (1899) bnly four of these are living, viz. : John H., Benjamin Iv. (Hillville, near Enoree, S. C), Elizabeth McCravy and Anna Rogers, the two latter residing in Texas.

Captain John Henry Montgomery

eldest of the twelve children referred to of Benj. F. and Harriet (Moss) Montgomery, was born fourteen miles west of the city of Spartanburg, December 8th, 1833. He was brought up on his father's farm, receiving the best education that could be afforded in the common schools of his neighborhood. One of his instructors was Richard Golightly, whom we have mentioned at another place in this volume. Not possessing what might be called a strong constitution, he was, at the age of nineteen years, placed in the country store of James Nesbitt, in the southern portion of the present county of Spartanburg. He held this position for a year, for which he was paid $5 per month and board. During this year, without questioning the propriety, he performed all the requirements of his employer. He worked around the house and barn, and though hired as a clerk, his first work was to drive a four-horse team loaded with flour to the iron works at the present site of Clifton, S- C, a distance of thirty miles, loading back with iron and nails.

From Mr. Nesbitt's store he went to Columbia and worked as a clerk for four months in the store of Robert Brice, which w^as during the winter of 1 853-' 54. The next spring he entered into a partnership with his brother-in-law, Dr. E. R. W. McCrary, in the mercantile

In the fall of 1855 the parents of Mr. Montgomery, his four brothers and six sisters, together with his brother-in-law and partner, removed to Texas, leaving him the sole member of the family remaining in South Carolina. With a limited capital he continued in the mercantile business at Hobbyville for three years or more, meeting all the obligations which had been contracted by the firm in good faith, but under trying difficulties.

In 1857 he married to Miss Susan A. Holcombe, daughter of David Holcombe, a native of Union county, S. C, who settled in Spartanburg in 1845. In 1858 he moved his stock of merchandise to a store owned bv his father-in-law two miles distant, where he continued in the business of a merchant in connection with a small tannery until the outbreak of the civil war. In December, 1861, he volunteered his services to his country and was enrolled as a private in Co. E, i8th Regt., S. C. V. Upon the organization 01 said regiment, however, he was appointed regimental commissary with the rank of captain. This office, under new army regulations, was abolished in 1863, and Captain Montgomery was made an assistant commissary of the brigade, which office was also abolished in 1864, and he was then made an assistant division commissary, continuing as such until the close of the war, surrendering with General Lee at Appomattox, April, 1865.

Returning home after the war, he began life anew as it were. Besides owning a small farm, upon which he had depended for the support of his family during the war, he had a small stock of leather, the accumulation of his small tannery, which was the only property he possessed.

In 1866 he began the use of commercial fertilizers upon his farm, and soon demonstrated to his neighbors the importance of stimulating plant growth. He at once engaged in the sale of fertilizers to his neighbors and surrounding country, which was the dawning of a new era of prosperity in his business career. He had all the while successfully conducted the business of his tannery, and in 1870 resumed his merchandizing at the same place.

His sale of commercial fertilizers had assumed such proportions as to make it necessary to give up farming, and later, all other branches of business. In 1874 he removed to Spartanburg and turned his attention exclusively to fertilizers, associating himself with Colonel Joseph Walker and Dr. C. E. Fleming, under the name of Walker, Fleming & Co.

In 1 88 1 this firm purchased a water-power on Pacolet River, known as Trough Shoals, and in 1882 commenced the erection of the Pacolet Manufacturing Company, which was completed the following year.' The company was incorporated in 1881, with Captain Montgomery as its president and treasurer, which position he still holds. In 1887 the capacity of this mill was 26,224 spindles and 840 looms, but it was again enlarged in 1894, making it the third mill of the company, containing in the aggregate 57,000 spindles and 22,000 looms. Its annual consumption of cotton is about 30,000 bales, and its capital about $500,000.

In 1889 Captain Montgomery was made the president and treasurer of the Spartan mills. For information as to the capacity of these mills the reader is referred to our review on the progress of manufacturing in Spartanburg at another place in this volume. Captain jNIontgomery is a stockholder and director in the Whitney mill, the Lockhart mill and Morgan Iron works, and also a stockholder in the Clifton mills.

Aside from his business relations to the companies referred to, he is in every sense of the word a model gentleman, fully alive to every enterprise and business industry looking to the development and upbuilding of his country. Notwithstanding he has been successful in his business investments, and has accumulated a handsome fortune, he has been liberal with his means and a generous contributor to every worthy object of charity with which he has been confronted.

He has been for nearly a half century a consistent member of the Baptist church, which he has most always represented in the annual meetings of the association. In his church he is among the foremost in the support of his pastor, and of all the claims of missions and charity coming before it.

In another place in this volume we have endeavored to state the circumstances under which the Hon. Peter Cooper of New York donated the valuable property comprising the institution building and surrounding grounds at Limestone Springs to the Spartanburg Baptist Association, the history of the progress of which we have recorded. In 1888 Captain Montgomery succeeded to the presidency of the board of trustees of the Cooper Limestone Institute, now known as Limestone College, and its marked success from year to year has been mainly due to his indomitable energy, excellent judgment and contributions from his private means, which have already amounted to some $15,000 or more. He still presides at the head of an able board of trustees of this college, which, by reason of the work of remodeling and its modern equipment, will, for all time to come, add additional honors to his name and character. In all these generous gifts, however (at one time the sum of I500 for the library of the college), he has had no reference whatever to the perpetuation of his name or memory. He has simply done what he felt to be a duiij in the distribution of the means with which he has been so abundantly blessed by his own perseverance and the assistance of a kind Providence.

In the ordinary walks of life he is the same humble and unassuming citizen that he was when a country boy on his father's farm at the age of eighteen years. The humblest operative in his employ can approach him with as much freedom as the wealthy capitalist with whom, in a business way, he is much associated.

Captain Montgomery, by his marriage with Miss Holcombe, had eight children, only three of whom are now living, viz.: Victor :\I., Walter S., and Benjamin W. Those who have died were: David F., Mary, John» Katie Lois and an infant unnamed.

A true patriot and philanthropist, Captain Montgomery still stands before the people of Spartanburg as one of her best, most influential and progressive citizens.

The Crook And Nicholas Families

The ancestor of the Crook families in Spartanburg county was James Crook, who came from Virginia, and was numbered among the early settlers on the Tygers. He had six sons, but we have been enabled to gather the names of only two, viz. : James and Jesse.

James Crook, the first mentioned name of the sons, was a man of considerable prominence in his day. He lived on South Tyger, and built the house in which James i\I. Switzer now lives. He was a member of the Nullification Convention on the Union side, from Spartanburg District in 1832. He also served for two terms from the same district in the State legislature from 1826 to '28, and from 1828 to '30. After this he removed to Alabama, where his descendants are numerous and prominent, among whom we would mention James Crook, at present one of the railroad commissioners for that State.

The other brother mentioned, Jesse Crook, married Katy Barry, the daughter of Captain Andrew Barry. Katy was the little girl who was tied by the leg to the bedpost by her mother during the Revolution, whilst she went and gave notice of the raid of marauding Tories.

ist. Dr. Andrew Barry Crook, a noted physician of Greenville, S. C, who died in 1862, and whose wife was a Miss Hoke of Lincolnton, N. C, by whom he left one child, Sallie, married to Wm. Lester, who had only one child, Nannie, married to Dr. Black of Greenville, S. C.

3d. Martha, married Newport Bragg, went to Alabama, thence to Arkansas. Newport Bragg was killed in a sawmill disaster ; he left a family of which one W. L. Bragg was one of Alabama's most distinguished sons, having served in the State in many capacities, and finally was United States railroad commissioner.

4th. James Crook, studied law, went to Alabama ; married a Miss Saimders ; no children ; returned to Spartanburg after the civil war, and died a few years thereafter.

8th. Colonel John Moore Crook, born November loth, 1816 ; married Miss Lou Brewton, November 25, 1867, who died July 25th, 1885. The children by this marriage are Jesse E., died 1890; Janie E., Catherine E., John M. , Andrew Barry and Mary Louisa.

Major George Nicholls married " Katie " Crook, as she was known by her friends, January 12th, 1843; she was born April 4th, 181 7, and died October 24th, 1854. George Nicholls was sheriff of Spartanburg four years. He died August loth, 1849. Their children are: ist, John Moore Nicholls, who will receive further notice; 2d, Andrew Barry Crook, born January I4tli, 1845 ; 3d, Benj. Franklin, born November 3d, 1847 ; and 4th, George Williams, born December 5th, 1849.

John M. Nicholls

was born December 4th, 1843. Being deprived of the care of his widowed mother when about twelve years of age, he spent, for the most part, the remaining years of his life, until he had reached the age of eighteen, with his uncle. Colonel John M. Crook, whom we have already noticed.

When about eighteen years old he enlisted in Co. H, ist. S. C. v., of which he was a sergeant, and participated, after becoming a member of said regiment, in all the battles and skirmishes in which it was engaged.

During the period of his service he performed an act of distinguished valor, which has given him renown. His praises have been sung for a daring deed in crossing the breastworks in front of SjDOttsylvania under heavy fire to give a dvine Federal soldier some water. In The

"It was a hot July day in 1864 . . . Our men. had hurriedly dug rifle pits to protect themselves from the sharpshooters, and dead and dying Federals were lying up to the very edge of those pits. In one of the pits was an ungainly, raw, red-headed boy (John M. Nicholls); he was a retiring lad, green as grass, but reliable fighter; we never paid much attention to him, one way or the other. The wounded had been lying for hours, unattended before the pits, and the sun was getting hotter and hotter, they were suffering horribly from pain and thirst. Not fifteen feet away, outside the rifle pit, lay a mortally wounded officer, who was our enemy. As the heat grew more intolerable, this officer's cries for water increased ; he was evidently dying hard, and his appeals were of the most piteous nature. The red-headed boy found it hard to bear them. He had just joined the regiment, and was not yet callous to suffering. At last, with tears flooding his grimy face, he cried out, 'I can't stand it longer, boys ; I am going to take that poor fellow my canteen.' For answer to this foolhardy speech, one of us stuck a cap on a ramrod and hoisted it above the pit ; instantly it was pierced with a dozen bullets ; to venture outside a step was the maddest suicide, and all the while we could hear the officer's moans: 'Water, water ; just one drop, for God-sake, somebody ! only one drop!' The tender-hearted boy could stand the appeal no longer. Once, twice, three times, in spite of our utmost remonstrance, he tried unsuccessfully to clear the pit. At last he gave a desperate leap over the embankment, and once on the other side, he threw himself flat on the ground and crawled toward his dying foe ; he could not get close to him because of the terrible fire ; but he broke a sumac bush, tied to the stick his precious canteen and landed it in the sufferer's trembling hands. You never heard such gratitude in your life - perhaps there was never any like it before. The officer was for tying his gold watch on the stick and sending it back, as a slight return for the disinterested act ; but this the boy would not allow\ He only smiled happily and re- turned as he had gone - crawling amid a hailstorm of bullets. When he reached the edge of the pit he called out to his comrades to clear the way for him, and with a mighty leap he w^as among us once more."

After the close of the civil war John M. Nicholls returned to his native county and engaged for a time in farming. He was for eight years sheriff of Spartanburg county, which office he held to the satisfaction of the people. He married Mrs. Ella Bobo, widow of Captain Alex Copeland and daughter of Hon. Simpson Bobo, May, 1891, and has one child, Catharine, born May, 1892.

Andrew Barry Crook Nicholls, M.D., married Mary Ellen, daughter of Rev. John and Georgia A (Foster) Collier, in 1871, in Tuscaloosa county, Alabama, by whom he has five children.

He was a member of the ist Regt., S. C. V., to which he joined in 1863, and served as color guard ; was wounded in hip in 1864, and surrendered at Appomattox April, 1865. After peace he was a farmer ; then went to school at Greenville, S. C, under Captain Patrick; studied medicine with Dr. A. D. Hoke; graduated in medicine in 1869, from Philadelphia University ; went to Alabama, Talladega county, then to Tuscaloosa City, where he has a large practice, and w^as president of the Tuscaloosa Medical Society.

Benjamin Franklin Nicholls married Elizabeth Louise, daughter of Dr. Joseph and Anna Pauline Klapp of Philadelphia, Pa., 1875, and died February 15th, 1895, leaving several children.

He studied medicine and settled in Philadelphia, Pa., where he gained credit as a medical man, having filled several positions in hospitals and colleges and societies. He was fast rising to the top, when an untimely death cut short his career. He was a soldier of the Southern Confederacy.

George W. Nicholls, Esq., married Mary Lavinia, daughter of Rev. Samuel Jones, D.D., on May 29th, 1884. He is a prominent lawyer in Spartanburg, and served Spartanburg county for ten years as probate judge. He lives in the city of Spartanburg. He has five children.

These four sons of Major George Nicholls are especially worthy of high commendation, for they are emphatically self-made men, having lost both parents in early life, and being left to the care of a bachelor uncle. They raised themselves from childhood to high stations in society, church and state.