October 1, 2009 at 11:49 am (Montgomery, Surnames, genealogy)
Tags: ancestry, captain, Census, Civil War, family history, genealogy, Lynchburg, Ohio, Shiloh, Vicksburg
One of the most interesting discoveries I have made recently is finding information regarding the 48th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, which fought in the Civil War and included a Montgomery cousin, Thomas Montgomery, and his brother-in-law John A. Bering (Thomas’s sister Susan was John’s first wife). The 48th Ohio fought at the battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg, among others. Following their war experiences, the two men collaborated on a memoir which was published in 1880 and is now available online.
Thomas Montgomery was born in New Jersey in 1837, the fourth son of William and Mary Ann (Extell) Montgomery. His eldest brother John was our direct ancestor. By 1850 the family was living in Clinton County, Ohio, where, 10 years later, Thomas was listed in the census as a schoolteacher. Thomas’s military career covered the four years of the Civil War, after which he appears to have settled down in Highland County, Ohio. His wife, Elizabeth, was born between 1844 and 1845 in Ohio, and their first child, Stella May, was born between 1866 and 1867. Based on a photo of the Montgomery family, 5 more children followed, though I only have details on 4: Walter T. (b. November 1870), Maud (b. 1872-1873), Harley H. (b. March 1876), and Milton Clark (b. 1878-1879). In 1870 the census listed Thomas as a livery stable keeper, and in 1880 as a U. S. Storekeeper. Thomas died 13 July 1907 and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Lynchburg, Highland County, Ohio.
- Thomas Montgomery, 1905
Thanks to the 48th OVVI website for many of these details.
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July 31, 2007 at 7:47 pm (Family News, Hoffmann, Montgomery, Swing, Wilson, genealogy)
Tags: courtship, Fairbury, genealogy
Every once in a while I find myself playing the genealogical “What If?” game. What precise combination of events had to take place throughout the years to allow me to be me? Perhaps this sense of narrowly-avoided oblivion makes those stories of ancestors’ first meetings so intriguing.
Grandma Montgomery (Blanche Wilson Montgomery) told me the first time she ever met Grandpa (L. T. Montgomery), he was part of a threshing crew working her family’s fields. She was thirteen, and so shy she hid behind the door when she first saw him. Eight years passed, during which Grandpa married, had two daughters, and was widowed. Then in 1930, Grandma’s mother ran into Grandpa again in town. She remembered him from the threshing crew years earlier and, thinking he would make a good husband for her oldest daughter, invited him out to the farm. Shortly after this second meeting, Grandma and Grandpa married.
My maternal grandparents’ story began at a family get-together. Grandma (Velma Swing Hoffmann) was in her teens and was surprised to see a young man at the family gathering whom she’d never seen before. Struck by his good looks, she asked her mother who he was, only to find out he was a cousin! She knew most of the Hoffmann cousins, of course–their father, Paul Hoffmann, had been a half-brother to her grandmother, Catherine Hoffmann Swing. But Joe had been away in Chicago, and Grandma hadn’t realized there was a Hoffmann son older than Lee, born in 1912 (Grandpa was born in 1907, ten years before Grandma). Grandma and Grandpa Hoffmann’s courtship was longer than Grandma and Grandpa Montgomery’s–they would not marry until 1938, some 5 years or so after that first meeting.
These stories (and all the other “first meetings” of ancestors) lead to inevitable questions. Who would I be if Sophie Wilson hadn’t chosen that day to go into town? Or what if Grandpa Hoffmann had stayed in Chicago rather than returning to Fairbury and attending that family get-together? Or what if Grandma Montgomery had hidden behind that door again in 1930?
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