John
Henry Montgomery was born December 8, 1833, on a plantation
fourteen miles west of Spartanburg, S. C. The eldest
of twelve
children of Benjamin F. and Harriet (Moss) Montgomery, he
was a descendant of Roger de Montgomerie, of Northern
France, who
was " Count of Montgomerie before the coming of Rolle
" in 912, also a descendant of other earls, lords and
baronets in England, Wales, Scotland
and Ireland, and some of his later ancestors were
distinguished�soldiers of the Revolution and in the
War of 1812 with Great Britain,
among
whom we would mention General Richard Montgomery, whose
name�in Revolutionary annals is specially identified
with the siege of Quebec,
where
he lost his life in December, 1775; and General John
Montgomery,�of New Hampshire, who, during the War of
1812, defended the harbor
of
Portsmouth against the attacks of the British. The original
ancestor of�the Montgomery family to settle in the
present County of Spartanburg was
John
Montgomery, the great-great-grandfather of our subject. Of
Scotch-Irish descent, he emigrated from the north of Ireland
to Pennsylvania before
the
Revolution, and in 1785 to Spartanburg, having married
Rosa�Roddy.
John
Henry Montgomery was reared on his father's farm,
attending�the neighborhood school, which was taught
by competent instructors, one of
the
teachers being Richard Golightly, who was not only well
versed in the�English branches, but a great scholar
in Latin and the higher mathematics.
In
1852, our subject accepted a position as clerk in the
country store of�James Nesbitt, in the southern
portion of the present county of Spartanburg.
He
held this position for a year at a salary of $5. per month
and�board, and then went to Columbia, the capital of
the State, where he became a clerk
in
the store of Robert Brice, but after four months, he in
the�spring of 1854 made another change, and entered
into a partnership with�his brother-in-law.
Dr.
E. R. W. McCrary, in the general
merchandising�business at Hobbyville, S. C. In the
fall of 1855, his parents and all his�brothers and
sisters,�also his
brother-in-law,
removed to Texas, leaving him�the sole member of the
family in South Carolina. Having lost his
partner,�he, with a limited capital,
continued
in the mercantile business at Hobbyville for three years or
more, and then moved his stock of merchandise to�a
store owned by his father-in-law
two
miles distant, having married in 1857�Susan A.,
daughter of David Holcombe, a native of Union County,
who�settled in Spartanburg in 1845.
Mr.
Montgomery continued in the business�of a merchant in
connection with a small tannery until the outbreak of
the�Civil War, when, in December,
1861,
he volunteered his services to his�country and was
enrolled as a private in Company E, 18th Regiment,�S.
C. V.
On
the organization of this regiment, he was made
commissary�with the rank of captain, and in 1863
became assistant commissary of the�brigade, and
in
1864 assistant division commissary. While in the army,
his�family had subsisted on the proceeds from a small
farm. In 1865, on�his�return home,
he
found he was also in possession of a small stock of
leather�in his tannery, and with this he immediately
set to work to recuperate his�fallen fortune.
The
following year, he commenced the use of
commercial�fertilizers upon his farm, and,
demonstrating to his neighbors the importance�of
stimulating plant
growth,
he subsequently engaged in the sale of this�article,
and became very prosperous, which enabled him in 1874 to
become�a partner in the firm of
Messrs.
Walker, Fleming & Company, dealers in�fertilizers
at Spartanburg.
Captain
Montgomery made his debut into the textile world in
1881,�when the above firm purchased a water power on
Pacolet River, known as
Trough
Shoals, and erected a cotton mill, for the conduct of which
the�Pacolet Manufacturing Company was organized, and
our subject chosen
president
and treasurer. By 1894, this plant had reached a capacity
of�57,000 spindles and 2,200 looms, its annual
consumption of cotton being
about
30,000 bales, and its capital stock, then $500,000., in 1916
had reached�$2,500,000. The firm next organized in
1889 the Spartan Mills, Spartanburg,
S.
C, and of this corporation Captain Montgomery also became
president and treasurer, and under his able direction this
plant likewise assumed
goodly
proportions and grew to a capacity of 85.000 ring spindles
and 1,100�broad and narrow looms,�the
company's output comprising print cloth
and
sheetings. Mr. Montgomery was stockholder and director in
the Whitney Mills, Whitney, S. C, the Lockhart Mills,
Lockhart, S. C, and was
interested
in the Morgan Iron Works and in the Clifton Cotton
Mills,�Clifton, S. C.
During
the greater part of his life, he was a member of the
Baptist�Church, and gave freely of his time and means
for the furtherance of its�cause and work.
In
1888, he succeeded to the presidency of the
Cooper�Limestone Institute, later known as Limestone
College, the institution building and surrounding grounds
at
Limestone Springs, having been donated�to the
Spartanburg Baptist Association by Hon. Peter Cooper, of
New�York. The marked success of this college
from
year to year was to a large�extent due to the
indomitable energy, excellent judgment and financial
assistance of Mr. Montgomery,�his gifts aggregating
many
In
1857, he married Susan A. Holcombe, and of this union there
were�eight children, as follows,� Victor M.,
Walter S., Benjamin W., David F.,�Mary, John,
Katie
Lois and an infant unnamed. Victor M.
Montgomery�succeeded his father as president and
treasurer of the Pacolet Manufacturing Company,
and
Benjamin W. was made assistant treasurer, while
Walter�S. succeeded his father as president and
treasurer of the Spartan Mills Corporation.
Captain
John H. Montgomery died at Spartanburg, S. C,
early�in the twentieth century, survived by the above
mentioned three sons.
Above
information taken form the following publication:
" Lamb's Textile Industry of the United States "
published in 1916, and written by James H. Lamb.
