| Notes |
- Data submitted by Keith Alan Montgomery, CMS 2512, via GEDCOM attached to email dated 16 Jan 2007.
From Beulah Montgomery Engberg:
My paternal grandfather, Andrew Luckey Montgomery, was born near Doylestown, Ohio, of sturdy Scottish ancestry, on July 11, 1837. When he was ten years old, his father moved his family to Missouri, where they lived on a farm near the present town of Milan, Missouri. My grandmotherÕs parents moved to the Milan, Missouri several years later, from McDonnough County, Illinois, where my grandmather, Mary Elizabeth Beall, had been born, August 9, 1839. When whe was 19 and my grandfather was 21, they were married in Milan, Missouri on October 28, 1858. They lived on a farm in the Milan area until 1864, and my fatherÕs two older brothers, John Robert and James Beall Montgomery, were born there. My father, William Perry Montgomery, was born on October 28, 1865, in that log cabin in what was still Nebraska Territory. The family lived in that location until 1869, when my grandfather sold that farm and bought a quarter section about 2 miles north of Pickrell in Gage County for $1,000. (The Homestead Act required one to develop the land and build a home. After 5 years, it was yours to sell.) All of my grandparentsÕ children attended the country school that was about a mile and a half north of their home. This was District Number 3, known as the Holt Schoolhouse, and one of the first to be established in the county. When my fatherÕs sister Caroline was 7 years old, she contracted scarlet fever. Since the nearest doctor was in Beatrice, my grandmother attempted to nurse her daughter through the terrible illness. Caroline survived that illness, but was always an invalid. At 19 years of age, she contracted pneumonia and died. My fatherÕs younger sister, Maude, was born with a serious visual handicap, but as she grew up she became very skillful in assisting grandmother with the housekeeping. (note: Court records indicate that Maude was declared legally insane. Mary filed a petition for guardianship by Perry and John when Mary was at the age of 90.) When my grandmother was 85, she and my grandfather decided that they should really retire, so they bought a house in Pickrell, directly behind the lumber yard, and moved there after selling their previous home and its accompanying lands to a niece of my grandmother and her husband. My father enjoyed living in his new home until his death at the age of 91 1/2 years. My grandmother lived on to be nearly 101 years of age. After my grandfatherÕs death, my father obtained a housekeeper for his mother. His 2 brothers had died several years before their father did, and his maiden sister lived in Lincoln, so it fell to my father to look after his mother in her last years. After my grandfathersÕ death, my grandmother spent much of her time piecing quilt tops and giving them to relatives and friends all over the United States. I kept track of the number of quilt tops she pieced from the time she was 90 until she was 95 years of age - 125 of them. She pieced a good many more after that, but I did not keep a record of the number. When grandmother Montgomery celebrated her 100th birthday on August 9th, 1939 the people of Pickrell presented her with a huge cake with 100 candles on it. The following winter, my grandmother became ill. My father hired 2 practical nurses for her as well as a housekeeper so she could remain in her home. She died on the 25th of May, 1940, lacking only a little over 2 months of reaching the age of 101. She and my grandfather were truly hearty pioneers of the Gage County area.
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1837 - 1929 (91 years)