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in 1895 and framed the new constitution.
He is prominent in farmer's movements and was for four years president of the
Marion county farmers' alliance.
Captain John H. Montgomery was born in
Spartanburg county, S. C., December 8, 1833.
He is the son of
Capt. Benjamin F. Montgomery, a militia captain before the war and a farmer, now residing in
Texas.
The grandfather and great-grandfather of
Captain Montgomery bore each the name of John, the former being also a native of
Spartanburg county, and the latter of
Ireland, who after coming to
America settled first in
Pennsylvania and then removed to
Spartanburg county.
The family is descended from
Roger D. Montgomery of
Scotland, who lived in the ninth century, the name being at that time spelled
Montgomerie.
The mother of
Captain Montgomery was
Harriet B. Moss, born in
Spartanburg county, in 1815, and died in
Texas, in 1858.
Captain Montgomery was reared in his native county on a farm, at the age of nineteen became a clerk in a country store and in the winter of 1853 and 1854 he was employed in a general store in
Columbia.
In the spring of the latter year he formed a partnership with his brotherin-law,
Dr. E. R. W. McCrary, in a general mercantile business, he managing the store, while his brotherin-law practiced medicine.
This partnership was dissolved in 1855, when
Dr. McCrary moved to
Texas with the father of
Captain Montgomery, and the captain remained in
South Carolina and conducted a country store, a small farm and a tannery until the beginning of the war. On December 25, 1861,
Captain Montgomery entered the
Confederate service as a private in Company E, Eighteenth South Carolina regiment, commanded by
Colonel Gadbury, and upon the organization of the regiment he was made regimental commissary with the rank of captain.
He served with the regiment in the brigade of
Gen. N. G. Evans throughout the campaign of 1862 in
Virginia and
Maryland.
Evans' brigade, after spending the winter of 1862-63 in the vicinity of
Kinston and
Greenville, N. C., went in the spring of 1863 to the army of
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at
Jackson, Miss.
While in this campaign the position of regimental commissary was abolished, but
Captain Montgomery was retained as one of the allowed assistants by the brigade commissary;
