Kentucky Genealogy and Biography

Green County, Kentucky

John H. Montgomery was born April 16, 1823, and is a son of David and Tabitha (Holland) Montgomery, parents of five boys and four girls.  David Montgomery, born in 1800, was the first man that ever ran a freight boat from Greensburg, Kentucky, to New Orleans.  He was a farmer and slave-holder, a trader in tobacco, built the mill on the narrows of Pitman Creek, had 300 acres of land in the bend, and was also a carpenter.  He died in 1876.  His father, Hugh Montgomery, was born in Ireland, was a tailor for a few years, a sailor, but finally settled in Green County, and married a Kentucky lady.  Mrs. Tabitha Montgomery was a native of Green County, and a daughter of Burchy Holland, whose wife was captured and scalped by the Indians, but was afterward rescued.  Her father and mother, however, were killed.  Her name was Mary McCaslin, born in Virginia.  John H. Montgomery, a native of Green County, was reared a farmer, and at the age of twenty, in the fall of 1843, married Tamer Ann Ray, and commenced farming on his own account.  The father of Mrs. Montgomery, William Ray, married Miss Isabella Abnel, and had served in the Battle of New Orleans.  John H. Montgomery had bore to him nine children by this union:  Elizabeth M. Jamerson, William David, Joshua T., Tabitha I. McCubbin, Richard M., Bob A., Narcissa Jamerson, John A. and Sallie L. Emery.  Mrs. Montgomery died in 1855, aged forty years, and a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and in July, 1867, Mr. Montgomery married Mrs. Nancy A. Donan, a daughter of James and Elizabeth (Edgar) McCubbin.  To this last union six children have been born:  Jennie A., Mary W., Amanda Lee, George T., Laura J. and Martha H.  By her former marriage Mrs. Montgomery had two children:  Sophronia C. Whitlow and Thomas J. Donan.  Mr. Montgomery owns the old mill and several farms; is a Democrat and Free Mason, and with his wife a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.