Montgomery-Sams

SAMS MONTGOMERY

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/22/2010 at 21:24:49

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Montgomery-Sams
By Shirley Montgomery

In the Tuesday, August 31, 1909 edition of the Sioux City Journal a headline announced the death of Joseph S Montgomery, 1834-1909. The article stated that Joseph, born in Ireland, was an early settler of Woodbury County, having moved to this county from Indiana in 1869. At first, he lived in the Climbing Hill area, later in Leeds. He and his wife (see pictures) Isabelle Bayne, 1841-1923, had six children: William H, a minister; Sid H; John S; Charles Wesley; Mrs Alec White and Mrs R H Carey. While husking corn near his Leeds home, he died of a stroke.

His son, Charles Wesley Montgomery, 1877-1960, married Erma Inlay, 1879-1956, daughter of Joseph and ? Inlay, and together they ran a prosperous farming operation near Luton. Many stories are told of C.W. One involves his using his new cars to herd cows and pull wagons, another concerns his leaving wife Erma stuck out on the farm on election day because she would vote for his selection of candidates. They had two children (see pictures) Ruth and Theodore ‘Ted’ , 1900-1979, Ruth married Lawrence Murphy and had sons, Bob and Raymond (now living in Luton with wife Donna) and a daughter Laurene. In a freak shooting at Mapleton, Lawrence was accidently killed while intervening in a quarrel between two other men. Ruth later married Abe Vermilyea and had two daughters, Lucille and Shirley.

Ted served as a mail carrier for the Hornick-Climbing Hill area for 50 years. He married Mae Sams, b 1910, in 1925. Mae’s parents were Homer Burudette, 1885-1973, and Eva Bracken Sams, 1888-1967. Homer was born in Webster City to Stephen and Laura Ping Sams (see pictures). Homer’s brothers and sisters were Alvin, Walter Pinky (first married to Ernie Morrow), daughter Anna Marie Kokenge and son, ‘Bud’; second marriage ? Galbraieth; Lydia Turner, Anna Hollenbeck, Mabel (died as a child). We have limited information on Eva Bracken Sams; she was born in Grove, Okalahoma. Her father died after being gored by a bull. Eva’s mother’s maiden names was Pearsall; Eva’s siblings were Bob, George Frank, and Ruth (Manning), Mae Sams Montgomery’s brothers were Lester (served WWII), Harold (m Esther Harris, daughter Barbara, sons Leland and Richard), and Floyd who died as an infant, and Mae’s sister is Myrtle (m Walter Karley, sons Wallace and Gary, daughters Donna and Deanna). Harold’s son Richard Sams lives in Sioux City with his wife Judy Lefler; they are the parents of Debora, Cindy, 1967-1969, Susan and Luke (see picture).

Ted and Mae Montgomery reared three sons: Warren, b 1928, a school administrator in Sioux City; Gerald, b 1933, a vice president in charge of developing new financial services for J C Penney Company at the New York City executive headquarters; Dennis, b 1944, a public school band instructor in Barrington, Illinois. Dennis and April Swan, junior high librarian, are both involved in music outside their working days; Dennis is concert manager for the famed North Shore Band of Chicago and is a noted trumpeter. Gerald and wife Barbara Fricke, a nurse, have three daughters, Kris, Karyn and Kelly. Warren and first wife, Gladys Volquardsen, have three sons: Kevin, wife Debbie Sudtlegte; Kirk, Keith, Kent died at birth; and one daughter, Tami, m Ron Bultje, son Brett, b 1983. During his years in Sioux City, Warren has opened two new schools (as principal), Hoover Junior High and North High; he served as choir director at First Methodist Church for 25 years; and he has been active in civic and service projects. In the education field his contributions are many; for example, he inaugurated the police liaison program in the public schools, and he set up the accelerated mathematics program for the district. He is presently married to Shirley Lindley Day (high school teacher); he holds the position of community agent for the Sioux City school district and is also principal of Grant Elementary. His new areas of research are computers in the classroom and possible revision of the state juvenile justice code.

Mae Sams Montgomery, the current mother of the clan, has lived her entire life in Woodbury County. She was born in Moville, lived in Luton for eleven years, and has lived in Hornick for the balance of the time. At 73 she shops regularly in Sioux City, takes trips to Phoenix, New York, Hawaii, attends dinner-theater presentations in Omaha, and drives herself to the Chicago area to visit her son Dennis and his wife, April. Active (her flower garden is a marvel) and interested in all that goes on (especially with the Chicago Cubs), Mae Montgomery is a fine example of the productive, hard working stock that settled in Woodbury County.