USGENWEB PROJECT ARCHIVES: TENSAS PARISH LOUISIANA
http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/tensas/

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BIOGRAPHIES: Vail Montgomery, Tensas Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGENWEB Archives Project by Mike Miller, DEC 1997.


  
 Vail Montgomery 
          Tensas Parish, Louisiana 
  Vail Montgomery was born in Tensas parish, La., September 8,1849,
the second of three children born to Judge John W. and A. E. (Vail)
Montgomery, natives of Mississippi and Louisiana, respectively.  The
father spent his childhood in the state of his birth, after which he
acquired a collegiate education at St. Joseph college, Bardstown, Ky.,
from which institution he was graduated.  He afterward repaired to
Natchez, where he studied law under the instructions of his uncle, Judge
Aleck Montgomery, and was admitted to the bar, though he never practiced
in Mississippi.  In the latter part of the thirties he came to
Louisiana, stood a successful examination in 1840 or 1841, and at the
formation of the parish of Tensas he was appointed its first judge by
Governor Mouton, being then only twenty-three years of age.  This
position was much more onerous and lucrative than at the time of its
abolishment, the offices of ex-officio notary public and recorder being
embraced in it.  In 1845 he was elected to the legislature in a contest
between himself and the present Judge Farrar, of Vicksburg.  He served
in this capacity with credit to himself and constituents, and at the
expiration of his duties, returned to Tensas parish and practiced his
profession until 1850, at which time he went to California in search of
gold.  There he remained, off and on, for four years, practicing law and
looking after his interests in a line of ships plying between California
and Central America, and also an interest in a transit route across the
Isthmus of Panama.  Tiring of the gold region he returned to Tensas
parish, La., but about 1858 removed to Floyd, Carroll parish, where he
formed a partnership with Gen. Edward Sparrow, who was also one of the
ablest legal lights of the state, this firm being a very strong and
popular one.  After practicing at Floyd until 1871, he purchased and
moved to the Deesona plantation, where he spent the remainder of his
life.  In the legal profession he held a high and honored place, and
although ill health interfered with active work during the last few
years of his life, the enviable reputation he had gained when he bent
his bright mind and clear judgment to the solution of legal problems
remained with him to the last.  During the twenty years that he resided
in East Carroll parish he became so well known that comments on his life
during that time are uncalled for.  He was not an office seeker and was
never a candidate for any official position, other than the one he held
and so well filled.  As a business man he was also successful, and prior
to his death in 1888 he had accumulated a magnificent plantation.  He
died in the faith of the Catholic church on June 18, dying as he had
lived, a Christian in thought and action.  His widow survived him until
1890.
 
 From Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, volume 2, p.
264. 
Submitted by Mike Miller