A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MONTGOMERY Contributed by Greggory E. Davies 120 Ted Price Lane Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** TIPS FOR SEARCHING RECORDS ON THE INTERNET Netscape & Ms Explorer users: If searching for a particular surname, locality or date while going through the records in the archives or anywhere....try these few steps: 1. Go to the top of the report you are searching. 2. Click on EDIT at the top of your screen 3. Next click on FIND in the edit menu. 4. When the square pops up, enter what you are looking for in the FIND WHAT ___________blank. 5. Click on DIRECTION __DOWN. 6. And last click on FIND NEXT and continue to click on FIND NEXT until you reach the end of the report.This should highlight the item that you indicated in "find what" every place it appears in the report. You must continue to click on FIND NEXT till you reach the end of the report to see all of the locations of the item indicated. An old record book in the Natchitoches Courthouse states that Jean Baptiste Deprez Dion Darbonne who was, in 1719, guardian of the store house of the Company of the West and stationed at Natchitoches post, had established a trading post at Bon Dieu Falls (later called Creola Bluff, still later Montgomery). Red River did not always flow alongside the bluffs at the Montgomery site. The original stream was the Rigolette De Bon Dieu (Circular Channel of the Good God). In 1832 the Red River cut away the shoulder between its own bed and the lagoons of the Rigolettes and came rampaging down the valley of the little bayou, washing out a more direct course to Colfax, leaving Natchitoches isolated on the big bend which later became Cane River. This violent act was the first step in putting Montgomery on the way to a permanent settlement. In 1840, General Thomas S. Woodward (Woodard?), a former Brigadier General in the United States Army and a veteran of the Indian Campaigns, came to Bon Dieu Falls and purchased a tract of land that extended back from the river for about five miles. He changed the name of the area to Creola Bluffs, after a Cherokee princess whom the general loved. General Woodward wished to marry Creola, but her father, believing the general to be an enemy of his people, forbade it. After a time she married a Methodist Missionary, Reverend Montgomery Rogers, who had come to Alabama and had served with General Sam Houston at San Jacinto. When a son was born to the couple, the father wished to call him Montgomery, but Creola, still carrying a love in her heart for General Woodward, insisted upon the name Woodward. A compromise was agreed upon , and the new son was christened Montgomery Woodward Rogers. General Woodward, upon hearing that Creola had a son named Montgomery, incorporated the Bluff into a village and named it Montgomery in honor of her and her new son. In 1901 William Edenborn's railroad came through Montgomery. The depot was built on a hillside one mile above the site of the old Montgomery Landing, which had been incorporated by General Woodward. The land on which the depot was built was owned by Judge Frank Machen, so the new train stop was named Machen in his honor. Later when the river overflows began to cut away the sand bar on which old Montgomery rested the Federal Government requested that the post office be moved to the railroad. The people got together and decided to move everything to the new trading center around the railroad, to drop the name Machen, and let the old name of Montgomery be reaffirmed. Montgomery has received national recognition on two occasions during the twentieth century. In 1926, Mrs. Lula Wardlow had the distinction of becoming the first woman mayor in the United States. During her tenure of office the town was incorporated, street lights, city water, ice plant and power plant were added to the city. The other recognition that came to Montgomery was a short lived one, triggered by the belief that uranium had been found. The search proved futile however, and the many visitors and scientists who poured into the area, went home, leaving the townspeople disappointed perhaps, but glad to get back to quiet business of living peacefully with neighbor and friend. Aside from General Woodward, often called the father of anglicized Montgomery, and Reverend Montgomery Rogers for whom Montgomery is named, two other men had a major part in the development of Montgomery. They were Dr. Thomas Ortenburg Harrison, Montgomery's first physician, and Philip Bernstein, the town's first merchant. It was they who assisted in laying out the townsite and in building the first Protestant church and school. (The above article was found in volumes of papers in my possession, and is unsigned, therefore it is impossible to give credit to the author. My guess would be that longtime Mayor Loyd Harrison had a hand in it. He was a tireless promoter of Montgomery, Grant and Winn Parish history, and wrote many articles concerning same. Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, LA.)