Taylor County, West Virginia Biography of OLIVER IRVIN MONTGOMERY This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 586 Taylor OLIVER IRVIN MONTGOMERY, one of the proprietors of the Exchange Mill Company of Grafton, is also president of the County Court. Mr. Montgomery has lived in Taylor County thirty years, and prior to engaging in business was in the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company. He was born on a farm near Pennsboro in Ritchie County September 24, 1873. His father, John F. Montgomery, was a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, born in 1844. Not long after the outbreak of the Civil war he left Virginia and came into West Virginia, and at Buckhannon in 1863 enlisted in the Union army. Though he was in the service until the close of the war, he escaped wounds or capture. After leaving the army he settled in Ritchie County, and is now a resident of Richwood, West Virginia. In Barbour County he married Miss Virginia C. Murphy, who died in January, 1919, at the age of seventy-six, daughter of Marshall Murphy, who came from Virginia to Taylor County, where his daughter was born. John F. Montgomery and wife had eight children: Margaret C., of Akron, Ohio, widow of George Plymale; Oliver I.; Mary, wife of Norman McCoy, living at Flatwoods, West Virginia; Miss Savanna Lee, of Richwood; Minnie R., wife of James McKenzie, of Richwood; Ida, wife of Walter Rogers, of Taylor County; Joseph F., a farmer in Taylor County; and Mrs. Annie Hoskins, of old Virginia. Oliver I. Montgomery acquired his country school educa- tion in Ritchie, Upshur and Braxton counties. When he left the farm he took up railroading, entering the service of the Baltimore & Ohio as a brakeman. He spent fifteen years with the company, and after a period as conductor in the yard service he was appointed assistant yard master at Grafton. When he left the railway company he resumed farming seven miles from Grafton, and was one of the pro- gressive men in the rural districts of Taylor County and gave his personal attention to his farm and its personal manage- ment from 1906 until the fall of 1920. In February, 1921, Mr. Montgomery and A. B. Shroyer purchased the Exchange Mill. This is one of the old indus- tries of Grafton, having been founded by Whit Heironimus, who was succeeded by A. B. Blue, and later by a stock com- pany of which Ona C. Jefferys and others were members. The plant is a custom and jobbing mill, grinding buckwheat flour, cornmeal and feed. The company also handles a line of feeds and farm machinery. They are jobbers for the International Harvester Company and distributors for the Johns Manville Roofing and dealers and handlers of Atlas Portland cement. Mr. Montgomery was reared in a republican atmosphere and when he cast his first presidential vote it went to Major McKinley. He has been taking a more or less active part in local campaigns for many years. He was elected county commissioner from the Fetterman District as successor of Charles R. Burbin in 1916. He entered the office in January, 1917, and two years later was elected president of the board, his time expiring December 31, 1922. While he has been with the County Court the first permanent road work was done in Taylor County, and since then a dozen miles of hard surface road has been constructed, besides a number of small concrete bridges, making an effective unit in the program of modern highway construction in the county. Mr. Montgomery was reared a Methodist, was active in the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen while in the service, and his only other fraternal connection is Grafton Lodge No. 31, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In Taylor County June 16, 1892, he married Miss Louisa A. Murphy, who was born in the county February 6, 1870, daughter of James G. and Christina (Rogers) Murphy. She is the youngest of four children, the others being Sylvanus, Thomas J. and Virginia O., the latter the wife of J. E. Newcomb.