10/20/2004:
Yesterday, we brought you part one of the William Thornton Montgomery story. William, better known as Thornton, was born into slavery in 1843 on the Joseph Davis plantation in Mississippi; Thornton’s father was educated and was Joe Davis’s personal business manager. After the Civil War, the Montgomery men purchased the plantation, along with Brierfield, which belonged to Joe Davis’s brother, Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President. The Montgomery men were highly regarded and were leaders during the chaos that followed the end of the war.
The Montgomerys had run their own general store while enslaved – something that the Davis brothers encouraged. Now on their own, they got their seed money – literally – from the bottom of the Mississippi River in front of the plantation. Union gunboats had pursued a Confederate gunboat, which threw its cotton bales overboard to lighten the load. The Montgomerys snagged 5 or 6 of these bales from the river and sold them; they got $1800, with which raised cotton.
In 1877, the elder Montgomery died in Jefferson Davis’s 21-room mansion. Four years later, the cotton market bottomed out, and the Montgomery brothers sold the land back to Joseph and Jefferson Davis. It was an amicable agreement, and they remained friends for many years.
Thornton headed north to Dakota Territory to raise wheat. Author Janet Sharp Hermann writes, “...land was cheap and it was said that a man was judged by his skill and industriousness rather than by the color of his skin. By 1884 Thornton had settled south of (the) new Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad(s). There, surrounded by Scandinavian homesteaders, (he) prospered, enlarging his holdings from the original 640 acres to 1,020 acres.”
The location of Thornton’s bonanza farm was about 18 miles south of Fargo near Christine and Walcott. Author Hiram Drache writes, “During his first winters in the area Montgomery lived at the European Hotel in Fargo. When that building was razed and replaced by the Forte Hotel, he purchased the lumber to build a large house for himself on his farm.”
Hermann writes, “Thornton was well satisfied not only with his financial success but with race relations in the new region. He hired the Joseph Hollands, white migrants from Wisconsin, to keep house for him and manage the farm. They remained close friends after the Hollands left...to take up a place of their own...” An 1884 Fargo Argus article states that Thornton Montgomery, “a most worthy man,” was asked to represent Dakota in the World’s Exposition at New Orleans.
Around 1888, Thornton built a grain elevator where the Milwaukee Railroad crossed his land. Whenever the Hollands got off the train at his station, Thornton would hitch up his team and take them to their farm. A general store also operated there, and a small village formed, called Lithia.
A partnership with a “Captain Hunt” led to Thornton losing a lot of money. Drache writes, “...it was his own kindheartedness that hurt him most. He never was strict enough with his manager or his other employees and they were extremely careless with his equipment.”
Near the end of the 19th century, Montgomery’s North Dakota venture ended when he sold his farm and joined other Fargoans in a Canadian land venture. When it failed, he moved back to Mississippi.
After World War I, he came back to North Dakota for visit. By now, he was almost blind, but he still recognized the voices of old friends.
Montgomery’s elevator closed in 1963 and was moved into Walcott during the 1970s.
Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm