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Facts and Events
note ne: a good number of errors about the Montgomery Famil y in this Gageby history... see corrected notes file `IN Decatur` Genealogical and Biographical Record of Decatur County, Ind iana The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 Pages 267 - 271 MRS. SARAH A. MONTGOMERY The success which has been made by Mrs. Sarah A. Montgomer y forms a theme which should be interesting to all reader s and valuable to all women. An account of it is presente d here, because it is properly a part of this work, and i n the hope that its perusal may encourage other bereft an d lonely women to enter paths perhaps hitherto untrodden b y them but certainly leading to security and prosperity. Si nce 1874, during a period of twenty-five years, which is al so the period of her widowhood. Mrs. Montgomery has manage d a fine farm of one hundred and fifty-eight acres, a mil e and a half northeast of Greensburg, Indiana, and has, bes ides this, shown herself possessed of business capacity o f a high order. When, after her husband`s burial, she too k account of her situation in life, she found herself posse ssed of the farm and one dollar and fifty cents cash. The p rospect was certainly not one likely to reassure a weak wom an, and such an one would have been very likely to sell th e farm and live on its price; but with a true woman`s promp tings Mrs. Montgomery faced the situation bravely and plann ed to take advantage of it to every extent possible. She ac cepted every duty and shirked no responsibility, for she ha d been brought up to believe that good fortune is destine d for stout hearts and that success will crown the effort s of willing workers in any worthy field of human endeavor . She believed that the diligent hand maketh right in cultu re, growth in wisdom and in business, and results have demo nstrated how substantial was the foundation of her faith. P rogressive in her ideas and methods, everything about her b etokens a woman`s attention to minor details. She set about improving the productiveness of the place an d during the first ten years of her management she cleare d seven thousand dollars in excess of expenses. In 1894 sh e erected a modern two-story house of thirteen rooms, heate d with natural gas from a gas well on her farm, and provide d with other up to date conveniences. Her environments ar e attractive in the extreme, her house being surrounded b y a well kept lawn, ornamented with beautiful plants and fl owers. Close by on the north is a lakelet, , fed by spring s and partially obscured by pond lilies, in which are larg e numbers of white and red fish. One of the chambers of th e house she has given up to relics. Among her curios ar e a bedstead about seventy-five years old, a large spinnin g wheel which was once used by one of her aunts, a dining t able and a washstand and other furniture of ancient pattern , brass candlesticks and other interesting objects which re call memories of the pioneer days of our country. Mrs. Mont gomery is childless, her only son having died at sixteen ye ars of age. She reared and educated two nephews, however, b oth of whom are married and one of whom has a home with he r and conducts her farm under her able direction. She i s a Presbyterian and much given to church and benevolent wo rk. Her offerings of flowers and choice fruits bring deligh t at the bedside of many a helpless invalid. She reads muc h and travels as opportunity presents, and is in every wa y a woman of culture fully up to the times. Mrs. Montgomery was born near Greensburg, Indiana, June 18 , 1831, a daughter of John and Sarah (Trimble) Gageby, bot h natives of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, who were married aft er their settlement in Decatur County. Her father was a so n of James Gageby, a native of Ireland who, with a brother , came early to America and fought for American independenc e in the Revolutionary army, and after the war located in P ennsylvania. There he became a successful farmer and reare d a worthy family. His children were: Allen, who settled i n Virginia; John, father of Mrs. Montgomery; David who als o came to Indiana; Neill, who came to Indiana and later wen t to Iowa, where he died; Jane (Mrs. Elder, of Pennsylvania ); Robert, who died in Pennsylvania, and whose son James wa s a colonel in the Union service in the civil war and was l ong confined in Libby prison; and James, who had the firs t cabinet shop in Greensburg. James Gageby, the emigrant an d patriot, was a man of good ability and of high moral char acter, who was reared in the Presbyterian faith and live d a goodly life that commended him to the respect of all wh o knew him. John and David Gageby came to Indiana in 1821 , in company with Colonel Thomas Hendricks, who was appoint ed by the United State government to survey the lands in In diana and whom they assisted in that work. The country in a ll directions was then an unbroken forest. Colonel Hendrick s and these men entered land, the former a considerable tra ct where Greensburg has since grown up, and Mrs. Montgomer y states that her mother made maple sugar from sap yielde d by a grove of maples which formerly stood on the site o f the Decatur county court house. Colonel Hendricks came fr om Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and they named the settlemen t which gave the first chapter in the history of Greensburg , Indiana, in honor of that old eastern town. John Gageby married Sarah Trimble and settled on his land a nd improved a farm where he reared a family, lived out hi s days and made an enviable reputation as a good farmer an d an honest man, and died in 1836, aged forty-four years, a s the result of hardship and exposure incident to pioneer l ife in a country to which he had never become fully acclima ted. He erected a hewn-log house, which he occupied in 182 3 and which he later weather-boarded and which is yet in us e as a residence. He was the first out spoken temperance ma n in Decatur county and his attitude on that question attra cted much attention. It was the custom among the pioneers t o provide whisky for those who made up `bees` to build thei r primitive houses, roll their logs or harvest their crops . Mr. Gageby refused to supply drinks, on the high moral gr ound that by so doing he would wickedly put temptation in t he way of his brother men; but his more or less remote neig hbors did not make any difference in their treatment of hi m on that account, and his log rolling and harvesting wer e done in good time and in good order. His manly characte r won the admiration of all who knew him and led to his bei ng chosen to fill several township offices. He was a Whig i n politics and a Presbyterian in religion. Sarah Trimble, who became his wife, was a daughter of Thoma s and Elizabeth (Crow) Trimble and a native of Greensburg , Pennsylvania. Her father was of Scotch, her mother of Wel sh, descent, and they both died in Pennsylvania, where Thom as Trimble was a farmer. John and Elizabeth (Crow) Trimbl e had children as follows: Jane (Mrs. Stewart); Elizabeth ( Mrs. Thomas Hendricks); Ann (Mrs. Seabury); Susan (Mrs. Rob inson); Polly (Mrs. Odon); Sarah (mother of Mrs. Montgomery ); Susan (Mrs. McKee), who died in Iowa; James, who died i n Decatur County, Indiana; and Sarah A. (Mrs. Thomas Montgo mery), the immediate subject of this sketch. Mrs. Montgomery passed her school days at Greensburg and a t Vernon, Indiana, and after having finished her educatio n taught school eight years with good success. She marrie d Thomas Montgomery, a native of Indiana and a son of Thoma s and Elizabeth (Bingham) Montgomery. Thomas Montgomery, Sr ., was a son of Hugh and Eva (Hartman) Montgomery, and on h is father`s side was of Irish descent. Hugh Montgomery cam e to American in colonial days and saw service as a soldie r in the Revolutionary war. Three of his sons, Thomas, Mich ael and William, served their country in the war of 1812-14 [sic, Thomas William and Henry], and William was killed i n battle [not proved yet]. Thomas came early to Ohio and th ence in 1824 to Indiana, where he entered large tracts of l and, improved a good farm and reared a family and died in 1 846. He was one of the most prominent pioneers in his local ity and lived a Christian life which was a worthy example t o his fellow men. His children were named as follows, in th e order of their birth: Henry, Thomas, Hugh, George, Michae l, Robert, Mary (Mrs. Alexander Grant); Elizabeth (Mrs. Tho mpson); Sarah (Mrs. Martin); Nancy (Mrs. Hineman); and Marg aret (Mrs. Crutchwell). After his marriage Thomas, son of T homas and grandson of Hugh Montgomery, settled on one piec e of the land entered by his father and made a good farm, u pon which he passed the remainder of his life and died abou t 1857. He married Miss Lizzie Bingham, whose father, Joh n Bingham, had died in Pennsylvania, leaving her doubly orp haned, and with brother or sister or other near relative. M iss Bingham joined some friends who were part of a small co lony bound for the west. They went down the Ohio river as f ar as Cincinnati and from there they made their way to Butl er County, Ohio, where they located, whence some of them, M iss Bingham among the number, came to Decatur county, India na. The children of Thomas and Lizzie (Bingham) Montgomer y were as follows: Rebecca, who died unmarried; Sarah, wh o also died unmarried, aged seventy-two; Eva, who married A . J. Draper; John B., who is dead; Hugh, who died in 1851 ; George, who died in 1851; Martha who married a Mr. Craig ; Thomas, who married Sarah Gageby and died November 24, 18 74; and Robert, who lives on the old family homestead. Afte r their marriage, Thomas and Sarah A. (Gageby) Montgomery m oved upon a poorly improved farm which Mr. Montgomery purch ased and part of which he put under a good state of cultiva tion
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