Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Montgomery, Samuel B. (1876-1924) --------------------------------------------------------------------- West Virginia Blue Book West Virginia Legislative Hand Book and Manual and Official Register, 1918 Compiled and edited by John T. Harris, Clerk of the Senate The Tribune Printing Company, Charleston, West Virginia Pages 744-745. Commissioner of Labor. SAMUEL B. MONTGOMERY (Republican), was born on May 15, 1876, in the Digman homestead, Laurel Creek, Barbour county, West Virginia. He was the son of Adam and Susan (Digman) Montgomery, being the descendant of a family which for generations has lived among the hills of West Virginia. He removed with his parents to Preston county in 1878, and was reared at Newburg. At the age of thirteen years, upon the death of his father, which occurred as a result of exposure and wounds received in the service of the Union Army, as a member of Company H, 7th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, he was compelled to stop school and assist in the support of a large family. He started as coke- drawer at the plant of the Newburg-Orrel Coal & Coke Company, and later was day laborer and mule driver for the Monongah Coal & Coke Company, now merged into the Consolidation Coal Company. In 1896-7, he was an employee of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company as brakeman. Prior to this he was newsboy for the Union News Company, running between Wheeling and Cumberland. He located at Tunnelton in 1899, and the next year was elected Justice of the Peace for Kingwood District. In 1902 he was elected Mayor, and was re- elected in 1903 and 1908. In 1903 he was appointed Postmaster by President Roosevelt, but resigned in 1904, when he was elected to the State Senate from the Fourteenth District, comprising the counties of Preston, Tucker, Mineral, Grant and Hardy. This is the only time that Mr. Montgomery's name has ever appeared on his party ticket, and it is interesting to note that he ran ahead of his ticket. As a member of the senate he voted for the initiative, referendum and recall, for a production tax on oil and gas, state- wide prohibition, and was the champion of many humane, constructive and progressive measures which are now upon the statute books of the State. In 1908 Senator Montgomery was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as Special Agent in the Department of Commerce and Labor, and later he was promoted to Chief Special Agent, which position he held until he resigned to take up the study of law and economies (world wide labor problems) at the West Virginia University. He has been active in fraternal circles. On November 26, 1901, at Tunnelton, he became a charter member of McKinley Lodge No. 135, Knights of Pythias. The month following be was elected Outer Guard and continued to advance until he reached the summit of Pythian distinction, when at Elkins, on September 15, 1910, he was elected and installed as Grand Chancellor of West Virginia. At Wheeling, August 18, 1911, he was elected Grand Keeper of Records and Seal, which position he now holds. He is also a member of Kingwood Lodge No. 107, I.O.O.F.; Invincible Council No. 147; Jr. O.U.A.M.; Shiraz Temple No. 29, D.O.K.K.; Vesta Temple No. 50, Pythian Sisters; Kanawha Lodge No. 1444, L.O.O.M.; Tunnelton Camp W.O.W. Among the societies which claim him as a member are the American Academy of Social and Political Science of Philadelphia; the Southern Sociological Congress of Nashville; the National Geographic Society, the National Conservation Congress, Washington, D. C., and the Beta Theta Pi Chapter, West Virginia University. He is noted throughout the State as a brilliant, fraternal and political speaker, and his address on the "History of Odd Fellows," his lecture on "John Wesley," and address on "West Virginia and Its Future," delivered before the West Virginia Editorial Association, are among the public utterances that have attracted wide and favorable comment. A member of the Methodist Episcopal church he has served as Vice-President of the Laymen’s Association, and on the Board of Stewards of the General Conference of West Virginia. On February 29, 1896, Senator Montgomery married Grace K. Orr, a daughter of Major and Mrs. Uriah N. Orr, of Kingwood. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery have two children—William Newton and Mary Susan—students in the Charleston High school. He was appointed State Commissioner of Labor and ex-officio Commissioner of Weights and Measures by Governor H. D. Hatfield, for a term of four years, assuming his duties March 1, 1917. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Montgomery, Samuel Beauregard (1876-1924) --------------------------------------------------------------------- A History of Preston County West Virginia Biographical Department, Supplied by J. R. Cole Kingwood, W. Va., The Journal Publishing Company, 1914 by H. S. Whetsell Pages 594-600 Samuel Beauregard Montgomery, noted for his brilliant record as a legislator and political economist, was born on May 15, 1876, in the Digman homestead, Laurel Creek, Barbour county, West Virginia. He was a son of Adam and Susan Digman Montgomery, being the descendant of a family which for four generations has lived amongst the hills of West Virginia. Their earliest known ancestor was one Roger de Montgomerie, a Norman, who came over to England with William the Conqueror, and settled in Ireland where he was given a large grant of land by the king and made an esquire. Roger's descendants longed for the freedom of the New World, and in 1729 there landed at the port of Philadelphia two brothers, one of whom settled in Baltimore and from whom sprang the West Virginia branch of the family. In 1861, when the war broke out and the call for volunteers went ringing over the country, the Montgomery family eagerly responded and Company H, 7th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, was formed, with John Montgomery its captain, and his kinsmen, Adam, Samuel and Asbury — the latter also an officer — as members. With their regiment they saw service in many engagements, in addition to the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Battle of the Wilderness. That regiment famous as "The Fighting Seventh," returned home depleted of many brave men, among whom was Asbury Montgomery, who fell at the battle of Antietam, and where Adam Montgomery was desperately wounded, and by reason of which he received an honorable discharge, having been slightly wounded in two other engagements. Previous to the war, Adam Montgomery was a man of perfect health, skilled in the games and pastimes of that day, but in consequence of his service for his country he became a great sufferer, having hemorrhages of the lungs which rendered him gradually unfit for any active employment. He died on May 15, 1889, in his forty-fourth year. While unable to bequeath worldly wealth to his children he yet left them a more precious and lasting heritage — the wealth of an honorable name, integrity of purpose, lofty ideals and high principles. On December 11, 1863, Mr. Montgomery married Susan Digman, descended also from sturdy mountain stock — a woman of sweet and gentle disposition but strong character, a fitting helpmate for a man who is still remembered by the older inhabitants of Preston and Barbour counties as one having a personality of great charm, deepened and softened by years of suffering. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery were, after their marriage, first members of the Dunkard Church, and later at Newburg they became members of the Methodist Protestant Church. They had eleven children: John, Sarah, Sophronia, Nancy, Mary, Samuel, Berta, William, and three who died in infancy. Samuel, the sixth child, whose life very fully exemplifies a strenuous career had the good fortune, perhaps, to be born in humble surroundings, making necessary a hard struggle for the maintenance of a mere physical existence. It might not have been so easy for him to have attained the enviable position he now holds as a rising West Virginian and he may not have been so well equipped to fight the battles of the weak and frail or had so practical an understanding of the daily grind of the wage earner had his early life been one of plenty instead of poverty. At the age of eight years he sold papers before school, and after school ran errands and did other odd jobs. At thirteen years of age his father died and then life began in earnest, for school had to be given up and every day devoted toward the support of his mother and the smaller memibers of the family. It was during this period that he was first employed on public works, as coke drawer with his elder brother in the yards of the Newburg Orrel Coal & Coke Company, and again as coke drawer, day laborer on the tipple, boss of a gang of Italians and mule driver with the Monongah Coal & Coke Company, which was afterwards merged into the Fairmont Coal Company, and now the Consolidated Coal Company. Here it was that Mr. Montgomery received his first instruction in the hardships of the miners for whom his after life was spent in an effort to better their conditions, and at this time he joined his first labor union, The United Mine Workers of America, in 1895. In 1896 the young man was employed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company as a brakesman on the Parkersburg Branch, and later on the Cumberland Division, but a long and severe attack of typhoid- pneumania deprived him of his position, and the next step was an attendant at the Second Hospital for the Insane at Spencer. Promotion followed until he became night watchman at that institution. When Mr. Montgomery was not yet of age, in 1896, he made his first speech in favor of William McKinley for President. This speech was made in the historic town of Evansville, and so well did he succeed that he became in demand as a campaign speaker in that section of the county. In 1898 he was delegate to the Roane County Republican Convention, and supported the candidacy of Governor John Wesley Atkinson for the United States Senate, and in the fall he campaigned over the county in behalf of General Romeo H. Freer and the Republican ticket. Returning to Preston county in 1899, he located at Tunnelton, and in 1900 was elected a delegate to the Republican State Convention. That fall he campaigned in Lewis, Taylor and other counties, and in the election was made justice of the peace for Kingwood district. In 1902 he was elected Mayor of Tunnelton and again served in that capacity in the years 1903 and 1908. In 1905-6 he served on the Town Council. In 1903, having been appointed postmaster by President Roosevelt, he resigned as justice. In 1904, Mr. Montgomery was a candidate for the nomination as State Senator in the Fourteenth District, comprising the counties of Preston, Tucker, Mineral, Grant and Hardy, and although opposed by the county, state and federal machine of his party, he was nominated and elected by a large majority, running ahead of the Presidential ticket. Mr. Montgomery also did his share of the work in the campaign of 1904, speaking in Tucker, Mineral, Grant and Preston counties, and campaigned in Monongalia and other counties in 1906. In 1908, Senator Montgomery was again placed in nomination for the Senate, but because of his activities while in the Legislature, when he voted for the two-cent rate law. the eight-hour telegraphers' law, and for the submission of the Prohibition amendment, and was a fearless exponent of all reform and labor measures, the railroad and coal companies and other interests combined to drive him out of public life. That year he was again a delegate to the Republican State Convention and helped to write the platform of his party. The following December, Theodore Roosevelt appointed him a Special Agent in the Department of Commerce and Labor. Later he was promoted to Chief Special Agent, which position he held until he resigned to take up the study of law and labor problems at the West Virginia University. In 1912 he was elected by acclamation a Delegate at Large to the Republican National Convention at Chicago. As early as September, 1910, he declared in favor of the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt, and steadfastly supported Col. Roosevelt in the Convention. The West Virginia delegation selected him to represent the state on the platform committee, and with Governor Arthur T. Hadley of Missouri, George A. Knight of California, and William Draper Lewis of Pennsylvania, he contested with the reactionaries in control of the committee, and attempted to have adopted the progressive program that was later written into the Progressive Party Platform. On July 20, 1912, he was elected chairman of the Republican Executive Committee of Preston County. Announcing his unalterable purpose to support Theodore Roosevelt for the Presidency, he turned the conduct of the campaign over to the secretary of the committee — an adherent of Mr. Taft — and both by pen and voice vigorously championed the cause of Col. Roosevelt. As a legislator. Senator Montgomery made a good record. Through his untiring efforts many laws were enacted which made his state richer and the government better. The well known "Montgomery Statutory Attorney Bill," which directed the fees of foreign corporations from the Secretary of State to the State Treasury, saves not less than twenty thousand dollars annually to the state. It was hard fought and was only made a law by the combined votes of the Republican and Democratic insurgent members of the Senate. He also fathered "the Corrupt Practices in Elections Act" and fought it to victory over the protest of the "bosses." He framed and succeeded in having a bill passed to prevent trespass "by cutting timber lands without the consent of the owners of the property. This measure was opposed by railroad and other corporations. He voted for the submission of the Prohibition Amendment and introduced and battled through both branches of the legislature, backed by the Protestant ministerial associations of the state, the bill known as the "Sunday Closing Act," being the most drastic anti- liquor law that had ever passed the legislature up to that time. He also voted for an amendment to the license law prohibiting the shipment of liquor from wet counties into dry counties. Senator Montgomery, called the "Silver-tongued Insurgent" because of his ready command of English and brilliant diction, raised his voice in earnest protest against the "Guard System" around which had grown up the "coal police." He warned the senate at that time that a grave error was being committed and that dire disaster would follow. Four years later his prediction proved to be a correct one for the "System" had grown so vicious and un-American that the miners in despair revolted with a consequent result of loss of life. Martial law was declared and it cost the state more than five thousand dollars in a vain effort to restore peace. Other bills which owe in great part their passage to the activity of Senator Montgomery, are one against the sale of narcotic drugs; one to raise the salary of school teachers; and another important measure to prevent minors, male and female, under the age of fourteen years, working in factories and mines during the free school term. He voted for a state-wide primary election law and was the only Republican member of the Senate who voted for the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. In 1905 and again in 1907 he led the fight on the floor of the senate to place a production tax on oil and gas, and was one of two Republican members who appealed to the senate both in 1905 and 1907 to submit an amendment to the constitution granting to women the right to vote. He served on the following committees, Mines and Mining, and Labor, and was called by the president to preside over the senate both at the regular session of 1907 and at the extra session of 1908. On October 10, 1912, he was elected permanent chairman of the Citizens' Organization of West Virginia, a sociological survey, which was organized in the Hall of the House of Delegates as a result of the coal miners' strike on Paint and Cabin Creeks. As chairman of the Citizens' Organization, Senator Montgomery went before the people of the state in the fall election of 1912 and declared for the abolishment of the mine guard system; the abolishment of child labor; a workmen's compensation law. legislation prohibiting water power monopoly, state pensions for widowed mothers who are destitute, initiative, referendum, and recall, the legal right of miners to belong to a labor union. At the following session of the legislature the odious mine guard system was abolished; a workmen's compensation law was enacted. Proposed amendments to the constitution providing for the establishment of the minimum wage, the initiative, referendum, and recall, and state pensions for widowed mothers, were defeated on close votes. The legal right of a miner to belong to a labor union was recognized by the state government and a law greatly restricting the granting of water power franchises was enacted. Senator Montgomery has been active in fraternal circles. On November 26, 1901, he joined the Order of the Knights of Pythias, being a charter member of McKinley Lodge No. 135, Tunnelton. In the following month he was made Outer Guard and continued to advance until he reached the summit of Pythian distinction when at Elkins, on September 15, 1910, he was installed as Grand Chancellor. His record as Executive was so brilliant that he was elected Grand Keeper of Records and Seal at Wheeling, August 18, 1911, which position he now holds. He is also an active member of Kingwood Lodge No. 107. I. O. O. F., a member of the Woodmen of the World, of Invincible Council No. 147, Jr. O. U. A. M, of Tunnelton, and of Shiraz Temple No. 29, D. O. K. K. of Charleston. He is also serving his third term as Vice- President of the Laymen's Association of the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Oakland District; is a member of the Board of Stewards of the General Conference of West Virginia, and among the Societies which claim him as a member are the American Academy of Social and Political Science of Philadelphia; the Southern Sociological Congress of Nashville; the National Conservation Congress, the National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.; the Citizens' Organization, the Progressive Club of Chicago, and the Beta Theta Pi Chapter, West Virginia University. A man of magnetic personality, Mr. Montgomery commands the immediate attention of those who first come into his presence, and nowhere is this so apparent as when he appears on the speakers' platform. He is noted throughout his state as a brilliant political and fraternal speaker. A gifted orator, he has become a power upon the platform, having a rare command of the English language and speaking with a diction as fluent as it is perfect in style. His address on "West Virginia and Its Future", delivered before the West Virginia Editorial Association, and his discourse on the writ of injunction and the right of free speech before the West Virginia Federation of Labor, also his lecture on John Wesley, are among the public utterances that have attracted wide and favorable comment. On February 29, 1896, Senator Montgomery married Miss Grace K. Orr, a daughter of Major and Mrs. U. N. Orr, of Kingwood. See history of the Orr family. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery have two children, William Newton, born July 8, 1900, and Mary Susan, born November 10, 1902. Their firstborn, Orville Orr, died in infancy, Mrs. Montgomery has proven herself a very efficient aid to her husband. At the time of his resignation as postmaster at Tunnelton, Mrs. Montgomery succeeded him in the office and most successfully discharged the duties of that position. Since then she has assisted him ably in the office of Grand Keeper of Records and Seal. Mr. Montgomery speaks of her in one of his most eloquent passages as "my helpmate - the indulgent sovereign who finds much to commend and shares in a work which has divided with her the allegiance of her willing subject." --------------------------------------------------------------------- From Death Certificate, Preston County, WV #5298 FULL-NAME: Samuel B. Montgomery BIRTH-DATE: May 15, 1876 BIRTH-PLACE: West Virginia DEATH-DATE: April 13, 1924 DEATH-PLACE: Kingwood, Preston County, WV MARITAL-STATUS: Married OCCUPATION: Grand Keeper of Records and Seals, Nights of Pythias FATHER: A. Montgomery (born in W.Va.) MOTHER: Susan Digman (born in W.Va.) CAUSE-OF-DEATH: Result of Myocarditis / Nervous Breakdown INFORMANT: Mary Haris (of Elk Garden) BURIAL: Kingwood Cemetery --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Preston County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/preston/bios.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------