MONTGOMERYS, STORMS AND SHEARERS WHO OWNED LOTS IN
THE TOWN OF LEXINGTON, INDIANA, 1815-1909

Ever since I learned that James and Katharine Storm Montgomery, my 2X great grand parents, sold Lot No. 65 in Lexington to one Nehemiah Pratt on February 24, 1819, and that my mother was born somewhere in Lexington Township in 1898, I have been interested in learning what other Montgomery relatives lived in this slowly fading little town. A bit of research at the Scott County Deeds office in Scottsburg has provided some of the needed information, and the town plat map of 1879, which appears on the following page, permits us to identify the location of their properties with some assurance. Taken in numerical order, the records reveal that:

Lot No.2 was sold by Andrew J. Storm to Moses Gray by court order in 1819, to settle a $400 debt. The same lot was bought by Andrew's nephew, Jacob Storm, in 1866, and Jacob's sister-in-law, my great grandmother Elizabeth Shearer, and her siblings sold this lot to Mary Davis on December 29, 1880, presumably to settle the estate of her father, Benjamin Shearer.

Lot No.3 was bought by Jacob Storm in 1868.

Lot No. 5 was also sold by Elizabeth Shearer et al to Margaret Davis on November 29, 1880, suggesting that the lot was part of Benjamin Shearer's estate.

Lot No.7 (half) was sold in 1819 by Andrew J. Storm to Moses Gray in partial settlement of a $400 debt.

Lot No.8 was acquired from James Donalds by Andrew J. Storm on June 17, 1818 to satisfy a debt of $73.08.

Lot No.43 (part) was purchased by Rachel Shearer from S. T. Hardy on March29, 1889. Rachel's husband, Barney Shearer, had died six months earlier.

Lot No.65, on Mulberry Street, was sold to Nehemiah Pratt by James and Katharine Montgomery in I 819, as noted above. The sale probably took place just before James moved his family to Golconda, Illinois, where her father, Jacob Storm, and her sister and brother-in-law, Willis and Margaret Storm Stucker, were living. I don't know when James and Katharine bought this lot, but in 1819 it was two doors away from Lot No.53, at the corner of Main and Mulberry Streets, which was the home of the Western Eagle, Indiana's first newspaper. There have been lots of changes since. Today, Lot No.53 is home to a gas station and a convenience store, and Lot No.65 has been swallowed up by a large expanse of land, including both adjacent lots 56 and 68, which now is occupied by a large warehouse with trucking ramps. Whatever house James and Katharine lived in is long gone.

Lot No.88, on Walnut Street, was purchased by Benjamin Shearer and Charles J. Bassett from Nehemiah Hunt, of Campbell County, Kentucky, on May 28, 1816. On May 14, 1819, Benjamin Shearer sold one half of this lot to Bassett for $270. Another half of this lot was sold by Jonathon Shearer (representing the James H. Shearer Estate), to Clem C. James in February, 1892.

Lot Nos. 101, 102, 103 and 104 were purchased by Margaret Montgomery from Alex Amick et al on October 14, 1903.

Lot Nos. 117 and 118 were purchased by Charles M. Montgomery from Minerva Guynn on August 2, 1898.

Lot No.129 (part), which I can't place in the plat map, was sold by Benjamin R. Montgomery to E. Raugh and son on June 4, 1907. Benjamin, born in Indiana in I 843, was the youngest child of William and Mary (Polly) Crim Montgomery.

Lot No.193 (half) was purchased by Benjamin Shearer from Zebulon Foster on January 14, 1825. The remaining half of the lot was purchased by Benjamin from James V. White on January 23, 1854. James H. Shearer purchased the lot from Nancy Green on April 11, 1902.

Lot Nos. 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247 and 255 were sold by Jacob Storm to S. S. Crowe on September 10, 1873.

Lot No.254 was bought by Andrew J. Storm in 1814.

Lot Nos. 292, 293 and 294 were sold to Margaret J. Montgomery by Minerva Guynn on November 11, 1900. Charles M. Montgomery bought part of lot 292 from Guy Campbell on October26, 1909. Sallie (Sarah) A. Montgomery, the oldest daughter of James and Katharine, bought Lot No 294 (comprising three acres) from Elizabeth Harris on April 21, 1882, about a year after her father died.

Lot No.314 was bought by Charles L. Montgomery from Oscar O. Martin on November 27, 1907. Benjamin Montgomery sold part of this lot to Guy Campbell on August 31, 1909.

Lot No.326, which I can't find, was purchased by George Shearer from Goodhue and Norman on April 15, 1822. Elizabeth Shearer et al sold this lot to E. G. English on April 21, 1856. Grandmother Elizabeth seems to have been the designated probater for everyone in her family.

Lot No.366, which 1 also can't find, was bought by Andrew J. Storm from Deonyseus Shelburn of Shelby County, Kentucky, on July 1, 1816.

Outlot No.2 was purchased by Mary Montgomery from Julia A. Lamar on June 15, 1874, and was sold by Mary to James E. Hodges on October 15, 1880.

It should be noted that the sale of a property presupposes that the same property was purchased earlier, but the Scott County deed records occasionally don't reflect this. Nobody's perfect. It also should be noted that Lorenzo Dow Montgomery (named after a famous Indiana preacher of the early 1800s) was very active in the Lexington real estate market, purchasing 23 town lots between 1873 and 1901. I would like to claim this go-getter as one of ours, but he wasn't. He did own, at one time or another, several of the lots owned by our relatives, namely I 17, 118, 129, 292 and 293.

James and Katharine Montgomery owned a house on Lexington's Mulberry Street (Lot No 65) which they sold to Nehemiah Pratt on November 24, 1819, about the time that James moved his family to Pope County, Illinois. Today, the warehouse shown in the top photo spreads across Lots 65 and 66. Sarah Ann Montgomery, James' unmarried daughter, acquired what was described as Lot 294 ( 3 acres) from Elizabeth Harris on April 21, to satisfy a $140 note from William T. Harris held by James at the time of his death. The note covered part of Harris' purchase from James of 20 acres in Clark Grant 276 a year earlier. Lot 294 is one of several undeveloped lots (perhaps totaling three acres) that appear in the photo below, on the northeast corner of the intersection of State Route 356 and Hill Street.

NATHAN ALLEN MONTGOMERY: 1869-1937

Nathan Allen Montgomery, the youngest child of Thomas Jefferson and Mary Blizzard Montgomery, (and my grandfather), was born in Henryville, Clark County, Indiana, on November 29, 1869. I know very little about his early years, except that the 1880 census for Monroe Township noted that Nathan was attending school, and a later census in 1900, noted that he could read and write. (His father, who could not read or write, surely, with the support of wife Mary, was insistent that their children attend school. The 1870 census showed that all five of Nathan's older brothers who were of school age, were attending school.)

Nathan married Eliza Ava Storm in Lexington, Scott County, Indiana, on March 28, 1892. (The marriage license had been issued on March 16, with John Gladden and C. H. "Red" Barber acting as witnesses.) Eliza was born in rural Lexington, Indiana (probably on a farm in the east half of the NE Quarter of Section 2, a mile and a half southeast of Lexington town) on October 19, 1874, the youngest child of Ninevah A. and Elizabeth Shearer Storm, both of whom were born in Indiana. Nathan and Eliza lived in the Lexington area until they moved their family to DeKalb County, Illinois in late 1903. I don't know how Nathan and Eliza met (their respective homes were about seven miles apart and out of bicycle range) , but they were probably introduced by relatives on both sides of the family.

The 1900 census for Lexington Township (enumerator number 108) described Nathan as an employed "marketer of groceries," who "rented." In addition to the three children living in the house at the time, (Glenn, Wayne and Jessie), there was a boarder resident there, also, a lawyer, James F. Moore, born in Kentucky in 1844. I think that 1 remember being told by my mother that Grandpa sold groceries and canned goods from a horse-drawn wagon, traveling up and down the narrow dirt roads to visit the farms in the Lexington area, after his marriage to Grandma, but then, again, the census' power of suggestion might have shaped my remembrance. {24}

The peddler job must have been disappointing, because he apparently jumped at the chance to own his own farm. Nathan's older brother, Charles L. Montgomery, and his wife "Addie" (Amanda Adeline LeMaster) sold their 100-acre farm in Clark Grant No.294 to Nathan and Eliza on March 21, 1900. The sales price was $800, but Nathan had to assume two mortgages on the property, one for $300 held by the Common School Fund, and the other, a $200 mortgage held by H. J. Smith, "which is now due." The farm property was described thusly:

"Beginning at a stone at David E. Harris South corner Said stone being in the original line distance ninety-two and 5/16 rods South 39 degrees East from the north corner of Lot No.294 in Clark's Grant and running thence South 39 degrees East 128 46/I 00 rods to a stake, thence South 50 degrees West 124 94/100 rods to the north line of Charles Hobbs Sixty acre tract thence with said line 39 degrees West I 28 46/100 rods to a twenty-two acre tract sold to David A. Harris, thence North 50 degrees East 124 90/100 rods to place of beginning. Containing one hundred acres free from a 30 foot roadway along the north East end of the Charles KoIb 60-acre tract..."

FOOTNOTES

{24} Since writing the paragraph about Grandpa's first job, as a "marketer of groceries," I have learned (by inference, at least) that he was probably an employee or partner of his brother-in-law, Ninevah A. Storm. I am indebted to Mary Harmon Cunningham, Ninevah's grand daughter, and now deceased, for this information. Mary wrote a Storm family history, for a college course, in 1972, and only in the past week have I seen the paragraphs she wrote about Ninevah, the sister of my grandmother, Eliza Storm Montgomery. (More of Mary's history appears in the following pages, in the section relating to the family of Jacob Storm.) According to Mary, Ninevah, too, had started a "huckster" route and a grocery store in Vienna, Indiana shortly after marrying in 1888 (Nathan, six years younger than Ninevah, and Eliza were married in 1892), and it seems very likely that Ninevah and Nathan were in the grocery business together. Mary's very charming and entertaining story of her grandparent's beginnings in Vienna follow:

"When my grandparents were married in 1888, he left the farm and started a store and huckster route in Vienna, Indiana, which was a little village. (Ed. Note: It still is a little village.) They had seven children which alternated between a girl and then a boy ending with a girl. My mother was their first one. The living quarters were in back of the store, so they all helped in the store when they were old enough. The huckster wagon was similar to the covered wagons but not as large. In good weather it was drawn by two horses, but in muddy seasons, it required four. In the back of the wagon there were chicken coops, egg cases, and a barrel to put butter In. Grandfather had an established route in the rural area which he covered on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He had homes where he stayed Monday and Tuesday nights and also certain homes where he ate along the route. He had staples like flour, sugar, beans, rice, and things that the farmer couldn't raise. He also carried bolts of calico and sewing accessories. He in turn bought live poultry, eggs and butter, which was still in the buttermilk, from the customers. The farmers brought the eggs out in buckets and they had to be put in the cases in the wagon. In cold weather he also bought wild rabbits and coons that the farmers had either trapped or hunted. The rabbits were just gutted and frozen. The coons were skinned and gutted before freezing because the pelts were valuable.

"He returned home Wednesday night. In the store they processed the butter by working the buttermilk out and putting it in smaller containers. Some of the produce was sold there. Then Thursday morning he took the rest of the farm produce and went to Jeffersonville, Indiana, which is on the Ohio River. Here he had another established customer route to sell the farm produce. He stayed there Thursday night and then Friday morning ferried across the river to Louisville, Kentucky, where his last customers were. He took the coon carcasses and rabbits to his black customers. Few whites would eat coon meat. He then bought his supplies for the next week. Many of his customers ordered what they wanted. The staples he bought in the bulk and then packaged them in the store. He had whiskey jugs from his customers to have filled. He then returned home Friday night and ran the store on Saturday while packaging the staples and getting ready to start over again Monday. He was completely happy with his business which had been very profitable.

"After Grandfather's mother died his father was so lonesome he wanted them to come and live with him on the farm which I mentioned earlier had been homesteaded. It was no longer as large as the original farm but there is no record or knowledge of when or why some of the land was sold. (Ed. Note: My piece on the Storm family, which appears later, lists the land transfers involved.) He promised him the farm if he'd give up his business, so in 1905, they moved to the farm, which caused many hard feelings in the family. Great-grandfather died in 1907 at the age of eighty-two. I'm not sure when, but 1 think it was after they moved to the farm that Grandfather ran for County Treasurer. The clipping from the newspaper said that he had a good "common school" education that would make him well qualified for the job. He lost and it was his one and only attempt at politics.

"In 1910, some land speculators came through the area offering to trade them land in the Texas Panhandle for their farms. This had been done with land in the Dakotas and for someone who wanted to go west it had been a good deal. They showed pictures of the Texas that were beautiful. To be safe, Grandfather sent his son and nephew to check it. Before he heard from them, the speculators said they were leaving and if they wanted to take the deal, it had to be right now, so they signed the deal. The next day, they received word not to sign--the land was worthless and the pictures were phony. It was too late--the farm was gone. They sold the Texas land to the speculators for practically nothing and contacted his youngest sister Eliza Jane, who was by now living in Illinois. It was through them that the family moved to Illinois. (Ed. Note: According to Scott County land records, part of 198 acres in Section 2, Lexington Township, were transferred from N. A. Storm to Emmett Stallter on October 12, 1910, and this gives us a good idea of when Ninevah moved his family to Illinois. His obituary said it was 1913, and my piece on the Storm family, which follows, suggests that my grandfather, Nathan Montgomery, Ninevah's brother-in-law, helped organize the move.)

{25} Two years ago my wife and 1 visited Lexington for the first time, hoping to learn precisely where my mother was born there in 1898. (1 haven't yet found it, but I'm getting closer.) I first visited the post office where the postmistress ("I'm a stranger here, myself') admitted that she knew nothing about the history of the town. She also told me that the local library was closed that day (it was open two days a week) and suggested that I talk to one of the town's two elderly historians, the most accessible one being the 94-year old town barber, Mr. Milles, whose shop was only 100 feet away.

Knowing that I needed a haircut anyway, we ambled over to his shop, hoping to pump him for information about the Montgomerys thereabouts, and the Shearer, Blizzard and Storm families, too, all Montgomery in-laws. The old fellow told me that he couldn't recollect anything about those people in Lexington, though I later found that the cemeteries around there are full of them. (The barber's own parents were buried only ten feet away from the grave sites of my 2X great grandfather, James Montgomery, and his wife, Katharine Storm Montgomery, in the Kimberlin Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. But a man waiting his turn for a haircut, an 80-odd year old farmer, listening intently to the conversation, interrupted politely and said that he knew of several Montgomerys, and that one of them, Max Montgomery from Henryville, worked at the True Value hardware store in nearby Marysville. He offered to show me the way to the store, noting solicitously, if not originally, that he "had never met a Montgomery I didn't like." Well, you can imagine my joy when he said that, but I thanked him for his help and said I would drive over there after I got my own haircut. Mr. Milles, the barber, dallied over my hair for more than an hour ($5 plus $1 tip), plumbing his memory to the utmost, but his memory did not seem to go back farther than World War II. He couldn't come up with anything useful. Anne, who was watching and listening, got very nervous when he started stropping the razor, and got visibly worried when he put the razor to my neck with only a little bit of a tremor. But 1 survived and we drove over to Marysville, where Max allowed that he wasn't into family history much, but that he had a sister who was. Carol Montgomery Scholl, Max' sister has provided much of the Montgomery material that appears in this book.

{26} Genoa, Illinois celebrated its centennial in 1936, and the occasion served to remind the citizens of the town's history. Thomas Madison, the first settler, built a spacious log cabin about a quarter-mile east of the Kishwaukee River in 1836 and established a post office in the cabin which also doubled , or tripled, as a tavern and hotel. He named the town (who else was to object) Genoa, after his own hometown in New York state. He had seen that northern Illinois had a Batavia and a Geneva, like New York state, "and he concluded to carry out the parallel by giving it this name. Madison sold his cabin cum tavern to Henry Durham in the fall of 1837 and moved on to Texas. Durham was described by a contemporary historian as a "sharp, shrewd, energetic citizen who had accumulated considerable wealth by trade, by hotel-keeping and by well-managed speculation in lands." Another early settler, Daniel Whittemore, who came to Genoa in 1838, "had a reputation as the leading member of a group of horse thieves, counterfeiters and burglars." Genoa was the headquarters of the Whittemore gang and his banditti successors until well alter the Civil War. (In 1865, incidentally, Genoa's population was 1,027, in 1930 it was 899.) In the early 1 840s Henry Durham's tavern/hotel became a regular stopping place (horse-changing point) on the stagecoach line that ran from Elgin to Galena, and the hotel was still in existence and operating in 1910, when it served as the Genoa station for the ill-fated Woodstock & Sycamore Traction Company, about more of which you will read shortly. About 1900 this old hotel was reconfigured to hold the office and operating areas of the Genoa Republican. 1 don't know what's there today.

{27} Mary Harmon Cunningham also wrote about our Storm forebears, but I believe that she was mistaken in identifying an Ira Storm as her 2x great grandfather, though Ira may have been a brother of Arthur Storm, who was her 3x great grandfather (the ages work out). I wouldn't bet my life on this, however. Mary's story follows:

"The family name is Storm and it is understood that they were Pennsylvania Dutch of German origin. We do not know when they came to Pennsylvania or left it to live in Indiana. Our earliest actual knowledge would be from the grave stone of my Great Great Grandfather Ira Storm. He was buried in a cemetery next to a country Baptist Church in Scott County, Indiana. (Ed. Note: This undoubtedly refers to the Kimberlin Creek Baptist Cemetery, near Vienna, Indiana.) This would indicate he was probably a farmer and of course, Baptist. My uncle remembers seeing it and noticing that he was born in 1791 which made him exactly one hundred years older than he. A few years ago, he visited the cemetery again to see what information was on the stone and found it is now missing. If the stone could be located or some cemetery records, there is a possibility we could trace the family to the Revolutionary War. In a recent article by the Historical Society in the Scott County Journal, a small weekly newspaper, it was stated that an ancestor of pioneer settlers a "Jake Storm" was cited for braey in New York during the Revolutionary War. But as I've said, it would take some research to determine if we are his descendants"

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