Consisting of family correspondence of William Joseph Montgomery, Bell Montgomery Tilghman, and their children: Kate Montgomery Brodnax, T. Carlisle Montgomery, and John Kenly Montgomery, documenting courtship and marriage of William and Annie Montgomery, education of their children from kindergarten to graduate school, and successful careers in business, politics, and the professions. Places represented include Marion, Rock Hill, Spartanburg, and Columbia, S.C.; Washington (D.C.); Columbus, Miss.; New York City; Boston, Mass.; and elsewhere. Includes photograph album, ca. 1845 - ca. 1950, and scrapbook, 1877 - 1968 (legal size; photocopy) re family activities and events, obituaries, and political items, chiefly re William Joseph Montgomery (1851-1913). Early papers include courthip letters from W.J. Montgomery, then a rising newspaper publisher, lawyer, and business man, to Annie Stackhouse, whose father was subsequently elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Following their marriage, W.J. and Annie settled in Marion, S.C. In 1908, W.J. Montgomery won a seat in the S.C. Senate; in the years prior to his election to the General Assembly, WJM served as a delegate to the state's 1895 constitutional convention. Nineteen letters from citizens of Mississippi written to C.A. Woods, a friend of the Montgomerys, represent responses to inquiries regarding the impact and results of the suffrage clause in the Mississippi constitution of 1890. A correspondent, James S. Perrin, 28 June 1895, states, "As a political measure the suffrage clause... has worked admirably, and has had the effect of virtually disfranchising our brother in black." Children of the Montgomery family followed varied career paths; Mabel became an author, a member of S.C.'s first Illiteracy Commission, a supervisor of S.C. Federal Writers' Project of WPA, and a volunteer in numerous civic and social work activities. Following graduate school, Bell taught school, became dean of a college, and then married a pioneer in the S.C. Forestry Commission and contined to live in Marion, S.C., where she was a force for cultural and social service development while raising her family. Kate was graduated from Winthrop College and took a law degree from U.S.C. Following his graduation from Wofford College, Carlisle took a law degree from Harvard and pursued a successful career in the bond business n Washington, D.C. John Kenly, also a Wofford graduate, joined the organizers of Pan American Airways, and later set up his own airline in South America. Letters from the daughters reveal much about college curriculum, discipline, and social life at the turn of the century. When evangelist Sam Jones spoke at Columbia Female College, Mabel was insulted when he implied that girls have "no sense." Learning, however, was ever mixed with striving for fashion: where to buy braid, ribbons, and lace; how many yards of ruffles for blouses; getting a dressmaker to replace skirt linings and finish new dresses, suits, and coats for the next term. All of this effort was coupled with numerous economies because W.J. Montgomery, in spite of his steadily increasing fortune, was inclined to thriftiness. His wife ran constant interference between W.J. and her children's endless requests for money for railroad fare, clothes, board, tuition, tennis rackets, guitar lessons, etc. Activities of Mrs. A.S. Montgomery represented include cultivation of vegetable and flower gardens, canning, baking, care of chickens. Letters and receipts document her efforts to match cloth samples, engage dressmakers, and mail shoes, sweaters, and books needed by her children away at college. The achievements of the Montgomerys owed much to the parents' firm discipline, as well as their intellectual stimulation. "Carlisle led his class last quarter," notes Annie, 14 May 1902, "so Papa is all smiles and very lenient with him now." Bell Montgomery began graduate studies at Columbia University in 1910. She confides to a Annie, 3 Apr. 1911, "People look upon me with much awe and surprise when they find I am getting ready for the Ph.D. exam." At Harvard, Carlisle studied law and attended a variety of lectures ranging from medical missionary Horace Grenfell to suffragette Mrs. Pankhurst. In 1910 he purchased a car and joined the small number of Americans who owned an automobile and braved the unpaved roads of the day. "Poor Carl!" exclaims Kate to Annie, 4 Nov. 1910, describing her brother's recent journey across Horry County, S.C.: "He should have known that all Horryite[s] would be petrified at the sight of an auto."
