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ROBERT E. MONTGOMERY
Vol. 3, p. 1199

In the cotton seed oil industry in the Southwest, few men are better
know than Robert E. Montgomery, treasurer and manager of the
Independent Cotton Oil Company, of Lawton, who has devoted about
fifteen years to this business. Mr. Montgomery was born in Yazoo
County, Mississippi, November 20, 1872, and is a son of Dr. William
Wallace and Cora (GREEN) Montgomery. The family originally came to
America from Scotland, probably before the Revolutionary war,
settling first in one of the Carolinas and moving to Natchez,
Mississippi, from whence different branches scattered all over the
state, the greater number locating in Madison County.

Dr. William Wallace Montgomery was born in Madison County,
Mississippi, in 1834, was well reared and educated, and choosing the
profession of medicine as his life's vocation, entered the College of
Physicians of Surgeons, Baltimore, Maryland, from which he was duly
graduated. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in a Mississippi
regiment, in the Confederate army, and served with that organization
until receiving an honorable discharge, and at one time was wounded
in the arm. Returning to his practice, he located in Sunflower
County, Mississippi, then went to Yazoo County, and during the '80s
settled at Shaw, Bolivar County, where his death occurred in 1910. He
was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After the
death of his first wife, by whom he had several children, he married
Cora GREEN, who was born in Hinds County, Mississippi, in 1840, and
died in Madison County, that state, in 1875, and they had three
children: Louise who married Joe F. LIPSCOMB, Jr., a merchant, now
deceased, and resides at Hattiesburg, Mississippi; William Alexander,
who is an insurance agent of Jackson, Mississippi; and Robert E.
Doctor Montgomery was married a third time to Mrs. Emma (CHAMBERLAIN)
DEJARNETT, a native of Mississippi and the widow of William DeJarnett
and daughter of William Chamberlain. They had no children.

Robert E. Montgomery, in addition to being a self-made man, is
largely self-educated, as he attended school in Hinds County only
until he was fourteen years of age, his subsequent training having
been gained by reading, experience and observation. He began his
career as a clerk in a store in Terry, and subsequently worked for an
express company for seven years, and in 1899 began his connection
with the cotton seed oil business at Jackson, Mississippi, as
traveling representative for a concern of that city. From 1902 until
1904 he was manager of a cotton seed oil mill at Magnolia,
Mississippi, and in his latter years went to Corsicana, Texas, as
secretary and manager of the oil mill at that place, remaining until
1908. In June of that year he came to Lawton as treasurer and manager
of the Independent Cotton Oil Company, one of the largest industries
of its kind in the state and a concern which contributes materially
to the prestige of Lawton as an industrial center. The plant is
located on Railroad Street and I Avenue, along the line of the Rock
Island Railroad tracks, has a capacity of eighty tons a day of cotton
seed, and its products are shipped over a territory extending from
Galveston to Canada and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Mr.
Montgomery was afterward promoted to assistant general manager of the
Chickasha Cotton Oil Company, with his headquarters at Lawton,
Oklahoma. This company operates ten cotton gins, and is capitalized
at $1, 250,000. Mr. Montgomery is a democrat in politics, and is a
member of the Episcopal Church, in which he serves as vestryman. He
belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, and is fraternally connected with
Lawton Lodge No. 183, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Lodge No.
1056, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

Mr. Montgomery was married at Tallassee, Alabama, to Miss Jennie
JORDAN, daughter of the late William Jordan, deceased, who was a
merchant and agriculturist of Alabama. Two children have come to this
union; Robert Hamilton, born April 2, 1909, and William Jordan, born
February 21, 1911, both at Lawton.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Earline Sparks Barger, October 9, 1998.