Memorials › John Calvin "Cal" Montgomery
John Calvin "Cal" Montgomery
11 Jan 1907 – 26 Jun 1983
| Birth | 11 Jan 1907 |
| Death | 26 Jun 1983 |
| Cemetery | Garden of Memories Cemetery Sweetwater , Nolan County , Texas , USA |
| Added by | Janie Healer Davis on 13 Sep 2020 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16490718 |
Bio
J. C. (CAL) AND LILLIE LEE (McREYNOLDS) MONTGOMERY Cal and I were childhood sweethearts. We married and celebrated 57 years of marriage. That 57 years seemed such a short time, yet as I look back, I wonder how we squeezed in so much living. Cal's mother and daddy were Ben and Lizzie (Scott) Montgomery, and he was born January 11, 1907. My mother and daddy (or "Papa" as we called him) were Robert Lee and Lillie (Benton) McReynolds. Cal always loved to tell people I was older than he. My birthdate was October 18, 1906. We married July 11, 1926, at the home of the Church of Christ minister, J. D. Boren. Brother Boren was a very special person to us throughout our lives. He married us, baptized Cal, and preached Cal's funeral on June 27, 1983. Cal passed away June 26, 1983. Cal didn't leave home when we married; I moved to the Montgomery place, and our first home was with his dad and two brothers, Lon and Perry. They all farmed and raised horses, cows and sheep, and we always had a garden. When the day's work was done, Lon and Perry did the outside chores and Cal helped me cook and wash dishes. This had been their routine for a long time because their mother died when Cal was seven, Perry 4, and Lon 11. Their sister, Ona, was married to Loy Flynn and lived in town. Summers were always spent canning vegetables from our garden so there would be a supply of food to last through the winter. Most of the time several women would get together to shell peas, snap beans and get everything ready for the pressure cooker and canning. There wasn't any deep freeze then to keep food in. Like everyone else, in the winter we killed hogs and butchered beef. Everyone had a smoke house for curing their pork. Cal's dad was an easy going man and always treated me kindly. He worried about my getting homesick and was always telling Cal to take me to see Mother. Lon and Perry both married and moved to the plains to make their homes. All four of our children were born while we lived on the "old place". I don't know why we always called the Montgomery place that, but we did and still do. Clemon was born August 7, 1927; Mac, March 5, 1933; Franzas, February 22, 1937; and Lillie, February 25, 1941. All the kids were born at home except Lillie and she was born in the Sweetwater Hospital. The maternity ward of the hospital was new, and they were trying to attract business, so you could get a package deal, 10 days for $50.00. Most of our early marriage was spent on the "old place", but when Clemon was 2 or 3, we moved to the Walter Boothe ranch. We were so excited about getting to move somewhere and have our own home, and it was the first paying job Cal had after we were married. Mr. Boothe paid him $50.00 a month, furnished us a house and beef. In those days, that was very good pay. Cal enjoyed working for Mr. Boothe and thought he was a good man. Ray, his son, would come out and work with Cal almost every day. Ray and Cal had a lot of good times even though they were working. The two of them had a lot of good laughs about their experiences years later. Clemon and I would ride the ranch with Cal a lot. We'd put a pillow on one of our saddles and that was where Clemon learned to ride a horse. Tommy and Ray married and moved to the ranch, so Cal and I moved across the road to the Wight ranch and worked for Mr. Earnest Roy. We loved the Wight ranch, too; it was so pretty and we had a spring near the house and water was piped into the house. We enjoyed having the Boothes and Roys over and, as all young wives, I wanted to make a good impression. Cal would milk the cows and we'd separate the cream and I would make a freezer of good rich ice cream, and we would invite the Boothes and Roys over. They really bragged on my ice cream, which made my head swell, but Cal would joke and tell them his cranking the freezer is what made it good. Cal worried about his dad because his health was failing, so we moved back to Bitter Creek. We lived near Lake Sweetwater on Montgomery land while Cal built our house on his dad's place. Our house was in the north pasture near a tank and had lots of live oak trees around. We lived there when Fran was born. Fran always thought it was great to tell people that's where she was born until she got about 12. A good friend, Patricia Tansil, loved to come home with us after church on Sunday and when she heard that story, she really laughed and thought it very strange to be born somewhere besides a hospital. I think it was a long time before Fran told that story again. Doctors were different then. Dr. Allen would drive 14 miles to come out and check on Cal's dad when he was ill; or if a baby was due, he'd come and stay all day or night if necessary. We had wonderful neighbors. The Claude Swanns lived over the mountain on the Adrian ranch and our nearest neighbors were Mae and George Boyd. I don't know how we'd have survived without Mae. She was always there when we needed her. It was a common event for Bitter Creek to rise too high to cross, and the lake went over the spillway at least once every year. Cal worked the lake but never seemed to get home before the creek came down. He'd call Mae and send word he was o.k. and stayed at Mother's when he couldn't get home. When Lillie was six weeks old, Mac came home from school with the mumps. I took them, too. Frankie Scott, my niece, was staying with us to help and the creek got up. Cal made his call and Mae sent Bud, their son, over with the message and he chopped wood, did our chores and made sure we were in good shape until the next day. That part of the old days I miss, having neighbors like the Boyds. I wonder what we would do if we had to go back to other ways of "the old days". Lillie and I were always home alone when Cal and the other kids went to school and work. We didn't have a car or phone and it was half a mile to Mae's. But we were content and life was very uncomplicated. It was a happy day for us if Mother and Judd or any of the family came to see us. When my brother J.T. was drafted in WWII, Mother was left along, so we moved our 4 kids to Plum Creek and lived with her for the duration. Cal managed 3 farms and was lake keeper. Clemon was old enough to help with plowing and I would worry all summer because he wouldn't wear a shirt. I just knew he would get sun stroke. We were so happy that the Supulvers, who ran the lake concession, wanted Mac to work for them selling minnows and helping with golf equipment. He could make some spending money and most of all it wouldn't be as hard as plowing and working the farm. Mac was 11 when he started to work. It was a sad day when we took Clemon to Lubbock to Texas Tech; he was only 16. But it was an even sadder day when at 17 he joined the Navy. While in China, he took rheumatic fever and was soon sent back to the states. Wild horses couldn't have kept us from going to see him. Much to my family's dismay, we loaded the three kids in our '40 Ford and took off for California. When Lillie started to school, we moved to town. I was so afraid Cal wouldn't like it, but Lillie and I were the only ones that had an adjustment problem. I did enjoy not having buses to catch and having everything so convenient, but it took a while to get used to, so many kids in and out all the time. Lillie and I were used to the quiet life at Bitter Creek. Cal was lake patrolman at Lake Sweetwater 10 years and had a State Game and Fish Commission from the state and worked under Mr. W. T. St. John of Abilene. During the war, he worked at the Gulf Refinery and when the men came back from the service and went back to work at the Gulf, Cal decided to run for sheriff. His granddaddy had been the first sheriff of Nolan county and one of his uncles, so he wanted to carry on family tradition. He was elected two terms. To make it convenient for him, we moved to the courthouse and lived in the apartment on the top floor. In our comings and goings, we became well acquainted with everyone in the courthouse. Mac loved to go with Cal on his calls, Frank loved being in the middle of town, and Lillie loved playing with Millard Leach who spent a lot of time there with his grandmother, Mrs. S. H. Leach, who was County Treasurer. Fran never had had the mumps, but while we lived in the courthouse, she got them. One day, while she was home recuperating, an ambulance came screaming through town, which was not an unusual occurrence. This day it was unusual. Cal had a wreck going to Maryneal to make a call. Herman Seale, who was a highway patrolman, came upstairs to stay with , and Cal's deputy, Joe McCarty, took me to the hospital. Someone at the hospital commented how calm I was taking Cal's serious injuries, and Mr. McCarty informed them they should have been the one in the car getting me to the hospital. Cal had two secretaries we all became very close to, Mrs. Janet Connelly and Pearl Woodruff. Ray O'Neil was court reporter, and we loved visiting him on our way up and down the stairs. We all stayed in good shape climbing 3 flights of stairs several times a day. Clemon married Gusta Goettsche; and when their first son, Clemon Lee, Jr., was born, it was the first grandchild for the Gus Goettsches and us. When we weren't living in the courthouse, our house on Bell Street was next door to the Goettsches. That made sharing a grandchild easy and in 18 months we had another one to share. Murl Mac was born January 13, 1953. Lee's birthday is May 29, 1951. Mac went into the service during the Korean conflict in 1953. He trained at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, and then went overseas. He came back to the states and was in Oklahoma for about a year. We were so happy he was stationed so close to home so he could come to Sweetwater at least once a month. When he got out of the service, he carried on the Montgomery tradition and went to work for the Sweetwater Police Department. Cal and I did not have a boring life. We did a lot of different things. He was special officer for the Santa Fe Railroad, but that meant traveling and being away from home, so he gave that up. We moved to the Adrian ranch and he helped Mrs. Adrian take care of Mr. Adrian. Her four sons-in-law took turns coming out and helping Cal. Mrs. Adrian remodeled a house near hers and we lived in it. It was a very large house and we enjoyed living there. We became very close to Mrs. Adrian and her family, the Carlton McLeods, Garnet Wilkses, and Otto Martins. After Mr. Adrian's death, we moved away from Nolan county for the first time in our lives. We took a job at Gail driving a bus and working in the schools. WE lived at the end of the route, which was 42 miles from anywhere, and picked up eight ranchers' 17 children. We had a good time with the kids and they all loved Cal. That was a little far from everyone, so we moved to Ackerly and lived in town again. Lillie and Angela lived with us during this time and we loved and enjoyed Angela so much. It was a sad day when she became ill and died in May of 1963. She lacked a few days being 4 years old. Fran and Charles married in 1954; Mac and Zelma married in 1956; and Lillie married Yancey Jones in 1958. Charles worked in the oil field and knew about a job with Grimes Gas Company. Cal got the job and we moved back to Nolan County after 5 years' absence. We moved to the Grimes plant near Nolan on the Petty ranch. It took some getting used to since we lived a stone's throw from the plant and there were three large compressors pumping 24 hours a day. We had lots of water there and had beautiful gardens. Harold Tinsley, Cal's boss, couldn't get over how pretty our yard and garden was. Cal stayed with Grimes until he retired, but our variety in life was not over. From there, we moved to Garden of Memories and worked for Mrs. J. C. Morris for a time. We bought a house on Runnels Street and lived there until Cal's death. We spent a lot of time in the country at Fran and Charles', helping them build their house, and Cal doing ranch work. Even when there wasn't much to do, Cal would find some excuse to go out there. After Mr. and Mrs. Dent Beall died, Jane, their daughter, needed someone to housesit their home until she could make a decision about what to do with it. We enjoyed doing that one winter. So our life was always busy and we've done a lot of different things. Our biggest pleasure in life was always our kids. Cal was always so happy they all have good homes and are happy. Clemon and Gusta's marriage lasted 22 years, but then they each went their separate ways. Clemon now lives in Austin with his wife, Carolyn. Clemon has 6 grandchildren. Little Emily would have made 7, but she died from cancer at the age of 4 in 1981. She belonged to Murl. Mac and Zelma have 2 sons, Jimmy and Johnny, and no grandchildren. Fran and Charles have Sharles and Liz and two grandchildren, Cody and Briane. They also lost little Karli in an automobile accident. Karli and Cody were Sharles' and Brianne belongs to Bryan and Liz. Lillie is married to Bill Greenfield and lives in Big Spring. She had Angela and wo other children, Gaylene and Scott. Gay made the Greenfields grandparents in August of 1983 when little Jacob Calvin was born. From First 100 Years of Nolan County, Texas , published in 1985, no longer in print. Transcribed with permission. ***********************
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