Following is one of the Biographies and Stories which where gathered by Charles Sumner McKamy in the 1950s for publication in a Crawford County History Book. Unfortunately he passed away before the book was published.
Dewitt Clinton Montgomery was born in Montgomery Township, Crawford County, April 23, 1859. He was the son of Wiley and Ann Lindsay Montgomery and one of sixteen children, all now deceased. He was married to Olivia Ford in 1883. She was the daughter of William T. and Martha Ann Allison Ford. She, too, was a native of Crawford County. She was born June 28, 1861 and was of a family of nine children, all of whom are deceased. Olivia, the last survivor, died April 7, 1940. Some of her ancestors, the Allison's, came over from England in the early days and settled on the prairie, which is now known as Allison Prairie, and from which it got its name.
Dewitt Clinton and Olivia lived on a farm in Crawford County located about a half mile north of the County line. Six children were born to them, namely: Harry W., Anna E., Nathaniel, Martha Alice, Effie Ellen and Lizzie Mildred. Nathaniel and Lizzie Mildred died in infancy and where D.C. died in 1895. Prior to his death he had served Montgomery Township as tax collector and assessor, being elected on the Democratic ticket.
Olivia and her four children remained on the farm until the year 1919 when she with her two daughters moved to Flat Rock, Illinois, where Effie passed away in 1921 at the age of 21 years and where Anna E. still lives.
Harry W. had married Alice A. Pinkstaff and they remained on the farm where Harry died in 1935. They had four girls and one boy. Mildred married Nelson Weger. They have three children, Laverne Frilliman, James D. and Sharon Kay Weger. Marian married Kenneth E. Ford. Ruth married Armando Orlandini. They have one boy, Army Lee. H. Briscoe married Velma Johnson. They have two daughters, Pamela and Yvonne Montgomery. Anna Laura married Woodrow Wesley. They have two children, Susan Lynn and Jody Wesley.
Martha Alice married Clarence R. Rich in 1909. They had two children, Arthur L. and Elizabeth Ellen. Arthur married Brownie Johnson. They had a daughter, Donna Carol, who is now married to Verneal Johnson. They have a daughter, Karen Lynn, and a boy, C.R. (Corky) Rich. Elizabeth Ellen married Creed L. Sechrest. Clarence R. Rich died in 1933. Martha Alice was married again to Eldon Colborn and they now reside in Flat Rock, Ill.
The heirs still own the 80 acres of land where oil was discovered in 1908 and which is now under secondary recovery by water flooding.
D.C. and Olivia attended church at the Baptist church at Canaan, where Olivia was a member for more than fifty years and where Anna E. is still a member. There are 21 living descendants of this family at this writing, which has been written by a member of the family -- Anna E. Montgomery.