Histories

Major Montgomery was born in the Lancaster District of South Carolina on May 19, 1770, the son of Scottish immigrants. As a boy, during the latter days of the American Revolution, he accompanied his father into battle in Burke
County, GA, near Augusta. He was commissioned a major when he served in the War of 1812 at Fort Peachtree, in the Indian town of Standing Peachtree, on the Chattahoochee
River.

After the war, Montgomery and his wife, the former Nancy Farlow, moved their family of 14 children to Standing Peachtree from Jackson County, GA. Standing Peachtree, later the Bolton Community, was then deep in Georgia’s frontier territory, on the western edge of what was to become DeKalb County. The Montgomery’s were the first residents of what is now Atlanta. The city of Atlanta, which was incorporated in 1853, was first located in DeKalb County. Fulton County was created a year later. Montgomery held many positions in the local government, including election superintendent, road commissioner, Clerk of the Court of Ordinary, state senator, poor school commissioner, postmaster, census taker, justice of the peace, and tax collector. He was a farmer, as well as sawmill and gristmill operator, trading post proprietor, and ferryman. Montgomery Ferry Road is named for him.

He also served as a federal Indian Agent whose job it was to keep white trespassers from
encroaching upon Cherokee lands across the Chattahoochee River from Standing Peachtree. Later, he was the enrolling agent, signing up Cherokees to move voluntarily from north Georgia.
Both James and Nancy Montgomery died in 1842, and are buried in the Montgomery family
cemetery near their Standing Peachtree home place.

A number of Montgomery descendents still live in the Atlanta area and attended the service held on April 14, 2001.