The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-01
GIVES UP THE FIGHT.
Frank Montgomery Passed Away in
Kansas City Last Night.


writer on the Kansas City Journal, and
for the last ten years a resident of
Topeka. died last night at the Midland
hotel in Kansas City after an illness
of about a month He has been seri-
ously sick only about two weeks.
Death was caused by hemorrhage of
the stomach.
Frank Montgomery was one of the
I best known newspaper men of Kansas,
and he was authority upon the early
history of the state, and especially the
happenings on the plains during the
seventies. Probably no man in Kansas
knew more anecdotes of life on the
plains than he, and he knew the his
tory of the military in western Kansas
as no one else. as it came under his
personal observation.
He was intimate with the early his
tory of two states, Kansas and Wash
ington. He was at one time United
States marshal of the latter during its
early troublOus times as a territory.
Mr.. Montgomery was born at Ma
Quoketa, Iowa. in 1857, but when he
was very small his parents moved to
Kansas and located first in Iecompton,
and a year later in Lawrence. At the
time of the QuantrelI raid on Law
renee he was a small boy and at one
! time during the raid some of the raid
The story is told Of him that when the
: raiders rushed up on the porch of the
/ Montgomery home to burn it, the boy
got in their road and one of the
guerillas kicked him off the porch.
/ The boy picked up a rock and re-
/ taliated by hitting the guerilla on the
head with it. The guerilla drew his
+ revolver to shoot the lad, but put it
i back, saying the boy was not big
/ enough to kill.
After receiving his education in the
i public schools, the State university and
the newspaper Offices of Lawrence Mr..
: Montgomery left there when he about
twenty years old to go west and grow
up with the country He took a
homestead in Decatur county, near
( where Oberlin now stands. but a. year
later in 1875, he went to Hays City
and established the Hays City Sentinel.
Fort Hays was then one of the impor-
tant military posts of the frontier, and
it was in this connection that Mr..
Montgomery became acquainted with
the history of the army in the west.
He knew all about the Indian wars
and all the romances of the plains
In 1881 he went to Cheney, Wash
ington territory, and started a paper
there, and later edited a number of
papers along the line of the Northern
Pacific. That country was then fully
4 as wild as western Kansas had been.
He amassed considerable money but
] lost it later in trying to run daily
newspaper at Seattle He was con-
nected with various papers at Tacoma
and Seattle until 1887, when he re-
turned to Hays City and re-estabIish-
/ ed his paper there. Two years later
/ he sold out and held . position in the
government printing Office in Wash
/ ngton for two years, but then return
ed to Kansas and in the fall of 1892
he. came to Topeka end established
! the Kansas Breeze. T. A McNeaI
ljoined him in this venture, but later
! Mr.. Montgomery with drew and the
! Breeze was combined with the North
/ Topeka Mail.
! For the past ten years Mr.. Mont
! gomery has been connected with the
/ Kansas City Journal, first as the To-
1 tpeka correspondent, but for the past
eight years as an editorial writer. He
contributed the Kansas Topics daily
/ and a portion of the editorials. He
has done all his work in Topeka. how
ever, owning a home in Potwin.
! In 1879 Mr.. Montgomery was mar
/ ried to Miss Emma Miner Of Alliance.
I o. His wife and three grown sons,
+ Terence. Paul and William survive
him. He leaves also his mother and
4 his sisters Mrs. Hill P. Wilson of Law
renee, and Mrs Fred j. Harris of
/ Junction City, and two brothers, David
/ Montgomery of Cheyenne, and w. P
/ Montgomery of Ellis county, Kansas.
/ The body will be taken to Hays CITY
for burial Mr.. Montgom mery's father
/ and infant daughter were buried there
and it was his desire to be laid to rest
/ there also.
Mr.. Montgomery was. one of the
most entertaining writer's in the state.
and his personal knowledge of life on
/ the plains and early events made his
work a valuable contribution 20 the
story of Kansas history. The files of
the State Historical society are fuI of
4 his writings.