The Tupelo journal., 1906-06-01
A Sketch Of Two Pioneers.

Knoxville, Tenn, Mar. %, 1877
The writer feels that many OF
your readers would like to hear
something OF an old gentleman
and his wife who were among
the first settlers Of Itawamba,
county, Miss, but whose inter
ests and prospects in life were
once identified with their own.
Nh. John A. Monts, born Aug.
20, 1898, was the sixth ina fam
ily of eight children, of whom
only two are now living, a broth
err anda sister. His brother, VIM.
Monts, is five years younger, and
is now living within fourteen
miles of Newberry, S. c. His
sister, Mrs. Catherine Shealy,
who is nine years his senior, is
living in Edgerfeld, S. c.
Mr.. Monts is six feet tall,
weighs one hundred and forty
five pounds, and though nearly
eighty one years of age, has a
remarkably straight and stall
wart body. Though naturally
provident and energetic he early
acquired the more frugal and in
dustrious habits which il after
life so signally crowned his man
ly efforts with success.
Owing to his fathers financial
depression, he received only a
meagre education. He was
raised by pious and devoted pa
rents, who early taught him a
proper regard for the deserving,
the true and the good. Always
self possessed and deliberate,
aud by his we'll poised temper
ance he has the rare faculty of
begetting in others that inspira
ton properly modified by a Sc
renity of mind and manner which
so characterizes his every day de
pertinent. There is no flash,
buster nor enthusiasm in his re
ligion, but rather a composed
and exalted manliness which al
ways gives a high moral tone to
his whole bearing with men, and
a silent but deep impression of
piety and devotion in his daily
communion with his God. AS in
his moral so in his social nature.
nothing is wanting. A true,
warm aud steadfast friend, a
most excellent and sympathetic
neighbor, a devoted and loving
husband, and a father, if it were
possible without a fault. His
wife, Miss Mary A. Sease, was
born June Is, 1901. She was the
seventh child in a family of
eight children, of whom only one
other lives to mutually claim a
sisters best and purest affec
tions-a sister, Mrs. Margaret E.
Shealy, seven years her senior,
and who now resides in the Dutch
Fork of Lexington, S. C. Mrs.
Monts is a blonde, Of medium
height, weighs one hundred and
fifty pounds, and though nearly
seventy eight years old, still re
tains a sprightly aud cheerful
demeanor, a happy and blithe
some disposition.
Her educational advantages
were superior to those of her hus-
band, as is evidenced in her per-
feet familiarity in her extreme
old age with that class of Ian
guages of the great Teutonlc
branch, commonly known as Low
German. She, too, was raised
by Chistian and affectionate pa
rents, who ever threw around
her such associations and mem
cries as to beget in her the high
est regard of woman's true mis-
sion. This she has ever filled and
has shrunk only from what love,
honor, innocence and religion
dictated. On the 22nd of Feb
ruary, 1920, she was married to
her present husband, Mr.. John
A. Monts.
Leaving all to be his wife.
Clinging to him as her life"
Both husband and wife in in
fancy, by baptism, were conse
Grated to the Lutheran Church
through the ministry of the Rev.
Joseph Wallace, ard joined the
same fourteen years thereafter.
In 1881, eleven years after their
marriage, together they joined
the M. E.. Church, South, in
which faith they have lived eyer
since as devoted and exemplary
Christians, exhibiting in their
daily walk and conversation the
lovely virtues and consoling gra-
ces Of godly and righteous per-
sons. In 1841, when the desire
to emigrate became so prevalent,
when South Carolina gave SO
many of her noble sons to peo-
pie of other states, they, too, inn
bibed the same spirit, and left
Nov. 18th Of same year, for the
then far west. They came to
Mississippi, bought land, and
settled just where the Chick
asaw Indians had left, on Chow