Gary Ford and his pens

This is an update on Gary Ford, the son of Patsy Ford the daughter of Evelyn Montgomery Burris. He sent an email out to some of the family giving an update on his pen business. I thought maybe the rest of the family would enjoy learning a little more about Gary’s business so he wrote the following intro.


I started making pens about 15 years ago. It was supposed to be a warm up exercise for the making of (turning) wood bowls. I took 20 pens and samples of about 30 different kinds of wood I had at the time to a craft show at our church. I sold all 20 pens and took orders for 186 more. I was shocked and over whelmed. I did finally turn a bowl a couple of years ago, only one. I have made over 4000 pens and have over 200 kinds of wood. I am able to sell enough to break even and even make a little profit. I give quit a few away to the high school seniors that I volunteer with and various community service projects our church is involved with. This is shaping up to be a very good pen sales year so far. I think it has a little to do with how many I gave to the church this year.

Here is the letter he sent to some of the family.

Just thought I would shoot everyone a little note about what has been going on with my little pen business. I had entered three pens at the Del Mar (San Diego county) Fair. Didn't get any ribbons this year. Oh well just gives me something to shoot for next year. Pen sales are way up this year already much to my surprise. This could be a stellar year. I think people are tired of not being able spend the money they would like to or they are just being a little more practical with their spending. Either way works for me. I'm selling 3 to 7 hundred dollars worth every week now. I'm not bragging more like shocked and amazed.

The latest thing I have been able to do is make a thank-you gift for all our summertime guest speakers at Shadow Mountain community church. I have also challenged our entire high school including the staff and interns. If they will memorize Psalm 1 they will get the same pen. It is made of Olive wood from Bethlehem with a Bloodwood cross inlayed into it. Last night our guest speaker was Col. Oliver North (incredible) I had made a very special pen for him. I was given the opportunity to meet Oliver between congressmen and state senators. What a neat man and what an incredible service he does for our troops and vets. Can't say enough.

You can learn more about Gary and his family by looking up Lakeside Fords on FaceBook. You can see more about his pens at http://www.justthewood.com/. I also found this interesting article about Gary and his pens http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5681254/works_of_art_in_wood_pens_by_san_diego.html?cat=30

Happy 80th Birthday Monte Crawford

Monte Anson Crawford, 4th child of Mary Willie Lee Montgomery Crawford, celebrated his 80th birthday July 30th. 
The children of Monte, who is a long time Lastros Astros fan, decided to throw him a "Party at the Park" at Minute Maid Park with family and friends. 
The "Party" included a tour of the park before it was open to the general public.  We were all able to see the owner's  suite, media area, and the very exclusive Diamond Club. That is were George and Barbara Bush sit when they go to the games.
Here is the whole group in the Diamond Club seats watching batting practice. Monte and his beautiful bride of 46 years Toni are front and center.

And here is batting practice with batting coach Jeff Bagwell (big deal to Astros fans)

3 of Monte's 4 children's families were able to attend.  Here is Monte Jr.'s family, Monte Jr was called away earlier in the week on emergency business and was not able to return in time. Monte Jr.'s daughters Makayla and Jessica are on the front row and his wife Amy and Monte Sr.'s Sunday School teacher are on the back row. Side note: Monte Jr. no longer goes by Mac or Macky for those of you who have known him his entire life.

Monte's youngest grandson Paul Copeland and two of his son-in-laws Taylor Hendrix and Kevin Copeland.

In back, Millie Copeland (Monte's youngest), the youngest grandchild Anslee Copeland, and Marsha Hendrix (Monte's second daughter)

Monte enjoying his cake and game.  Also note after 80 years he finally got his first tattoo, look closely at his right hand.  It was just temporary, Anslee, Paul and Marsha all got one too.

And for fun the whole group in the elevator during the tour.

Everyone had a great time and the Astros actually won!

Montgomery Family Scandal

For those of you who have not heard, the Montgomery Family has been shaken to its core by a scandal. It is with sad news that I inform you that the great-great-great granddaughter of Lattie and Kate has posed topless.  Unfortunately these pictures have already been published before the family could hide the scandal.  The shamed family member is none other that Marlie Murray. Marlie's family includes father James Marcus Murray, grandfather James (Jim) Crawford Murray, great grandmother Vera Dell Crawford Murray, and great-great grandmother Mary Willie Lee Montgomery Crawford. 

Here is the official statement from the family. "We are deeply saddened by Marlie's lack of judgment and have made it very clear to her that the family has certain standards that we are required to live up to.  Marlie has given her word that no other topless photos will be taken in the future." 

After much debate, I have decided to go ahead and  post the picture so that if any family member comes across it, they can quickly take it out of circulation. 

Marlie is the blonde one standing in the chair. At least she was not the one on the book case

This ad ran in the May issue of Better Homes and Gardens and is also to appear in Country Living.  Picture provided by Jodie Hendon, Marlie's great aunt. 

Happy 5th Birthday Anslee

You have come a long way.

Anslee Elleen Copeland is the youngest granddaughter of Monte and Toni Crawford and youngest child of Kevin and Milicent Anslee Crawford Copeland. The name Anslee was created by Monte and Toni by squishing together Anson Lee Crawford’s name.
For those of you who do not know the story of Anslee, it really is a big deal that she is alive. Here is the before and after shots.

Anslee was born at 30 ½ weeks by emergency c-section. She had Hydrops Fetalis and was very sick. Quick medical lesson, hydrops is massive amounts of fluid built up on the body, usually caused by anemia. Something is usually wrong with the blood and the heart has to work extra hard to deliver enough oxygen to the body. Hydrops was more common prior to the 1970’s with mothers who were RH negative and the baby was RH positive. Now there is a drug to give to mothers to prevent hydrops and the cases of hydrops has dropped since then. In the US hydrops is not very common and Anslee was my doctor’s first hydrops baby since her residency.

So how did Anslee get hydrops. I was exposed to parvo virus, which is the virus that causes fifths disease in toddlers. Statistically I should have already been exposed to the virus and statistically even if I contracted the virus the chances of passing it on to Anslee were small. Statistics were not on our side. But statistically, Anslee should not have lived. Hydrops has a 60-90% mortality rate, so thank the Good Lord he does not follow statistics. Anslee spent 7 weeks in the NICU and came home just in time for her big brothers 3rd birthday.

So here is our precious miracle child that God blessed us with.

We love her very much and are blessed to have her in our lives. She has been a fighter from day one. She is sweet, caring, feisty, smart, hot tempered, opinionated and loving. She makes life interesting and does keep us entertained. I am not sure what God has planned for her, but I have to assume that it is something big.

By the way, I am now taking suggestions on how to handle such a wonderful child during the teenage years.

Happy Birthday Ila Jean!

Ila Jean Montgomery Stratton, the youngest daughter of Moddy Evertt Montgomery, celebrated her 87th birthday on March 21st. 

Pictures provided by Rita Young, Ila Jean's 3rd child.

From left to right: Marla Stratton (Roger's wife), Roger Stratton (Jean's youngest), Ila Jean, and Monte Stratton Wright (Jean's 2nd child)

Roger, Jean and Monte

Editor's note: First I hope all of this is correct, and second I have not had the privilege of meeting these beautiful people, but boy are those Montgomery genes strong.  And might I add that we age well!

Appleton Homecoming 2004

A photo entry provided by Jodi Hendon (daughter of Vera Dell Crawford Murray, 3rd child of Mary Willie Lee)

Cornerstone of Church and front of the church.

Don't ask Jodi about the matching shirts.

Don't you love a small town parade?

Confessions of a California Cop

The following story is provided by Carol Allen

I have to admit that I was one of the thieves who took mementos from the Appleton house some years ago. It was probably the last time I was in Appleton and I think it was about 2002 or 2003? Uncle Joe was with us and the old homestead was abandoned and in bad shape. My brother Jon discovered that they had tried to dig a basement which was unsuccessful and now full to the top with black stagnant water. Jon said they must have gotten into the water table and no doubt that hole was full of rats and snakes as well!
Well, the house looked sad and empty and we all peered into the windows from the front porch. I went around back and found a window already broken next to the back porch door. I reached in and opened the door and my burglary was complete. I was in. I walked to the front of the house through the country kitchen and noticed the floor was sagging in the middle! EEEK! To have fallen through into that black water still gives me the chills. I opened the front door and invited all the family in to visit for a spell.
Most of the house had been "updated" with paneling on the walls and new hollow doors where the old walls and doors once stood. I know the pastor and his wife probably worked very hard on the renovations and now the old house was strangely odd and quiet. But upstairs in a bedroom was an untouched area. The old plank door had been removed and replaced but the old door was leaning up against the wall-no doubt ready for the junk heap. I took out my handy Swiss army knife and a few screws later-the doorknob was removed and in my custody. I think this is the same room where an unidentified sister of mine peeled a large piece of wallpaper from the unpaneled wall. (There are rumors that she will write more on this later.)
By the time I left the scene of the crime, other thefts were taking place...someone took the well pulley from the porch, someone else took a piece of wallpaper and a piece of floor tile, and someone even backed up their vehicle and took a huge paving stone(s) from the walkway! (Editorial Note: I did not participate nor was I present at the burglary, but somehow I ended up with one of these stones. Hmmm!) Uncle Joe said that he remembers Lattie hauling those stones by oxcart from far, far away. I locked up the house and we fled the scene of the crime.
I still feel a little guilty at my leadership in this day but I knew that the items we pilfered meant nothing to the owners of the house. I wonder, does anybody even know if it is still standing and occupied or if the Kudzu vines have taken over and started bringing it down to the ground?
Well there, I have confessed. I will retire from my job in a few months so don't anybody get any ideas of turning me in to my superiors-they won't care as I am soon to be out the door-eastbound through the houses for the last time!

The 11th Montgomery Child

I have had a couple of inquires about an 11th Montgomery child. I knew there was an 11th child that died as an infant, but did not have any additional information. Carol Allen, the youngest of Scottie Hope, sent me the following story.


When my sister Kathleen and I were in Arkansas once, Uncle Joe told us the story. When my mother Scottie was about a year or two old, Kate was pregnant with her last child. Lattie's mother was having dementia problems and had come to live with the Montgomery household. They were living in Kibler and Lattie was working for a man who was raising horses. Joe drove us out there and located the spot where they lived but a barn off in the distance was all we could see. The field was waist high in tick and chigger laden weeds and Joe had to call Kathleen back from climbing the fence for a hike out there. This was where our mom had been born and Kathleen wanted to go see what she could find. Well, as I said, Scottie had been born while they lived there and now Kate was going to have her 11th child. One day, the grandmother was walking near the fire and fell into it. Kate jumped up and pulled her out, saving her life. Joe told me that the grandmother was not harmed but Janet remembers hearing that she was badly burned. Well, Kate went into labor and delivered a premature little boy named Buchanan. Uncle Joe said they called him a "blue baby" because he wasn't able to breathe correctly due to immature lungs. They made a bed for him out of a box and kept him near the stove to be warm. He only lived two weeks and is buried in the cemetery just outside of VanBuren on Kibler Road. This is the cemetery that is adjacent to where Arnold and Jean Stratton used to live. Uncle Joe said that years ago, Tim Burris went to the cemetery to try and locate the grave of our Uncle Buchanan. Tim was told that it was probably unmarked and that the records were burned a long time ago when the caretaker's building burned to the ground. Jean Stratton and I walked through the graves once and found the area where the dates on the stones would have matched the time, 1922 or so, but we didn't see any evidence of a Montgomery grave marker. The Montgomery clan moved back to Appleton when my mother was in her early teens and started living in the big house. Joe said they moved because the climate in the hills was better than the flatlands of Kibler. A doctor had built and owned the Montgomery house originally and I believe they lived there until Kate and then Lattie died.

Thanks for the story Carol, and if anyone has any additional information, send me an email, or post a comment.

The Old Homestead

Information provided by Bill Burris Sr.
The big house on the hill had a well-water pump on the front porch, used a large wood stove (with big tins filled with sugar cookies and home-made rolls for visiting grandchildren) and had a very long table with wooden benches along both sides in the oblong dining room. During the summer, the front of the house was covered by leaves from vines that grew up strings to the top of the second story. You could sleep out on the upper porch to keep cooler and look out through the leaves while concealed from outside view.
Long before Tom Crapper's commodes made it to Appleton, each of the four bedrooms at Lattie's and Kate's had a concealed “appurtenance.” That was a large white-enameled tin bucket that was used at night by the occupants then had to be dumped and washed out at daybreak. The older kids had that undesirable cleaning chore for years. The real outhouse – a two-room, two-hole facility – was what seemed like a long way down a path to the east and in the garden. It was equipped with the latest of toilet tissues (Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs) and bags of lime (with scoops) to be dumped down the holes to eat away the residue and kill vermin that otherwise would multiply there. Real bathrooms came to the home in a remodeling project after Lattie and Kate had passed on and the house became the home of the young Cumberland Presbyterian preacher and his family.
There are rumors that some of the cousins have “rescued” some “memorabilia” from the old homestead. I don’t know if Lattie and Kate would approved, but I am sure they would be happy to know that their family treasures their heritage.

The Town of Appleton, Arkansas

Story provided by Bill Burris, Sr. Photos provided by Faye Sauerbrun.
If you've never visited Appleton, Arkansas, the hometown of your forefathers L.B. and F.D.E. Montgomery, you haven't missed much – a grocery store with post office, a general store, a gas station, a school, a couple of churches and widely separated homes and ranches (many of which now grow chickens for the big Tyson plant in Russellville, the world's largest producer of packaged frozen Chinese egg rolls). The little town comes to life one weekend each summer with a homecoming at the school and parade down the main street. It was a bigger community in Lattie's and Fernando's days.
Appleton got its name when its first Post Office was established in 1879 in the apple orchard of Reuben Rankin. It was incorporated in 1892 with 29 square blocks and streets named Stone, Pine, Main, Tate, Burris, Buckeye, Cherry, Mill and Kuhn. Only portions of some of the streets still exist. As the town grew after the Civil War, it had four business buildings, a drug store and the Brant Hotel. It was best known for its wheat mill, run by a large steam engine (from a steamboat) that had been hauled from the Arkansas River on a wagon pulled by two yoke of oxen. The same steam engine also powered a grist mill and a cotton gin. People from miles around brought their wheat to be ground at the mill, sometimes camping out several days while waiting for their turn at the mill.
At one time Appleton had two Rural and two Star mail routes being delivered from its Post Office. Two of our distant relatives, Tom Spears and Blaine Spears, were among the mail carriers.

Here are two pictures from Homecoming 2000.  It was the last year that both Aunt Euna and Uncle Joe were able to attend. 

The Story of Lattie and Kate

Lattie Buchanan Montgomery was born July 26, 1877, in Appleton, Arkansas, and was married Nov. 8, 1896, to Katharine (Kate) Louether Rowland, 17-year-old daughter of Josiah and Rebecca Jane Rowland of Appleton.

Lattie and Kate had these children: 

• Lattie Bliss Montgomery
• Beatrice Kathryn Griffin
• Moody Everett Montgomery
• Rowland Fernando Montgomery
• Mary Willie Lee (Bill) Crawford
• Edna Evelyn Burris
• Joseph Dee Montgomery
• Euna May Spears
• Naomi Jack Gilbert
• Scottie Hope Allen
• Buchanan Montgomery

Lattie, like his father, Fernando Dee Montgomery, was a farmer in Appleton. Lattie, in time, also raised cattle and sorghum cane, sent large cans of milk by bus to the Russellville Creamery for use in ice cream, and was noted for hosting periodic auctions of horses and other farm animals in the corral near his big two-story home on the hill in Appleton.

Kate, a true Proverbs 31 woman, raised children and chickens, helped manage a big garden, assisted in making sausage when hogs were slaughtered, helped cure hams in the family smokehouse and kept everyone well fed and well dressed for church on Sunday.

Lattie was a principal in establishment and construction of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Appleton (his name is in a list of founding elders on the cornerstone). A coal-oil (kerosene) lamp provided light for him to read from the Bible almost every evening near a large fireplace used for heating the living room on cold winter evenings. (Electricity for lights, and a radio, arrived in the early 1940s.)

Kate died April 29, 1947, in the family home. Lattie died May 30, 1958. Both are buried in the graveyard adjacent to the church. (Fernando Montgomery also is buried there.)