Farmer William Thornton Montgomery had more land than any other African American in Dakota Territory. From about 1881-1900, he owned 1,020 acres two miles north of Christine, ND (about 20 miles south of Fargo) plus more land in Cass County and Manitoba. Local newspapers describe him as “a most worthy man,” and “the greatest Colored farmer of the Northwest.” 
 
W. T. Montgomery had a fascinating life. He was well educated (against the law) as an enslaved child. He served in the US Navy in the Civil War. His family bought the plantation where they were once enslaved, and for a time they were among the wealthiest merchant-planters in Mississippi. William’s appointments as a postmaster and a constable in 1867 make him likely the first African American to hold public office in Mississippi. He moved to Dakota Territory in 1881 because he was pessimistic about the prospects of African Americans receiving fair treatment in the South.  

William Thornton Montgomery spent most of his fascinating life in Utopian Communities. 

Robert Owen’s Worker’s Utopia
Robert Owen was a wealthy British factory owner who became an early philosopher of Utopian Socialism. He turned his bleak Scottish Industrial Revolution textile factory into a utopia for his workers. He shortened the work day to 10 hours and gave them health care, sick pay, and health insurance. He abolished child labor and put the children in school instead. In the 1820s he went to America to spread his philosophical ideas and set up new utopian communities. All of his utopias failed, but his ideas aged well.   

Joseph Davis’ Utopian Plantation
In 1825, Joseph Davis met Robert Owen and tried to adapt his utopian ideas to the Mississippi plantation system. The 345 men, women and children on his unique plantation in 1860 had better living conditions than most enslaved people in the South, but they were still enslaved. They had better food and clothing rations, larger homes, and overseers could not punish anyone unless they were convicted by their peers in the Hall of Justice. People were encouraged to learn skilled trades to make extra money and to learn to read and write, which was illegal in the South. This is where W.T. Montgomery grew up. 
 
Jefferson Davis & the Civil War
Joseph Davis’ land also included the plantation of his younger brother Jefferson Davis. When the Civil War broke out, Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederate States of America. The Davis “utopia” ended when the US Navy arrived in 1862 and all the enslaved “members” chose freedom. Several men including W.T. Montgomery joined the US military to fight the Confederacy. For the rest of the war, the US government took pleasure in using Jefferson Davis’ plantation as a place for the Freedmen’s Bureau to experiment with ways of easing formerly enslaved people into freedom and a market economy.    
 
The Association of Montgomery & Sons 
Benjamin Montgomery, William’s father, was the enslaved operator of the Davis plantations. He was highly educated against Mississippi laws, a mechanical and business genius, and charismatic. Before the war, a general store he opened on the plantation made him wealthy. As a freed man at the end of the war, he purchased the plantation from Joseph Davis. Montgomery shared Davis’ utopian philosophy, and he created a community of free African American sharecroppers he called the Association. For a time, the Montgomerys were among the wealthiest merchant-planters in the South, but the community was eventually undone by a combination of local natural disasters, the crash of the cotton industry, and a white court awarding Jefferson Davis much of the land under questionable reasoning. The demise of the Montgomery & Sons Association convinced W.T. Montgomery to move to Dakota Territory in 1881.   
 
Isaiah Montgomery’s Mound Bayou
W.T. Montgomery liked Dakota Territory and tried to convince his family and other former members of the Association to move here. His younger brother Isaiah, however, decided to start a new utopian community of African American landowners and businesses in Mississippi called Mound Bayou. In the last decade of his life, W.T. Montgomery decided to join the colony, working as a director of the Bank of Mound Bayou and co-founder of the Mound Bayou Loan and Investment Co. 

(Text from Stories of Local Black History an HCSCC produced exhibit) 

We are excited to announce a series of spring History Harvests in the communities of Barnesville, Hawley, Ulen, and Moorhead. The HCSCC is hoping to interview people about built places in Clay County that have meaning to them. Anyone who has a story or a memory is invited to stop in and share, first-come, first-served. These buildings can still be standing or may be long gone. The interviews will be recorded and stored in the Clay County Archives. The stories about the places that result from the interviews will be shared with the public through the North Star Story Map (see https://northstarstorymap.org/).

North Star Story Map is a collaboration between the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Minnesota, Mill City Museum, and the Minnesota Historical Society. This collaboration is made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on Nov 4, 2008.
 
The scheduled gatherings include:
Tues. March 4, 1-4pm at the Barnesville Public Library, 104 Front Street N.
Wed. March 19, 1-4pm at the Garrick Theatre in Hawley, 509 Front Street.
Wed. April 2, 1-4pm Ulen Senior Center, 60 Front Street E.
Wed. April 23, 1-4pm Moorhead Public Library, 118 5th St. S.
 
Light refreshments will be served. Please feel free to bring along photographs and historical objects or items pertaining to Clay County history to be photographed. For more information email [email protected] or call Maureen at 218-299-5511, Ext 6732.