William Allen Montgomery

William Allen Montgomery was born on November 16, 1829 in Jefferson County, Tennessee.[1][2] His father was William H. Montgomery and his mother, Sarah Jarnagin.[1] His paternal grandfather, William Montgomery, was of English descent while his paternal grandmother was of Irish descent.[1] His maternal grandfather, Chesley Jarnagin, was of Welsh descent while his maternal grandmother, the daughter of Baptist minister Isaac Barton, was of Huguenot and Dutch descent.[1]

Montgomery was baptized in 1843.[1] He went to the University of Tennessee in 1845, graduating in 1850.[1] After serving as a legal aide to E. Alexander, a judge on the Knoxville Circuit Court, Montgomery was admitted to the bar in 1851.[1][2] Later, Montgomery received a Doctor in Divinity from Carson–Newman University in 1870,[3] and a Legum Doctor from the University of Tennessee in 1876.[1]

Montgomery became a cotton planter in Texas in 1855.[1] In 1861, at the outset of the American Civil War, Montgomery voted in favor of secession, representing Washington County, Texas.[1] By 1962, he became a Baptist chaplain in the Confederate States Army.[1][2] At the end of the war, he had lost his wealth, but he was able to return to his life as a planter by working on his father-in-law's plantations in Tennessee.[1]

Montgomery was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1868.[2] He was a Baptist minister in Leadvale and Dandridge from 1868 to 1872.[1] He then served as minister in Lynchburg, Virginia from 1872 to 1878.[1] Subsequently, he was a minister in Memphis, Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Greensboro, Georgia, Thomaston, Georgia, Rogersville, Tennessee, Hot Springs, North Carolina, and Jefferson City, Tennessee.[1] At the same time, Montgomery was an evangelist in West Tennessee and Mississippi.[1] Over the course of his service, at least 1,000 people were baptized in the Baptist Church.[1]

Montgomery served as corresponding secretary of the board of missions of the Tennessee Baptist Convention from 1877 to 1880.[2][4] He subsequently served as the President of the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 1881.[2]

Montgomery served as the President of Carson–Newman University from 1888 to 1892.[1][2][3] During his tenure, he oversaw the unification of Carson College, an all-male college, with Newman College, a women's college, in 1889.[1][2][3] Meanwhile, the Administration Building, where classes were taught, was completed in 1892.[1][3] (The building burnt down in the 1910s.[1]) At the same time, Montgomery was also Professor of Metaphysics and Theology.[2]

Montgomery served as the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia from 1897 to 1903.[2] At the same time, he served as the President of the Pastors' Conference in Atlanta, Georgia from 1897 to 1903.[2]

Montgomery was associate editor of the Tennessee Baptist with Dr. J. R. Graves.[1][3] He was subsequently associate editor of the Religious Herald with Drs Jeter and Dickinson.[1][3] He was also a correspondent for the Baptist and Reflector, another Baptist publication.[1][3]

Montgomery married Catherine Smith Franklin, the daughter of Lawson D. Franklin,[1] a large planter who became Tennessee's first millionaire. The wedding took place on May 9, 1854.[1] They had four sons and three daughters.[1]

Montgomery died on December 16, 1905.[2]