LaTOURETTE-Montgomery - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Montgomery LaTourette, who operates a farm of 154 acres in Locust Grove Twp, is one of the more recent acquisitions among the residents of Jefferson County having lived here little more than half a dozen years. He is descended from an old Hugeunot family and traced his lineage back to the Count and Countess de LaTourette who lived in splendor in an old chateau in La Vendee at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Names. The county learning that his name was on the list of the proscribed ones and that it would fare sorely with him if he attempted to escape was forced to use more ingenuity to devise a plan whereby he might secure his safety. Accordingly he invited all the neighboring gentry to a levee at his chateau and when the gayety was at its height he and the countess made their escape, under cover of the night, going on foot to the sea where a vessel bound for Charleston lay at anchor. On this they embarked, taking with them only the family jewels and a Huguenot Bible and in 1693 landed in Staten Island, NY. Montgomery LaTourette was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana November 15, 1846. The grandfather, John LaTourette, a weaver by occupation was a native of NY state where he lived until middle life when he came west and settled in Ohio and later Indiana. His death occurred near Covington, Fountain County, Indiana. The grandfather, Garrett LaTourette was a native of Germantown, Ohio where he was reared and when grown to manhood became a steam engineer. He was united in marriage to Margaret Ann Sherry, who was of Irish descent and was born in Indiana. They were the parents of 3 children: Montgomery, subject of this biography; Henry, a carpenter in Benton Co Iowa; and Sarah, deceased who was the wife of John Heath. In 1851 the father, Garrett LaTourette, died near Lafayette, Indiana and 3 years later in 1854, his widow and the children came with relatives to Iowa, making their home in Benton County. There Mrs. LaTourette entered upon a second marriage the union being with William Cline, a farmer by whom s he had one child, Albert who is engaged in agriculture at Guthrie, Oklahoma. Montgomery LaTourette attended school in Benton County Iowa and afterwards assisted with the work of tilling the fields on the home place. He then bought a farm adjoining his mother's and developed this devoting himself especially to the raising of grain which he shipped in large quantities to the local market. In 1895 he sold out this farm and bought another in Van Buren County, Iowa which he operated until 1902, situated east of Birmingham. He then removed his family to Jefferson Co Iowa and established his home on the old Daniel Warner farm in Center Township, remaining there until March 1, 1911, when he bought the tract of land on which he lives at the present time, 154 acres in Locust Grove Twp. Here he is engaged in the various lines of general farming and also raises a good grade of stock, feeding grain and hay which he raises. the farm includes 15 acres of timber land of considerable value. For his helpmate Mr. LaTourette chose Sarah E. Carver to whom he married on June 12, 1879. On her mother's side she was descended from an old colonial family, the great grandmother having been a native of Virginia where the Deans were of much important in the early part of the 19th century. They were planters and very large property owners employing many slaves on their land, freeing them, however, long before the Civil War broke out. The grandfather of Mrs. LaTourette, James Carver was born in America of English parents and came from PA to Franklin County, OH where he was engaged in tilling soil. Her father, Thomas Carver was a farmer born in Franklin Co Ohio who came to Iowa as one of the pioneer settlers of Linn County. He enlisted in Co I, 20th Iowa Volunteer Infantry and served two years when he was taken ill with typhoid fever and passed away in the Spring of 1864 at New Orleans. Mrs. LaTourette's mother was Elizabeth A. Dean before marriage. A native of Ohio she was married in Linn County, Iowa and now lives with her granddaughter, Leta Carver in Benton County, Iowa. There were 4 children in the Carver family; Sarah, Mrs. LaTourette; John Franklin who die din infancy; Tabitha Jane, wife of EH Skinner of Birmingham, Iowa whom she married when a widow a former marriage having taken place with George Reynolds of Wapello County who die din 1904; and Thomas A, an editor at Conception Junction, Missouri whose present wife is a Mrs. Hodgen, his former wife who was Ella Dixon, having died 24 years ago. Mr. and Mrs. LaTourette are the parents of 4 children: Schuyler, a farmer at Canby, Oregon who is married to Lena Erickson, a daughter of Charles Erickson and has one child, Dwight; Clifford C, who lives at home with his parents; Fred who is a farmer in ND; and Mary a pupil in Fairfield HS. Mr. LaTourette and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Fairfield, and he is connected with the Masonic order having joined the Benton City Lodge, No. 181, AF & AM at Shellsburg while his daughter Mary belongs to the Rebecca Lodge, Batavia. In politics his sympathies are with the Democratic party and the principles for which is stands, but at elections, he is not fettered by blind partisanship, preferring to exercise his own judgment in regards to the candidate whom he chooses to support with his vote. Large in his views and unopinionated, Mr. LaTourette stands for the type of citizenship of which our body politics is in crying need - the openminded man who can think for himself and has the moral stamina to abide by his convictions.