Shaver, F. A., Arthur P. Rose, R. F. Steele, and A. E. Adams, compilers.  "An
Illustrated History of Central Oregon." ("Embracing Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam,
Wheeler, Crook, Lake, & Klamath Counties")  Spokane, WA: Western Historical
Publishing Co., 1905.  p. 465.
 
CHARLES H. TOM

     a prosperous Sherman county farmer, resides one-half mile from Grant on the
hill. He was born in Stark county, Ohio, February 7, 1855, the son of David A.
and Mary F. (Bartholomew) Tom. The father was a native of Ohio ; his parents of
Ireland. David A. Tom was a member of Company F., in an Ohio Infantry regiment,
in which he served in the Civil war. Two years previous to his enlisxment he was
in the employment of the government, purchasing horses for the use of the army.
On the Ohio canal he ran boats for many years. The mother of our subject was a
native of Pennsylvania, of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.
     Until 1869 our subject lived in Ohio, in Indiana until 1871, and in
Illinois until 1881. Thence he went to Dayton, Washington, remaining a few
months and then he came to Sherman county. He filed on timber culture and
homestead claims, and purchased more land later. Occasionally he worked for the
Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, in all about four years and at other
periods devoting his attention to improving his ranch. This was a noted
rendezvous for stockmen, with good water, etc., and a lake which Mr. Tom has
drained and utilizes for irrigation purposes. He has now about seven hundred
acres, nearly all of which is cultivated.
     October 25, 1877, our subject was married to Mary, C. Montgomery, born in
Menard county, where the marriage ceremony was performed. Her father, William
Montgomery, a native of Illinois, was born in the same house in which his
daughter, Mrs. Tom, first saw the light. His parents, Thomas Jefferson and Sarah
(Stone) Montgomery, were born in Kentucky, in 1805, and in Owensville, Indiana,
in 1812, respectively, so and went to Illinois in 1849. William Montgomery was a
second cousin of President Jefferson Davis, of the Southern Confederacy. Three
of William's brothers fought in the Civil war. Ritchey, the eldest, was born in
Gibson county, Indiana, in 1831, and in 1862 enlisted in the Seventy-third
Illinois Infantry. Samuel, born in Indiana, in 1839, enlisted in Company A,
Tenth Illinois Cavalry, in 1861. James, still living in Atlanta, Logan county,
Illinois, was born in Indiana, in 1837, and enlisted in Company G, Thirty-eighth
Illinois Infantry. These brothers were in the union army. William endeavored to
enlist but failed to pass the necessary examination. He was born in Gibson
county, Indiana, in 1833, and died in 1880.
     Our subject has three brothers and three sisters: Anson S., of Grant, in
the service of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company ; Homer, in Indiana; S.
Fremont, a farmer living with his mother in Indiana; Mary, wife of John Smith, a
capitalist in Cadillac, Michigan Emma, wife of Henry Hurd, a farmer near Friend,
Nebraska ; and Ella, single and at home in Indiana. Mrs. Tom has six brothers
and one sister  living : James R., of Menard county, Illinois ; Samuel D., of
Oklahoma ; Charles L., of Moro, Sherman county; Harvey E., foreman in a
newspaper office in Clinton, Illinois ; Homer, of Weldon, Illinois ; J. Henry, a
printer near Weldon, Illinois ; Ellen, wife of Charles Parkhurst, a preacher in
Oklahoma, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Thomas J., aged four, died, at
the home place in Menard county, Illinois ; M. Jane, wife of Rev. Willis
Patchen, died in Illinois, aged twenty-one.
     Mr. and Mrs. Tom have four children; Edith, wife of Charles Haggard, a
merchant in Rufus ; Curtis A., at home ; Sarah E., aged seventeen ; Leah, aged
eleven, at home. The fraternal affiliations of Mr. Tom are with Cascade Lodge,
No. 303, B. P. O. E., of The Dalles, and the A. O. U. W., of Moro. He is a
progressive citizen, broad-minded and liberal, and one who has won a host of
friends in the community in which he resides.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in August 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.