Henry Lee Montgomery, Dr.
Birth – 26 Sep 1866, Mississippi
Death – 17 May 1952, Yell, Arkansas

While talking to another online researcher about my Crawley family line (Rick Lawrence), he shared with me some memories from him and his mother about Dr. Lee, who was the area doctor. I enjoyed hearing about them, and he granted me permission to share them on my blog.

Memories of Dr. Lee Montgomery

My mom, who is 74 this month (Sept 2002), recalls that Dr. Tom Montgomery lived in Bluffton, while his brother Dr. Lee lived in Gravelly. Dr. Lee was their family doctor…

She [told] me that my father had the back of his head split open in a sawmill accident in the late 1940′s and that Dr. Lee sewed him up. She said my dad used to imitate Dr. Lee perfectly. If you owed him $3.00 and handed him a five, he would say, “Now son, that should just about cover it” and keep the change.

I thought this morning about Dr. Lee’s house…it’s on the road to the Mulberry area from Gravelly….

Dr. Lee was of course the doctor for that area of the valley. He was treating my mother’s older brother for measles and was getting better when he suddenly got sicker and complained his side was hurting. Dr. Lee was sent for but before he could get there he died. A knot was discovered on his side just before he died so he probably had a ruptured appendix along with his measles. This would have been in the early 1930′s. Mom also told me this morning that Dr. Lee’s wife was a slight or petite woman and suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis. She and another woman, a cousin of mine named Tommy Rhoades had that real bad back then. Anyway, Dr. Lee had a housekeeper who helped care for his wife and of course the general housekeeping chores. She doesn’t remember if the woman lived there or not nor can she remember her name. I asked if she was black or white and of course she was white. For your edification, there were no blacks living in that area of the valley back then as the citizenry would run them off (or worse). Apparently, after the Civil War, what few slaves were in the area did not stay around and went to Little Rock or elsewhere. My uncle lives over in Rover and there is a spot on his family land that is believed to have been the site of a couple of slave graves.

My mom’s brother, Weldon Charles “Uncle Dick ” Parker, remembered that Dr. Lee use to park his car in the driveway of Bill Byrd’s Garage in Gravelly, much to Bill’s chagrin. One day, several of the boys including my uncle, rigged up a smoke bombed on the car. When Dr. Lee got in it, it exploded and of course smoked like he had blown up the engine. Uncle Dick said he was real mad when he found out what the boys had done…and he never parked his car there again.

Mom remembered that her family called Dr. Tom “Uncle Tom” whenever they saw him. Mom always assumed that he must have been an uncle to her mother. Actually, he would have been a cousin by marriage only.

My Uncle Dick Parker, one of the culprits involved in putting the smoke/cherry bombs on Dr. Lee’s car (which, by the way, was a 1940 Plymouth) reminded my mom that Dr. Lee usually prescribed the same medicine for almost everything (that was minor of course). It was some type of cherry red liquid – who knows what – that he would put into a water glass and have you fill up 3/4′s of the way with water and then take a drink every so often. If your throat got dry or your face turned red, then you would wait a little longer before you used it again. Another Uncle Dick, Uncle Dick Jones (he wasn’t actually my uncle…just everyone called him that – he was actually my Uncle Walter Jones’ older brother) accidentally drank the whole concoction one time. He said his throat never did get dry nor did his face turn red so he figured the medicine wasn’t any good and would never you use it again.

My Uncle Dick, also remembered what I had told you earlier about how if he told you that you owed him a couple dollars and you said that all you had was a $5 he would say, “Why, why that ought to just about cover it”. Uncle Dick said Dr. Lee used the term “Why, why” a lot, like someone who would use “You know” or By Gad”, etc. “Why, why” was his “by” word or phrase. He also was not very tall and was a little portly.