Possible Photo of Montgomery Home

unknown-houseI recently posted a story about this mystery photo. It was included in a packet of photos of various people and locations related to the Rigg and Farley clans in the Kanawha Falls area.

In going back through some old correspondence with a Farley cousin, I am reminded that this may well be the remains of the house built by Nancy Keeney Montgomery and her husband Henry Montgomery. This quote comes from Jean Parcell Rogan, asking me if I had a photo as described here. (Jean is the granddaughter of William Sutton Farley (known as “Sutton”), who was brother to my great-great-grandfather Frederick Lee Farley.)

…she (Audrey, my grandmother) also had a small picture of an old log house that the day it was dismantled it fell down. We were both certain it was Henry and Nancy Keeney Montgomery’s house at Kanawha Falls and where most of their children were born.

I then sent Jean a link to a photo that sounded like it might fit the bill, and she responded:

I felt it was very strongly in the running. Chuck and I made a trip to K. Falls after that and I looked over the terrain behind the Osenton house where the the Montgomery house originally stood and I believe it is the same location. The way the land slopes and the look ….I feel sure it is. I had always heard that someone took a picture of it, also that it was used for slaves at one time.

This looks more like a frame house than a log house, but Jean was recalling the photo from many years before at the time. And, in thinking more about the theory of fire as posted earlier (based on the front yard area), the exterior doesn’t appear necessarily burned. The front yard growth could be new growth after a period of the property being abandoned.

Nothing definitive, but maybe we are on the right path and someone else who has some information will stumble across this and shed some light on the mystery photo.