History of Paxtang, (Dauphin County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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Joseph Montgomery, delegate, was born in Paxtang, Dauphin county, Pa., Sept. 23, 1733; son of John and Martha Montgomery, who emigrated from the north of Ireland prior to 1730. He was graduated at the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1755, A.M., 1758, and was principal of the grammar-school connected with the college, 1755-60. He was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Philadelphia, in 1759, and was ordained by the presbytery of Lewes, in 1761. He held several pastorates in Pennsylvania, 1761-69, and was minister in charge of the churches at New Castle and Christiana Bridge, Del., 1769-77. He was chaplain of Col. W. Smallwood's Maryland regiment in 1777, a delegate to the general assembly of Pennsylvania, 1780-81, and was chosen by that body in 1783 to be one of the commissioners to settle the difficulty between the state and the Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming valley, serving 1783-87. He was a delegate to the Continental congress from Pennsylvania, 1780-84; recorder of deeds and register of wills for Dauphin county, 1785-94; one of the original land-owners of the city of Harrisburg and justice of the court of common pleas for Dauphin county, 1785-94. He was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew Reed of Newton, and sister of President Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania. She died at Georgestown, Md., March, 1769, and he married secondly Rachel (Rush) Boyce, widow of Angus Boyce, born 1742, died at Harrisburg, July 28, 1796. See "Life of Joseph Montgomery" by John M. Forster (1879). He received the honorary degree A.M. from Yale and from the University of Pennsylvania in 1760. He died in Harrisburg, Pa., Oct. 14, 1794.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Paxtang, (Dauphin County) Pennsylvania

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