William F. Montgomery, Editor of the “Sunday Sun”
Photo courtesy of Susan Cucchiarella
During the late 1880’s Will Momtgomery and the Sunday Sun, provided an alternative newspaper voice to that of the more established Semi-Weekly Pioneer. The spirited newspaper rivalry between the Sun and the Pioneer lasted just four years, but was one of the strangest ever recorded.
Will Montgomery was born on August 31, 1857 in Kokomo, Indiana—the eldest of four children born to Seymour and Elizabeth Montgomery. Montgomery’s father was a respected newspaper editor in Mishawaka, Indiana. By age 11, Will had joined his father’s business as a typesetter at the Mishawaka Enterprise.
Life would be forever changed for young Will Montgomery in June of 1872. On the morning of June 17th, Seymour Montgomery kissed his wife and children, and left on a business trip to nearby South Bend, Indiana. He would never return.
Seymour Montgomery’s mysterious disappearance left his wife and three young children destitute. Many feared that the editor had perished in the Studebaker Wagon Factory fire where he had been seen on the evening of the blaze. Others worried that he may have fallen into the hands of robbers. But once the true state of the economic affairs of the Mishawaka Enterprise became known, nearly everyone concluded that Montgomery had fled to avoid financial ruin.
The Montgomery family returned to their former home in Kokomo, Indiana, where 14 year old Will Montgomery was hired by the Howard County Tribune as a typesetter. Montgomery was so small, he had to stand on a high box to reach the upper rack, but the money he earned helped support his mother and younger brothers.
The Montgomery children sustained an even more devastating blow with the death of their mother in February of 1876. Now the family was split apart. Will Montgomery went to live with his uncle, John Sipe in Kokomo. His 8 year old brother Truman was sent to live with an aunt in Michigan while 5 year old Robert was taken in by yet another relative in Illinois.
A year later, word reached Will Montgomery that his father was seen living in LaGrange, Ohio. Young Montgomery went to LaGrange and discovered that his father was indeed very much alive. He went by the name Edwin W. Clark, had illegally remarried and fathered a young child. In addition, he had recently been elected mayor of LaGrange.
Upon his return to Kokomo, Will Montgomery denied that his father was living in the Ohio town. The elder Montgomery sent his son money to ensure his silence, but to no avail. The secret was exposed when someone sent a photograph of Montgomery to a newspaper in LaGrange prompting “Mayor Clark” to skip out of town—never to return. His new family soon followed. Several years would pass before Will Montgomery again had contact with his father.
Mary McCanna Montgomery. Photo courtesy of Susan Cucchiarella.
In 1882, Will Montgomery left the newspaper business and joined a traveling theatre troupe. There he met Mary McCanna, a fellow thespian from the lumbering town of Manistique. The two fell in love and were married on July 2, 1882.
During the summer of 1883, the couple gave up the theatre life and returned to Manistique to make a home and start a family. It was then that Montgomery spied a familiar figure walking on the city’s boardwalks. A few days later he entered the Pioneer office and confronted his runaway father, Wright E. Clarke. The conversation ended with a bargain that benefited both men. Montgomery agreed to keep his father’s true identity a secret. In return, Clarke allowed his son to become part of the Pioneer workforce.
Montgomery was placed in charge of the mechanical department of the newspaper, but he would soon assume an even more important role with the Pioneer. In January of 1884, Clarke experienced severe muscle weakness in his arms and hands. He was diagnosed with lead poisoning, likely caused by an old Civil War wound. Clarke sought treatment for his ailment in Cleveland, Ohio, giving Will Montgomery editorial control of the paper in his absence. Under Montgomery’s leadership, the Pioneer’s campaign against the notorious Dan Heffron and the saloon interests became even more strident and uncompromising. Clarke returned to the paper six weeks later well rested and ready to resume his duties.
Will Montgomery left the Pioneer in October of 1885 to establish a rival newspaper, the Sunday Sun, with the inspiring motto “It shines for all.”
A 1930’s Pioneer Tribune reprint of the July 4, 1886 edition of the Sunday Sun
The Pioneer was an ardently Republican newspaper, while the Sun was registered as an independent weekly. The rival editors were both well-liked and respected. No one suspected that they were father and son. Clarke was a pillar of the community, having been elected to several positions of public trust including the probate judgeship and commissioner of the circuit court. Montgomery, on the other hand, volunteered with the city’s Protection Hook and Ladder Company. He joined several lodges including the Knights of Pythias where he served several terms as Master of Arms. Fellow lodge member Carl Thorborg remembered Will Montgomery as a very colorful individual who always wore two pistols.
Will Montgomery strove diligently to make his paper a success. The Sunday Sun targeted a younger audience than the Pioneer. His paper regularly provided detailed accounts of area weddings and other happenings of interest to young people. He visited lumber camps to report on conditions there. Montgomery remained fearless in his editorials, often taking a more militant position on issues than the more traditional Clarke and the Pioneer.
The Sunday Sun depended on paying subscribers and advertisers to survive. These began to dwindle in the fall of 1889. Montgomery was no longer able to pay his staff or keep up with the mortgage on his newspaper office. The competition with the popular Clarke and the Pioneer came to an end, and the Sunday Sun was forced to close its doors.
Mental and physical exhaustion combined with the stress related to his inability to support his family triggered a psychotic break. Montgomery experienced terrifying visual hallucinations and delusions. At times he imagined that he was horribly maimed with his hands and feet cut off. At other times he believed that his son Theo was dead or that his house was on fire. His most prominent delusion was that he was still running a newspaper, sending and receiving telegrams and telephone messages. At other times he exhibited episodes of violence and had to be physically restrained.
On November 29, 1889, Will Montgomery was committed to the Northern Michigan Asylum for the insane in Traverse City, Michigan. He remained institutionalized for eight weeks before finally regaining his hold on reality. When he returned to Manistique he found his newspaper office sold to cover his many debts.
In 1890, Will Montgomery and his family moved to the Upper Peninsula mining town of Republic, Michigan. There he started another paper; the Republic Sun. Montgomery immediately distinguished his newspaper through his advocacy for separate statehood for the Upper Peninsula. He also bitterly opposed the saloons and bordellos which flourished in the pioneer mining town. The Sun’s editorials were so strident and unflagging that it was feared that the proprietors of these “dens of iniquity” would seek retribution.
Tragedy struck in September of 1891. The editor and his family, including a new baby boy, lived on the upper floor of the newspaper building. A fire, believed caused by the explosion of a lamp in the printing office, quickly spread to the living quarters. Montgomery was critically injured while rescuing his infant son from the flames. He died a few days later but his wife and children survived unharmed.
A short time before his tragic death, Will Montgomery wrote a letter to a friend in Kokomo, Indiana detailing his father’s double life and his own relationship with his father as a rival editor in Manistique. In the letter he explained why he kept his father’s true identity a secret: “Nor would it have been any satisfaction to me to expose him in Manistique when I found him there as editor of the Pioneer, for the wrong that he had done could not be righted, and I would have only called attention to conditions that no mortal could remedy, and probably invoked defense on his part that I could not successfully deny though I might believe it untrue. For this reason I held my peace and expect to do so to the end.” Montgomery left instructions that the secret of Clarke’s true identity be made known only after his father’s death.