Montgomery, Louisiana

1950s political tale

In the 1950s, Montgomery was known as one of the smaller communities in the state which could draw considerable crowds to political gatherings. William J. "Bill" Dodd, veteran Louisiana politician, in his memoirs Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics, recalls a 1955 gathering in which he "eulogized" Huey Long, Earl Long, and attorney general candidate Jack P.F. Gremillion. Dodd satirized Gremillion's World War II record: "Why he almost got killed himself when an enemy shell plowed into one of his most vital organs; if you don't believe Jack Gremillion earned his Purple Heart, he will show you the scars he has to prove it." The scars were on Gremillion's rear end, much to the embarrassment of the successful candidate. From Montgomery, the Long train headed to the parish seat of Colfax.

Geography

Montgomery is located at 31°39′58″N 92°53′12″W (31.666001, -92.886539) and has an elevation of 154 feet (46.9 m).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.1 square miles (5.4 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 787 people, 332 households, and 210 families residing in the town. The population density was 379.0 people per square mile (146.1/km²). There were 395 housing units at an average density of 190.2 per square mile (73.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 77.00% White, 20.33% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.13% from other races, and 2.29% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.38% of the population.

There were 332 households out of which 28.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.9% were married couples living together, 14.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.7% were non-families. Nearly 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37, and the average family size was 3.03.

In the town, the population was spread out with 26.9% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 25.2% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 18.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $18,462, and the median income for a family was $23,558. Males had a median income of $28,125 versus $17,083 for females. The per capita income for the town was $11,533. About 34.0% of families and 39.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 49.8% of those under age 18 and 32.3% of those age 65 or over.

Community life

Montgomery-area churches include First Baptist, Northside Baptist, and Hargis Baptist, all Southern Baptist in affiliation, Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Mount Vernon Baptist Church, St. Luke A.M.E. ( African Methodist Episcopal) Church, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, a United Methodist Church, and a Pentecostal congregation. Northside was located on the main highway during the 1990s. The new church building burned and was rebuilt on the same site at 330 Bienville Street. Hargis Church is located in the Hargis community east of Montgomery.

The Reverend Kevin Billiot is both the pastor of Northside Church and the part-time police chief in Montgomery, for which he earns $20,000 a year. Police officers make $7.50 an hour. "When I arrived here as police chief in April (2011), we didn't have uniforms. We didn't even have badges. We had two badges we shared among ourselves" and wore polo shirts with embroidered badges, Billiot explained."

Current Montgomery Mayor Vera "Susie" Waters, who is paid $265 per month, but also works as office manager for two pharmacies, said that small-town finances "aren't in good shape right now. Any kind of equipment we purchase, we rely strictly on grants. When we can get a donation of equipment it's just a wonderful thing."

Silman shooting spree

On Sunday afternoon, September 9, 1990, the Montgomery machinist and welder Thomas Wilson Silman (born c. 1949), an unmarried loner, went on a rampage and murdered four relatives: his father World War II veteran Thomas Henry Silman (1910-1990), sister Carolyn Silman Lewis (1957-1990), brother-in-law James Daniel "Danny" Lewis, Jr. of Robeline in Natchitoches Parish (1949-1990), a veteran of the Vietnam War, and uncle and storekeeper Conley Kermit Allen (1923-1990). He also wounded Montgomery police officer and fire chief Dan Fletcher and Grant Parish deputy sheriff John Rollins, who arrived at the scene of the shooting outside the Silman residence at Carrie and Jordan streets in Montgomery, and slightly impaired a neighboring townswoman, Frances Elaine Dalme (1920-2000), a native of Meridian, Mississippi. All of the shootings occurred in a few minutes. According to then Grant Parish Sheriff Leonard R. "Pop" Hataway, the Lewises were coming to the Silman residence for the senior Silman's birthday gathering. He would have turned eighty the following Monday. The younger Silman was angry that his sister had recently married Lewis, who was her first cousin and was dark complexioned but not African American as Silman had frequently claimed.

Thirty lawmen appeared to capture Silman, including deputies Rollins, Jody R. Bullock, and Bob Sanders. Bullock and Sanders dragged Fletcher's body into a patrol car to carry him to assistance via helicopter to Alexandria, where he was treated at Rapides General Hospital. Silman claimed to have killed his father by accident and then snapped into a fit of insanity when he murdered the three other kinsmen. He retained the Alexandria attorney James Michael "Mike" Small after he was declared capable of paying his own legal fees. Silman underwent examination by a court-appointed sanity commission which declared him competent for trial. The trial judge found Silman not guilty for the killing of his father, who had tried to disarm his son, but concluded that the defendant was guilty as charged with the first-degree murder of his sister, brother-in-law, and uncle. He was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences at hard labor, without the possibility of probation, parole, or suspended sentence. The sentence was thrown out by the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Third Circuit in Lake Charles but reinstated in 1995 by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Silman's employer for fifteen years, Mickey Frazier of Winnfield, said that Silman never missed work and was "very congenial. He didn't have much to say. But he did talk. He was current on world affairs and never talked about family stuff. I didn't even know his sister was marrying." The defendant did not shoot his mother, Claudie Lewis Silman (1926-2003). The parents, sister, and uncle are interred at Union Grove Cemetery in Montgomery. James Lewis is interred not by his wife but at Memory Lawn Cemetery in Natchitoches.

Notable people