Earl Montgomery from 1920 The Granite (UNH yearbook)
Earl Roger aka E. Roger Montgomery was born 21 April 1894 in Hopkinton NH, son of Jerome & Eliza J. “Liza” (Dunbar) Montgomery. He had one sibling, William L. Montgomery. Earl Roger Montgomery grew up in the Contoocook section of Hopkinton and graduated from Hopkinton High School in 1910.
He was known as “Monty” when he attended New Hampshire College (now the University of New Hampshire). Earl was in the Class of 1914 receiving a degree in Arts & Science. According to his obituary, later he later took a special course in banking and commerce at the University of Pennsylvania.
South view of Contoocook Covered Bridge spanning the Contoocook River, Hopkinton, NH; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington DC
In May of 1917 he joined the regular army and was placed in the Medical Department. The Boston Sunday Globe of June 23, 1918 states: “CONTOOCOOK NH June 22-The first young man from Hopkinton to give his life for his country was Earl Roger Montgomery, who was killed at North Charleston, S.C. by a dynamite explosion at an army camp. . .about three weeks ago he was sent to a new camp at North Charleston, where he had charge of making the site sanitary.”
His remains were returned to his native town, where he was buried with honors in his family’s plot in the Contoocook Village Cemetery. His name can be found below his parent’s names on the stone: “CORPL. EARL ROGER MONTGOMERY, VOL. U.S. ARMY, KILLED June 18, 1918. AE. 24 YRS.
The American Legion Post in Contoocook, the E. Roger Montgomery Post 81, is named after him. Earl Roger Montgomery’s name can be found inscribed upon the memorial tablets in Doric Hall of the New Hampshire State House, Concord. There is a WW1 monument in Hopkinton, New Hampshire at Hopkinton Road and Main Street, and Earl R. Montgomery’s name is also inscribed there.
[Editor’s Note: this story is part of an on-going series about heroic New Hampshire men and women of World War I. Look here for the entire listing].
For more information on Hopkinton New Hampshire during WWI, visit the Hopkinton Historical Society web site, or their Facebook page.
Wonderful series! Thank you for honoring our New Hampshire veterans.
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So he was killed on US soil in an explosion—how terrible. I wonder if he’d ever gotten overseas.
I don’t find any evidence to show he went overseas. There was a great deal of homeland recruitment and training going on, and influenza was killing as many men here as in Europe, so health workers were greatly needed here too. We generally only hear about the men killed in action, and yet every one who lost their lives is a hero.
Absolutely. So sad.
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