Legacy of Hope

Trusted with an Assignment

My father, Melvin Montgomery, and his sister, my Aunt Rita Jo (Montgomery) Kendrick, had a common interest of researching names of family ancestors in Missouri and Kentucky. I recall stories of covered wagons and pioneer tales when I was a child. However, I confess, I did not appreciate them then as I do now.

One spring day recently, I sat at the kitchen table with my parents and older brother, Paul. The conversation turned to family history.

This time I listened intently. After going down to the basement, Dad produced pages of records, letters and photos neatly kept in a crowded envelope. He tossed them into the middle of the table and said “Here.” My brother gently slid the records to my side of the table as if to say “You know what to do”.

Paul knew I had dabbled in writing. What he did not know was that I had prayed for a topic, something new of which to write. In fact, this prayer request had been that very morning. As I do not believe there is such a thing as a coincidence, I took this assignment very seriously.

When I looked at the dates of the records I held in my hand, I was stunned. The earliest dates stretched back into the 1600s; I was certain this was the answer to my prayerful request. But I wanted to write more than a mere listing of names reaching back into time. I wanted to resurrect a tribute to the triumph of the human spirit when blessed by Almighty God.

Thomas Hagan was the first immigrant family member of my paternal grandfather, Richard Hagan. He arrived in St. Mary’s, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay in 1662. The settlement was well established by that time as an abundant-producing colony of tobacco farmers.

My great grandfather Richard was the sixth generation of this family. He died before I was born, but I remember my Great Grandma “Carrie” Belle Hagan. I recall a beaming picture of her surrounded by more great grandchildren than the camera could completely capture.

The family had been Irish Catholics for generations, farmers who had first grown tobacco in the rich Maryland soil; corn in Kentucky soil; and corn, wheat, oats, and soybeans in Missouri soil. Prosperity was something fought for; nothing had come easily.

Thomas Hagan had survived his indentured servitude for fifty acres of precious Maryland soil. He lived to the ripe age of “seventy odd years” at a time when the life expectancy was much less. He left over 1500 acres at the time of his passing to his wife and nine children.

A little research online taught me that St. Mary’s, Maryland is an active archeological site. Historic St. Mary’s City had been “found” after it disappeared three centuries ago. So, I cleared my schedule for the fall. I planned a two week journey to rediscover the route my branch of the Hagan family had travelled. From Maryland to Missouri, it was a search for freedom from persecution, a desire to worship openly, and the hope of a better life.