Most of the farm children help out on the farm or at the dairy, while growing up. As in many small rural areas, when children graduated from high school, they wanted to leave and to go to the “big city,” either to continue their education, get jobs, or join the military. Robert John Montgomery was born into a multi-generation farming family. His great-great grandfather, Harrison Montgomery, arrived in Homewood on a bareback horse with only a few Confederate coins in his pocket and a will to work. He went to work wrangling horses for the Army. His wage was small, but he worked hard and saved his money. Robert John Montgomery’s father, Michael, was born and raised on the same Homewood, Iowa ranch on which they now live and hadn’t traveled far from Iowa, until he met Natalie. Born into a Swedish family, her family traveled quite often. Her children say that they got their dad’s sense of roots and their mother’s gypsy feet. Mike and Nat met when Mike was stationed in Missouri while in the Army.
