Samuel S. Montague

Who was Samuel S. Montague?

Samuel Skerry Montague, son of Richard and Content Montague, was born at Keene, New Hampshire, July 6, 1830. At the age of six his family moved to Rockford, Illinois where he attended school in the winters and the Rockford Classical School. At the age of 22 he started working on the Rock Island and Rockford Railroad in 1852 starting out as a surveyor's assistant. Later he worked on the Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad, then with the Rock Island and Peoria, and finally with the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. All these railroads were bought out by other railroads and only existed for a short period of time.

In the fall of 1859 he went to California over the California Trail. In California Montague met Theodore Judah and worked for him building the Valley Railroad from Folsom, California to Marysville, California. Combined with his previous experience Montague continued to learn his engineering skills by apprenticing with Judah. On February 12, 1862, Montague went to work for Judah now the Chief Engineer on the Central Pacific, helping with the location surveys over the Sierra Nevada.