Emily Montgomery was now sole heir to Sagefield Cotton, a large portion of the Haw Creek Railroad, partial interest in a dozen small general stores, all sizable holdings and all within a 20 mile radius of Bellemont. She had grown up in the shadow of the mill and the mill’s owner and manager, her father. Her brothers were younger and expected to take over someday; she was to be a wife and just enjoy the financial security, but never have to “work the mill.”
That changed rapidly with the deaths of her mother and brothers and then her father all within two years. Her husband left a budding career at Farmer’s Bank to join her in the running of Sagefield Cotton and together with their infant Benjamin felt like pioneers, ready to be a part of all the frontiers the world offered in the early years of the 20th century. That too ended when her husband died in the world wide influenza epidemic in 1918.
When she returned home from the funeral, she sat on Bellemont's huge front porch holding five year old Benjamin, listening to the soft ripple of Haw Creek, easily audible because of the silence of the mill next door, closed in honor of her husband. She thought the sound of the creek falling over the rocks, in the ravine was probably the same her Grandfather Connor heard over half a century earlier. As she listened she made two decisions: she would reclaim her maiden name, Montgomery, for herself and Benjamin; and she would make Sagefield Cotton into an even more prosperous enterprise for Benjamin to inherit so he would never have to want nor ever want to leave her or Bellemont.
(The mill pictured is similar to the look of Sagefield Cotton at the start of the 20th century.)