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Historian tells story of Oak Hill Cemetery

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Photo by Matthew Wisniewski

Maurice "Monty" Montgomery, Janesville historian, has just written a book about Oakhill Cemetery.

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Maurice J. Montgomery

JANESVILLE — Clocks of all shapes and sizes tick and chime in Maurice “Monty” Montgomery’s home.

Every few minutes, the deep gong of a grandfather clock or the high-pitched call of a cuckoo clock remind that time has passed.

From clocks to cemeteries, Montgomery’s study and passion center on the passage of time. His latest work, “Memory Walks in Oak Hill Cemetery” focuses on the history of Janesville told through one of its oldest cemeteries.

It’s actually the second book about the cemetery for Montgomery, who could be called Janesville’s unofficial historian. The first is a history of the Oak Hill Cemetery Association, and the latest was written as a favor to the association.

Not that Montgomery, 73, didn’t enjoy the work. True, it got tiring spending five or six hours a day for a year and a half tracing family histories and studying forgotten plots, he said. But Montgomery loves learning the history of Janesville’s earliest residents.

“The cemetery, in one real sense of the word, holds our past,” he said. “The people who made Janesville what it is are buried up there, and retelling their stories seems to connect us with that past.”

Montgomery, former librarian and curator for the Rock County Historical Society, included profiles of 75 people buried in the cemetery. He enjoyed learning how business and industry sprung up in Janesville and about family connections, he said.

As part of his research, he tracked down the story of a member of the Ruger family. The man was born in Janesville but moved out West, becoming a prominent military doctor known for his good relations with American Indians.

“I just found that fascinating,” he said. “Here was a man that we really do not know a great deal about but had an influence on a community miles and miles away from us.”

The book offers nine walking tours of the cemetery, complete with biographies, maps and photographs.

Cemetery tours became popular in the 1960s, Montgomery said.

Before that, families used to visit cemeteries a few times a year to take care of family plots. They’d make picnic lunches and spend the day in the cemetery.

“Now we depend on the caretakers at the cemetery to do all those things and become distraught if they don’t get them done by Memorial Day,” Montgomery said.

That becomes a problem for cemetery associations, which sometimes struggle to afford upkeep.

Montgomery is donating all the proceeds for his book to the Oak Hill Cemetery Association. He said he doesn’t know the long-term solution to cemeteries’ financial troubles, but he hopes people continue to study and appreciate them.

“Most people have buried somewhere in the back of their mind a sense that they want to know where they came from, what the significance of their community is, where they stand,” he said.

TO BUY A BOOK

“Memory Walks in Oak Hill Cemetery” is available for $20 from the Oak Hill Cemetery office, 1725 N. Washington St., Janesville, or by calling Dale Henning, (608) 754-9058.

Cemetery office hours are 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.