Born near Tip Top, Kentucky, Montgomery attended the common and private schools.

He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War (Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses).

He served as member of the Dawes Indian Commission, appointed under an act of Congress to negotiate with the Five Civilized Tribes from 1895 to 1898.

He resumed the practice of law at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where he died December 27, 1910.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress