Frances Trego Montgomery | |
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Born | July 18, 1858 ![]() Philadelphia ![]() |
Died | April 5, 1925 ![]() |
Occupation | Writer ![]() |
Frances Trego Montgomery (July 18, 1858 – April 5, 1925) was an American children's book writer best known for her series of books about the goat Billy Whiskers.
Frances Trego Montgomery was born on July 18, 1858 in Philadelphia.[1]
Starting in 1902, Montgomery published a series of children's books starring the goat Billy Whiskers, who had mischievous adventures all over the world. The immense popularity of the books took Saalfield Publishing from a small Akron, Ohio publishing company to one of the world's largest publishers.[2] The many fans of the series included a young John F. Kennedy.[3] The books also contain rather coarse descriptions of ethnicities.[4]
She wrote a pair of books about the "Electric Elephant", a mechanical hollow elephant the protagonist uses to tour the solar system and galaxy.[1] She also created the board game Lottery of Marriage.[5]
Frances Trego Montgomery died on 5 April 1925 onboard the SS Franconia as it was sailing between Hong Kong and Shanghai.[1]
She married wealthy Chicago broker Hugh M. S. Montgomery and they had two daughters. They divorced in 1909. She married George Porteous in 1910 and that marriage was annulled in 1913. [2]