A Silent Film Star's Roots in Montgomery

William S. Hart, the famous silent movie star, was once a little boy everyone called Willie. 

He lived at the eastern end of the Mill Street Bridge in Montgomery. His slightly older playmate, William Hagar, lived on Webster Street next to the Beher store. There were so few children in Montgomery in the 1860s, that these early friendships became memorable. The two Willies fished and roamed the riverbanks and the village together, before the family moved to a new job for Nicholas Hart at the City Mill in Aurora. 

Many people in Montgomery remembered the young boy, and followed his career when he moved to California. Carrie Beher, wife of the local storekeeper, William Beher, wrote to him in the 1940s. This portion of his reply, from Horseshoe Ranch in Newhall, California, tells a bit about his life here.

“Dear Mrs. Beher, I thank you for your interesting letter. My first recollection of life was at Oswego, Montgomery and Aurora in the order named. We lived in a little frame cabin at one end of the bridge in Montgomery. It was opposite the town and the stone mill.

A man named John Jameson kept a little store and sold candy. He was a friend of my father. Close to 35 years ago, while playing “The Virginian” (at the Coulter Opera House), I called on the candy man. He was the mayor of Aurora. A man named John Sheets was running the flourmill. He remembered me when I was a child, too. (Ed. note: John Jameson was elected mayor in 1889. Hart probably meant ‘was once the mayor.’)

We journeyed to the Western Prairies, after Aurora; then to the far east (New York) when I was fourteen. God gave me wonderful parents.  We were a happy family.”

Carrie Beher was born Carrie Burkhart in Oswego. She was an exceptionally beautiful woman, according to people who knew her, and once voted “Queen of Oswego.”

When William S. Hart was in Oswego, he was, in his own words, "only a prattling baby boy, playing with a shaggy and wet dog in a boat." He told how his father, Nicholas, took his boys on a perilous trip to cross the flooded river in a rowboat with a basket of groceries. His account of the story is so vivid in his book, “My life East and West,” that the reader will relive the harrowing moments with him.

The story ends with the boat being pushed into the current and crashing into the millrace before breaking apart on the other side of the icy river. They all managed to escape death when they were thrown ashore, exhausted.

Nicholas Hart suffered a serious injury at the Oswego mill when a minute piece of metal flew into his eye. Local doctors were unable to find the piece of metal, instead giving him ineffective ointments. He lost his job at the mill. 

He was able to convince John Sheets, who was running the flourmill in Montgomery, to give him a job. He was going blind and had to be led to the mill by his children. They would stop at the little candy store, and if he would not buy them a stick of candy, they would not go on. Because he could not find his way to the mill alone, he was forced to give in to their bribery. Eventually, his failing eyesight caused him to lose this job, too.

Next, he was able to convince the mill owner in Aurora that his eyesight was coming back, so he was able to support his family once again. In Aurora, the family lived about a half mile from the City Mills, near the railroad track and the South Broadway depot. Nicholas Hart worked until his eyesight became so bad he was again let go.

Still he refused to give up. After reading about a successful New York doctor who was performing eye surgery, he wrote him pleading for an appointment. When the doctor agreed to see him, he traveled alone to New York, was treated, and after four unsuccessful surgeries, neither he nor the doctor was ready to give up. The fifth one was a success and he came back to Aurora a new man.

Still following his dream of being a mill owner, he packed up again and they moved west. He found work in Iowa, where he made good wages, and this led to yet another opportunity. He looked up an Indian who planned to build a mill in Indian Territory.

This was William’s introduction to the Sioux Indians. The family spent many years living among the Indians and learning their ways. The boys he met became his best friends and loyal playmates. These were his most formative years, and the most exciting for him; and instrumental in giving him the skills he would use in his chosen career.

Eventually the family moved back to New York when his mother became ill and needed treatment. In New York his life took a totally different turn. He held various jobs to help feed the family. His job as a messenger taught him to navigate the city, and one of the perks was free access to many of the plays in New York City.

After years of studying the actors, he decided to try it himself. He talked it over with his father, who by then had given up his dream and rejoined his family. His father suggested that he needed to polish off the rough edges acquired during his wild childhood. The father, an emigrant from England, felt that a year abroad would be the remedy for his son.

Taking his father’s advice, he worked his way to Europe on a steamship where he took in as many plays as he could afford. He financed his stay by entering and winning championship races in England.  

Upon his return home, he studied with the finest actor and teacher in New York, and this was how his career was eventually launched. He went on to appear in more than 75 movies between 1907 and 1928, and now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

The old village of Newhall, where Hart’s ranch was located, was swallowed up by the city of Santa Clarita. Here the W. S. Hart museum is on the Western Walk of Fame. It is filled with memorabilia and worth a trip if you are in the area.