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By John Oliver Feb 17, 2022 Updated Aug 22, 2022 0
Tom Ryman, Sr. and his family can be seen in this photo, sitting on the steps of their impressive Nashville home in 1903. Tom Ryman, Jr. is the young man on the left in the back row.
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In 1915, the Ryman Line was in financial trouble. After their father’s death in 1904, sons Tom Ryman, Jr. and Paul Ryman had made some mistakes in management and the line of once-impressive steamboats had two ships condemned as unsafe for river traffic. Needed repairs had not been made.
Then on the morning of July 31, 1915, Tom Ryman, Jr. was shot and killed — and the murder took place in Trousdale County.
Tom Ryman was the pilot on the “Jo Horton Fall” as it was heading up river. The boat had picked up passengers at Hunter’s Point, a stop on the Wilson County side of the river. One of those getting on board had a grudge against Tom Ryman.
Wilson Montgomery was a 20-year-old river pilot himself. He had trained under Tom Ryman, Jr. and had once piloted the same boat that he was now a passenger on. But he had been fired from that job.
To make matters more interesting, Montgomery’s father-in-law had recently invested money in the “Jo Horton Fall,” an effort the Ryman Line was making in order to bring some much-needed cash into
the business.
Once on board, his young wife with him, Wilson Montgomery refused to pay for tickets, claiming that since his wife’s father was now a part owner of the vessel, they were exempt.
Informed of the problem, Captain Ryman sought out the contrary young man and when he did the two had words.
It was then, witnesses later testified, that shots rang out.
Wilson Montgomery had pulled a pistol from his pants pocket and shot the 42-year-old Tom Ryman, Jr. six times, leaving 14 wounds in his body. Hartsville’s own Dr. Hager was on board and rushed to the bloody scene, where he declared Tom Ryman, Jr. dead.
When the boat pulled into the Hartsville Landing, the next stop on its schedule, authorities were called for and Wilson Montgomery was arrested.
Sentiments ran high in Hartsville, as the Ryman family had many friends here. But so did the Montgomery family!
The murder made headlines in Nashville and across the state and the trial, when it took place in Hartsville, drew big crowds.
Montgomery had insisted since the morning of the shooting that he was acting in self-defense. He said that Ryman had reached for something in his coat pocket and, fearing that it was a gun, he shot to save his own life.
But no gun was found on Ryman’s body.
Witnesses testified that the co-captain of the boat was seen removing something from the dead man’s pocket.
Asked about this, the co-captain said he had only removed a “blackjack” from Ryman’s coat pocket. A blackjack was a weighted leather strap used by the ship’s crew on drunk or unruly passengers. It could knock a man unconscious.
After several days of testimony, the jury found itself deadlocked. They couldn’t come to an agreement of either guilty or not guilty.
As important a fellow as Ryman had been, the case went before a jury a second time.
This trial had a different outcome. The jury found the defendant, Wilson Montgomery, not guilty. The case was a matter of self-defense, they said. And Montgomery went free.
A few months later, the Ryman Line declared bankruptcy.
The story doesn’t end there, for hard feelings were still around.
Several years after the murder and the two trials, a member of the Highers family of Rome, Tenn., was at a business in Dixon Springs when a man entered the store. The young Highers did not recognize the man, but noticed that hands were shaken by the various people standing around. All but one, that is.
To his dying day, he remembered the man who didn’t shake hands with the stranger saying, ”I’ll never shake hands with the man who murdered Tom Ryman, Jr.!”