Levi Houston, born in New Hampshire in 1835, was one of the first men to start a factory in Montgomery and played a major role in the industrial town's early growth. After learning the machinist's trade and working for years in New England and New Jersey, he arrived in Montgomery in 1873 with $2500 and founded the Levi Houston Company, which specialized in industrial woodworking machines such as lathes and table saws. His influence expanded as he opened a store in 1881 and the Houston Hotel in 1890, built a large home on what became West Houston Avenue, and later bought a second home on Williamsport's Millionaire Row. Houston and his first wife, Celia Fredericks, had one son, Harry, who died in a childhood accident; Celia died in 1866 at age 28. In 1867 Houston married Louisa Merick, and they had two daughters, Celia and Pauline. His brother Parker Hale Houston also lived in Montgomery for a time and served on the first borough council in 1887. When Levi Houston died in 1892 at age 57 from complications of a stomach ulcer, hundreds of employees attended his viewing and escorted his coffin to the train station for burial in New Hampshire. Remembered as a generous donor to churches and charitable causes throughout the county, he left behind a factory that later became part of the American Wood Working Machinery Company and employed hundreds of local people, helping jump-start Montgomery's development; woodworking machines made there were sold around the world, and by the time of his death he had come to Montgomery before there was even a town and left it a borough of nearly 800 residents.