Modjeska's father was the son of a white lawyer, Walter Monteith, and his family's black nursemaid, Mary Dobbins. As a child, he was sent to live and work on a white family's plantation near Columbia. He was treated well, but he did not have the opportunity to go beyond the third grade and trained as a brick-mason. In a 1977 interview, Modjeska recalled that her father deeply regretted his lack of educational opportunity. Apparently Walter Monteith gave Henry's mother money for his education, but she spent it on other things (Aba-Mecha, 1978). Henry was determined that his children would have an education.260

The family names are horribly mangled in the 1920 census index on Ancestry.com.
Montieth was transcribed as Montooth609