Biographical Sketches

RUFUS MONTGALL

In all of Kansas City's history, from the founding of the town up to the present time, there has never resided within its borders a more honored or honorable man then he whose name introduces this review. When his life labors were ended there passed away one whose noble career furnished to his friends an example of the highest type of faithful citizenship, unquestioned integrity and devotion to principle, and his influence will remain for good as long as those who knew him are left to tell the story of his life.

Mr. Montgall was a native of Shelby county, Kentucky, born in 1817. The public schools afforded him his educational privileges, and he spent much of his childhood and youth in assisting in the cultivation and development of his father's farm. In 1840 he was united in marriage with Miss Nancy Bryan, a most estimable lady, whose force of character and kindliness made her not only a faithful helpmeet to her husband but also a friend in whom all rejoiced. In 1840 the young couple started westward, the journey being made with a team of horses and wagon, and their objective point was Kansas City, Missouri. The journey was long and tedious, and on reaching Louisiana, Missouri, on the bank of the Mississippi, Mr. Montgall was striken with rheumatism and forced to remain at that place for several weeks. His brother-in-law, William O. Shouse, who had come to Jackson county some years previous, hearing of Mr. Montgall's trouble, went to Louisiana and helped to bring him here.

In the southern part of Kaw township our subject made a location. Wild and primitive indeed was the region round, and the present site of Kansas City was covered with a dense forest in which the Indians often hunted deer and other game. With characteristic energy, Mr. Montgall began the development of a home. He cleared much of this land, transforming it into rich and fertile fields and meeting bravely and unflinchingly the many hardships and trials incident to frontier life. He continued his residence on Brush creek farm until 1857, when he removed to the old homestead on the corner of 19th street and Agnes avenue. There he resided until 1882, when he took up his residence in his elegant city home at the corner of 13th and Locust streets. Judicious investments in real estate and the rise in land values owing to the rapid increase of population brought to Mr. Montgall a handsome competence, making him a wealthy man. He was pre-eminently a business man, energetic, enterprising, persevering. Above all he was strictly honorable in everything, and naught has ever been said against his sterling integrity. He was just to the value of a cent and thereby won the highest respect of all with whom he was brought in contact. It is said that he possessed the sturdy uprightness and undeviating honesty of the Puritan, with none of the latter's bigotry. He hated all meanness, spurned the tricks of much of the business of the present day, and had a contempt for sham and pretence that he never feared to express.

For 40 years Mr. Montgall took a prominent part in the public affairs of Kansas City, yet had no ambition in the line of office-seeking, and in fact steadily refused to accept office, although often solicited to do so. During the war and at the time of the border troubles he was placed at the head of a militia company, and did gallant work in the protection of the homes of this vicinity. His early political support was given the whig party, but on its dissolution he became a stalwart democrat, and was one of the trusted counselors in the ranks of the democracy.

His private life was as pure as his public life was blameless. He was strictly temperate, never addicted to the use of either intoxicants or tobacco. Though plain spoken and fearless in his condemnation of wrong, he yet possessed a kindly and sympathetic nature that was manifest to the poor and needy in substantial deeds of charity, and in his family by an earnest and untiring desire to promote their happiness and prosperity. His friends always found him true, and no man in all Kansas City had more friends than Rufus Montgall. The relation between himself and his wife was an ideal one. A noble Christian woman, Mrs. Montgall passed away about a year previous to the death of her husband, and he then said he felt that he had nothing more to live for, for though his son and daughter survived, they had married and gone to homes of their own, and no place could again be home to him without the loved companion with whom he had traveled life's journey for more than 45 years. He spent the last year of his life in the home of his son, where he received all the loving care and attention possible,a nd he found happiness in his contributions to churches and charitable institutions, and many an unfortunate one has reason to bless him for timely aid in their hour of need. He was always unostentatious, however, in his gifts, which were frequently known only to the recipient and himself. He passed away November 14, 1888, and the entire community felt that it had suffered a severe loss. He was a pioneer to whom the county owed much of its development and progress, and his name is inseparably connected with its history. The world is better for his having lived, for the life of every upright man is a benediction to the community with which he was connected.

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This page was last updated August 2, 2006.