William Thomas Montgomery is one of the pioneer settlers of Saline County, Kansas, where he had lived for thirty-five years.
It was in 1881 that Mr. Montgomery came to this district of Kansas. He had acquired a broad knowledge of farming in several more eastern states, and when he located in Kansas he bought land in Liberty Township of Saline County, and was an active farmer there for fourteen years. He then bought 240 acres in Walnut Township of the same county, and his energies have since been absorbed in the management of that fine estate. He had some of the choicest land in the county, and the improvements measure up to the best standard of agricultural equipment and progress in this section of the state.
Mr. Montgomery was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 24, 1850, a son of William and Mary (Farlow) Montgomery. His parents were natives of Scotland and came to America in 1844. The father, who was a machinist by trade, died in Illinois in 1906, while his wife passed away in 1903. William T. Montgomery was the third in their family of nine children, four sons and five daughters. The two oldest died in infancy, as did also Catherine, the next younger sister of William T. Lucy was killed by a skyrocket on July 4, 1885. Jennie M. was killed when kicked by a horse in 1872. John Irwin lives at Dana, Illinois, and Robert E. is a retired resident of Kansas City, Missouri. The youngest of the family was Samuel, who died when one year old.
William Thomas Montgomery was reared and educated in the East, spent a number of years as a farmer in Illinois, and then came out to Kansas, where his real success in life had been won.
He is an active democrat, and had served on the Central Committee. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternally belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America.
On February 1, 1878, at Dana, Illinois, he married Miss Nannie E. Fulton. Mrs. Montgomery was born in Pennsylvania August 9, 1857, a daughter of Elijah Fulton, who was a native of Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery have a large family of children: Robert, William Henry, Clyde, Carl, Everett, Edna, Maude, Rachael, Edith, Winfrey and Anna Belle, the last two being now deceased.
