Legacy of Ralph Montgomery

These are some of the stories Madaleen tells about her father.

Dean Miller told her that when he was working for Ralph delivering coal, he was occasionally instructed to make a delivery to a certain house or another and to not accept any payment.

Ralph always ordered a more expensive grade of coal that he stored separately from the regular coal. Whenever the school ordered coal from him, he would sell that special grade to it at the regular price.

Speedy Matthews once raised a calf and sold it at auction to raise money to go to college. When he came to Ralph to pay the feed bill he had incurred in raising the calf, Ralph told him to keep the money and go to school. Speedy went on to be a success in college and follow that up with a career in education (I think). Later after Ralph died, Speedy was questioned about the bill that was still on the books. His response was, "I know about that bill and I owe it." It wasn't until Speed was approaching his last few years that he told anyone about what Ralph had done for him.

Ralph was active in the local Lions club and served as the mayor of the town for a while.

When Ralph died and his son, Vern, was reviewing the assets of Ralph's feed store and grain elevator business, Vern discovered that the largest asset Ralph had was Accounts/Receivable. Most of the local farmers owed him money and Ralph didn't hound them for payment.

One of Ralph's brothers tells the story about how, as a young man, would set about unloading a rail car full of coal despite the fact that the then-owner of the grain elevator had told him that he didn't have the money to pay him for the work. Ralph's response was, "Don't worry. You can't get any money unless you get this coal unloaded and sold. You'll pay me when you can." Eventually, Ralph would come to own that grain elevator.

After Madaleen and Bill had moved back to Fairland and were living in Granny's house, someone they didn't know terribly well came by to discuss something with them. As he passed out the hall to the door, he noticed an old picture of Ralph on the wall. He pointed to the picture and said, "The worst thing that ever happened to this town was when he died."

In his last days, the house was filled with visitors from all around the county. They came to offer their parting words to him by talking about mundane farming issues like, "Do you think it's too late to plant oats?" It was their way to say goodbye without coming out and acknowledging that they knew he was dying. He died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 66.

After Madaleen and Bill had moved back to Fairland some 30 years after Ralph had died, they regularly attended the Lions club meetings. At one meeting, some members of the city council were looking around for a replacement for an open seat on the council. They asked Bill if he was interested.
     He said, "You don't want me. You want her," pointing at Madaleen.
     Madaleen said, "Well, my father was once mayor here, so I guess I could consider being on the council."
     "Oh? Who was your father?"
     "Ralph Montgomery"
     Excitedly, "Oh yes, you will do just fine!"