Montgomery, Litchfield Y.

Litchfield Y. Montgomery was born on May 17, 1857, near Maryville, Blount County, Tennessee, to farmer parents of Irish-Presbyterian stock, and later spent two years working on Southern plantations before arriving in California in January 1881. After first settling at Grangeville to work for wages, he married Jennie G. Latham and moved near Riverdale, eventually acquiring a 240-acre ranch near Riverdale and a forty-acre fruit ranch near Hanford where he raised full-blooded Poland-China hogs and Holstein cattle. In the fall of 1917, he and his wife relocated to a two-story stucco residence in the Alta Vista district of Fresno, while their sons Cloyd and Russell rented the Riverdale property.

Throughout his career, Montgomery served as a Kings County supervisor, during which time the county hospital was built, the local Fair Grounds were purchased, and the Kings County Fair was permanently established. He also served as a director of the Riverside Ditch Company and president of the Western Water Users Company, successfully defending local water rights against the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company before the Railroad Commission. A devout member and co-founder of the Kings River Methodist Episcopal Church, he also contributed to the local agricultural industry as a trustee for the California Peach Growers, Inc., and a stockholder in the California Associated Raisin Company.