Rufus Henry Utley and his wife, Fannie Mae Gilbert Utley, came to Missouri in a covered wagon at an early date. They were pushing westward, but when they came near the vicinity of Montserrat they decided to turn back and return to New York. Utley was close to Knob Noster when his wagon got mired in the mud, and since there wasn’t much else to do, he went to a nearby farm where he got a job working for a man named Redd. He had intended to make enough to return to the east, but he did so well that it wasn’t long until he had enough money to buy some land. Soon he started cattle trading, and later he built an elevator and stockyard and became a very wealthy man.326