Montgomery County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located in the southwestern area of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,330. Its population has declined since a peak in 1900, since urbanization and decline of family farms. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Red Oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ''C ...

. The county was founded by European-American migrants from eastern areas in 1851. It was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, an

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

general killed in 1775 while trying to capture

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The county has been largely rural and devoted to agriculture. The county was first surveyed in 1852. It is famous as the location of the unsolved Villisca Axe Murders committed in 1912.

Clyde Cessna Clyde Vernon Cessna (; December 5, 1879 – November 20, 1954) was an American aircraft designer, aviator, and early aviation entrepreneur. He is best known as the principal founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation, which he started in 1927 i ...

, the founder of the Cessna Aircraft Company was born here.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.2%) is water.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 34 * US 71

U.S. Highway 71 * Elongated circle 48

Iowa Highway 48

Adjacent counties

* Pottawattamie County (northwest) * Cass County (northeast) * Adams County (east) * Page County (south) * Mills County (west)

Demographics

2020 census

The 2020 census recorded a population of 10,330 in the county, with a population density of . 96.38% of the population reported being of one race. 90.29% were non-Hispanic White, 0.24% were Black, 3.59% were Hispanic, 0.34% were Native American, 0.25% were Asian, 0.02% were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and 5.27% were some other race or more than one race. There were 5,007 housing units, of which 4,456 were occupied.

2010 census

The 2010 census recorded a population of 10,740 in the county, with a population density of . There were 5,239 housing units, of which 4,558 were occupied.

2000 census

At the 2000 census there were 11,771 people, 4,886 households, and 3,258 families in the county. The population density was 28 people per square mile (11/km²). There were 5,399 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile (5/km²). The

racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

of the county was 98.20%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 0.08%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.35% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.01%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 0.68% from other races, and 0.44% from two or more races. 1.30%. were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

or Latino of any race. Of the 4,886 households 29.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.40% were married couples living together, 8.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.30% were non-families. 29.50% of households were one person and 14.70% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.91. The age distribution was 25.00% under the age of 18, 6.50% from 18 to 24, 25.50% from 25 to 44, 22.80% from 45 to 64, and 20.30% 65 or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 90.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.30 males. The median household income was $33,214 and the median family income was $40,129. Males had a median income of $28,531 versus $20,835 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,373. About 6.50% of families and 9.10% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 12.30% of those under age 18 and 6.00% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Cities

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...

* Elliott *

Grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom * Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...

* Stanton * Villisca

Unincorporated community

* Pittsburg

Former towns

*Alix (Douglas Township) 1895-98 *Arlington (Washington Township) *Biddick (Pilot Grove Township) 1893-1902 *Carr's Point (West Township) 1865-70 *Climax (West Township) 1871-1901 *Coe's Grove 1858-69 *Flora 1859 *Frankfort (County seat from 1864 to 1865) (Frankfort Township) 1856-78 *Hawthorne 1871-1908 *Oro 1856-1858 *Ross Grove (Jackson Township) 1855-63 *Rossville (Jackson Township) 1855 *Sciola (Washington Township) 1855-1905 *Wales (Lincoln Township) 1886-1901 *Wallace (Douglas Township) 1875-78 *Wilson (Pilot Grove Township) 1870-79

Townships

* Douglas *

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

* Frankfort *

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as ''Garfield'', it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his hum ...

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

* Pilot Grove *

* Scott * Sherman *

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

Population ranking

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2020 census of Montgomery County. † ''county seat''

Politics

References

External links

Montgomery County, Iowa
{{authority control 1851 establishments in Iowa Populated places established in 1851