MONTGOMERY, a new county in the S. W. part of Iowa, has an area of 430 square miles. It is traversed by the two branches of Nishnabatona river, an affluent of the Missouri. The county is not yet organized, and has but few inhabitants. County seat not located. (Baldwin's New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States..., 1854)
MONTGOMERY COUNTY Was organized in 1853. Hon. A. G. Lowe was the first Judge. The first settlers were John Stafford, John Ross, James Ross and Aaron Vice.
It is bounded by Pottawattamie and Cass Counties on the North—Adams County on the East—Page and Fremont Counties on the South, and Mills County on the West—making this county the width of one county removed from the State line of Missouri, and one county from the Missouri River on the West.
It is divided into six townships, Douglas, Frankfort, Jackson, Red Oak, Washington and West.
The first entry of lands in the county was made by Hon. Amos G. Lowe, June 1st, 1853.
The surface of the county is undulating. The bottoms are equal in fertility to the lands on the Miami, the Danube or the Nile. The county is well drained by the Middle and West Nodaway, Tarkio and East Nishnabotany Rivers, and Walnut Creek and Indian Creek, leaving high lands between them ranging North and South with the streams, some of them level as the bottom lands, and some rolling, with a depth of soil on all of them unsurpassed. Oak, walnut, and cotton-wood, is the prevailing timber.
The tendency of the soil to give growth to grass has given such an advantage to the fires that run through the country annually, that it has checked the growth of timber. The roots are in the ground, however, and when the country is stocked with cattle and sheep sufficiently to eat down the grass, the timber will be fifty acres where there is one acre at this time.
Coal is found in the east part of the county, and there are indications of it all over the county. Stone quarries are opened in different parts of the county in eight or ten localities. Brick is made at Red Oak Junction.
The streams are of a character which afford good mill-seats, and there is abundance of water power in the county. David Silkett was the pioneer in the business of building mills in the county. He owned five mill-seats. He built two mills, and in building a third he fell a victim to his enterprise, and died from exposure. There are five mills that will be running this season in the county. (Hair's Iowa State Gazetteer..., 1865)