Montgomery County

Montgomery County, the twenty-second county in order of formation, was created on December 14, 1796. It is located east of Lexington in the outer Bluegrass region and is bounded by Clark, Bourbon, Bath, Menifee, and Powell counties. It has an area of 199 square miles. The county was named for Gen. Richard Montgomery, who was killed at the Revolutionary War battle of Quebec. Montgomery County once stretched to the Virginia border but with the formation of Floyd, Bath, Powell, and Menifee counties, it assumed its present size in 1869. The northern two-thirds of the county has the rolling landscape typical of the Outer Bluegrass; the southern portion is much more hilly, with the thin soils and more abundant forests of the foothills region.

The major town in the county is Mount Sterling, the county seat. Founded in 1792, the community has been the economic and social focal point of the county. During the nineteenth century a number of crossroads villages-such as Grassy Lick, Levee, and Spencer also emerged to serve rural needs in an era of difficult transportation. Camargo and Jeffersonville (long known as Ticktown) became economic centers of the southern portion of the county and, in the twentieth century, grew to over 1,000 citizens.

During the pre-Civil War era the county developed a prosperous, slave-based economy with hemp, livestock, and wheat as staples. The population grew rapidly until the 1820s and then leveled off with out-migration to Missouri, Texas, and other western areas. During this period the county became the political center of a congressional district that included more backward mountain areas. Mt. Sterling lawyers represented the district in Congress for twenty-six of the thirty-two years, from 1817 to 1849.

With slaves making up 36 percent of the population, the county was deeply split by the Civil War. Located at the junction of routes from central Kentucky to the Big Sandy River Valley in the east, Mt. Sterling had considerable strategic importance. There were substantial clashes in 1862 and 1864 and smaller skirmishes as possession of the county seat changed hands several times. Considerable damage was done by guerrillas to business buildings, and Confederate cavalry burned the courthouse in 1863. The more isolated regions of the county were infested with outlaw bands of deserters and thieves. In October 1863, Jeffersonville was burned and a guerrilla leader killed. The war inflicted substantial crop losses and disrupted the slave-labor force.

After the war, many of the former slaves forsook the rural areas for the county seat and drained the agricultural economy of labor. Hemp production virtually ceased, with cattle becoming the focus of the economy until the commencement of the burley tobacco boom in the 1870s.

As railroads and better roads began to penetrate the mountain counties, Montgomery County's trade declined. Its economy became based on the local tobacco-livestock agricultural system. In the 1960s the combination of several new factories and the completion of I-64 led to rapid growth.

Notable residents of the community have included a number of congressmen in the 1800s, including Garrett Davis, Richard Menefee and Richard French, and several justices on the state court of appeals, among them B.J. Peters, James Hazelrigg, and E.C. O'Rear. Prominent military figures from the county included Gen. Samuel Williams, a veteran of the War of 1812; his son, Confederate Gen. John "Cerro Gordo" Williams; and Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood. Among notable religious leaders were John ("Raccoon") Smith and David Barrow.

The population of Montgomery County was 15,364 in 1970; 20,046 in 1980; 19,561 in 1990; 22,554 in 2000; and 26,499 in 2010.

From: The Kentucky Encyclopedia, edited by John Kleber. University Press of Kentucky. Copyright 1992