County of city: Montgomery County
Location of city: east central in county, county is east central in state.
Location of old courthouse: Sturgeon St. (MO-19) [the real main street] & 3rd St., Montgomery City
Elevation: 823 ft (251 m)
Population: 2,796 (2013)
"In south-central Montgomery Township. Laid off by Benjamin P. Curd in 1853 and named from the county (q.v.). Made the county seat in 1889 after much opposition from residents in the southern part of the county. The name of the railroad station has been shortened to Montgomery." ~ Eaton, page 333; James F. Ball, M.F.
"Montgomery City, situated in a beautiful prairie on the St. L. K. C. & N. R. R., eighty-two miles from St. Louis, is the largest town in the county. The first house erected in this locality was built in 1851, by James M. Robinson. This house stands about one hundred and seventy-five yards south-west from the present site of the college building, and is inhabited by a colored family.
"The house in which O. H. Winegar now lives was next erected in the winter and spring of 1853, by T. C. McClearey. The other settlements here then, were principally confined to the belts of timber bordering the prairies.
"In 1856, before the depot was located, Stone and Hibbert put up a mill here. At first the engine was stationed without any covering, until lumber could be sawed to make a shed for it. The next improvement was a house erected in 1856, by Grooms and Snethen. The house is still standing, and is now used by O. H. Brooks as a stable. Benj. P. Curd owned the land on which the original part of the city stands, and by him was laid off in 1857.
"The first store was opened in the spring or summer of 1857, by Thomas Stevens, and the second soon after, by John and Daniel Bryan. John S. Rowe built the first hotel, which was afterwards kept by Horace Brown. It was burnt soon after the beginning of the war. Notwithstanding the stagnating effects of the civil war, and the depression in business since, Montgomery City has continued to improve rapidly, and has become the center of a very wide and extensive trade.
"The college building is the largest school building in the county, and is now under management of Professors Graves and Cunningham.
"The town contains about one thousand two hundred and fifty inhabitants, four large dry goods establishments, one clothing store, one merchant tailor, two drug stores, two grocery stores, two tin and hardware stores, two bakeries and restaurants, five mantua maker and millinery establishments, one large cheese factory, four hotels and several boarding-houses, three extensive wagon and carriage factories, three boot and shoe factories, two watch and jewelry stores, one gun shop, one saddle and harness shop, two lumber yards, two furniture stores, five churches, one tobacco and cigar factory, two meat markets, two barber shops, two livery and feed stables, two printing offices, one photograph gallery, one large public hall, and one Mason hall."
[Parts of Sections 29, 30, 31 and 31, Township 49 North, Range 5 West]" ~ MOGenWeb
"In April, 1853, a Mr. Franklin, of Danville, went up to Palmyra, in Marion County to enter some land in this neighborhood. Mr. Benj. P. Curd, a citizen of that county ... was in the office at the same time. He believed the North Missouri Railroad, then already projected, would come along the watershed between the Mississippi and the Missouri from the mouth of the latter to the Iowa line, and learned from Mr. Curd there was some land in this quarter wild and uninhabited. He selected 160 acres in a square, and 80 acres to the westward ... and entered the same in his own name.
"The Morris Bros. owned some land lying east of Curd's land. They endeavored to influence the railroad authorities to locate the town on their tract. However, the railroad company decided that whoever gave the most should have the town. Sealed proposals were made, and the town given to Curd, who gave the railroad company 10 acres south of the track and in the heart of town, besides right-of-way ...
"Mr. Curd pursued a very liberal and generous course in the upbuilding of the town. He sold his lots at reasonable prices and indeed gave way a great many. In the spring of 1857 he gave to Thos. Stevens a prominent lot on the corner of Second and Allen Streets, north of the track and immediately fronting it ... and soon after Stevens began the erection of a store building, the first in the place. Prior to this, however, David Snethen and Abraham Grooms had built a little "grocery," or saloon on Second Street below Allen ...
"Some time after Stevens had opened his store, came Daniel and John Bryan and opened a general store on Allen Street, between First and Sullivan ...
"The first post-office was established in Montgomery City in 1867 with John Bryan as postmaster.
"The town was not laid out with the cardinal points of the compass, but with the railroad tracks, and therefore the streets run from northeast to southwest and from southeast to northwest ...
"The town was incorporated by act of the Legislature, approved February 9, 1857 as a town, and was still running under its original charter in 1885 ...
"The first school attended by the children of the town was taught by the Misses Wheaton, two sisters from Connecticut ... half a mile east of town. The first school in town was taught by Eliza Robinson ..." ~ History of Montgomery Co., pp. 816, 817, 820.
...It had a fine court-house, and while not a county seat, a number of the county offices were located there and sessions of courts were held there at regular intervals." ~ --Conard, Vol. 4, p. 463; also, Campbell, pp. 336, 337.