Montgomery County Courthouse is located "on the square",
Mount Ida, Arkansas
1998 Christmas lightingCorner stone: Laid by F & A.M 1923. [Free and Accepted Masons] John O. Wolfe G.M. [Grand Master]
Arthur Standridge, Co. Judge. J.H. Alley, Com'r. Clyde A. Ferrel, Arch't. Courthouse elevation: 663.188 feet.
The general contractor was H.H. Shelton.
The building was remodeled in the 1970s to more than double the capacity. Up stairs is the courtroom, two judges offices and a jury room. Downstairs offices include: County Clerk, County Treasurer, Extension Service, Judge, Probation, Juvenile, Veterans Service, Assessors, Sheriff and County Tax Collector (one position) and a conference room. The vault in the County Clerk's office is 20' x 20', with only one entrance. Houses records of the clerks, sheriff, treasurer and assessor. This is were you find all the original marriage, tax, land, military discharge, books, etc, a genealogist goldmine if you have family from the county. The County Judge, (Ted Elder 1998-1999) is an elected position with a two year term and overseas road, fairground, nursing home, courthouse maintenance etc. Pervious judges include Ted Abernathy and Warneke. There is a Municipal Court and a Criminal Court Judge (in 1988 Mr. Gayle Ford). In 2007 the old Montgomery County Nursing Home is now the courthouse annex. This is the south entrance of the courthouse, now considered the back of the courthouse. Mount Ida was incorporated 18th December, 1854.
The population of the county in 1920 was 11,112. Mt Ida had a population of 298
in 1920. On October 26, 1921, the court appropriated 40,000 for a new
courthouse.
This courthouse was built in 1923. County officials wisely elected to preserve
the structure by adding additional office space and a modern jail to the
existing structure in 1975 so the front of the courthouse became the back.
Sketch by Barbara Brown,1988, of the new front of the courthouse. Note the
war memorial in front of the flagpole. Mt Ida, sits
upon a gravel terrace, was a "banking town." It still has a weekly
newspaper, a feed store, a couple of grocery stores, a public school etc.
Sketch by Barbara Brown,1988, showing the back of the courthouse, which use to
be the front.
Note a 2' high natural stone fence surrounds the landscaped courthouse grounds.
Mount Ida 1908. The wooden frame courthouse is located on
the courthouse square surrounded by a fenced grassy lawn with a stile.
Businesses still
surround the square today.
Not the courthouse but the Mount Ida High School.
Rudolph Smith 1st Dec.1935 Mt Ida High School pupil.
Radford, Sims, Watson and Graham outside the Courthouse, 1943.
Note the wall around the courthouse.
1936 Centennial marker
Montgomery County
County Seat
The county seat of Montgomery County was established on its present site in 1842
the year the county was created and to the place (now Mt. Ida) was given the
name Montgomery Courthouse. In 1850 the name of the town was changed to Salem
but in the same year was changed back to Mt. Ida.
Alvin Black, a Montgomery County Courthouse icon, March 2008,
coming back from lunch, going in though the back door which use to be the front
door.
Early Montgomery County Courthouse with a widow's walk on top. A
widow's walk also known as a "widow's watch" (or roofwalk) is a
railed rooftop platform frequently found on 19th-century North
American coastal houses. Used for observation. In the 1920s a stone
structure and a jail was constructed just outside the
courthouse walls. When a photographer came to town the locals
turned out.
The first courthouse, a log structure, was built on the square and remained there until 1873 when it was moved to another location and used as a school and church. A new courthouse, costing $5,350 was built in 1873, with Zora L. Cotton as contractor. The old courthouse and jail were sold and the funds were applied on the new structure. In 1909 a native stone building with a vault was erected as a clerk's office to house the county records, which were complete from creation of the county. The present courthouse was built of native stone in 1923 at a cost of $40,000. The jail was built from materials taken from the old county clerk's office.
Acts - Page 45 by Arkansas - 1855
AN ACT to incorporate the town of Mount Ida, in the county of
Montgomery. Section:
1. Mount Ida to be incorporated ; alderman and council to fix its limits, their
duties in relation thereto.
2. An alderman and three town councillors and a constable provided for.
3. Qualifications of town officers.
4. Officers to be elected annually, qualifications of electors, time of holding
first election, manner of conducting elections, style of corporation, power to
hold and dispose of property, to sue and be sued etc.
5. Officers to be elected annually, after first election, on 1st Monday of
January.
6. Town council to take oath of office within ten days after their election.
7. Town council to hold public sittings, alderman to preside, council to
prescribe its own rules of government, a
a majority to decide all questions, alderman to give the casting vote in
8. Alderman to be vested with the powers and jurisdiction of a justice of the
peace, his powers and duties as such.
9. Alderman and town council, their powers and duties.
10. Power to levy taxes, rates of taxation.etc.
11. Alderman to be town treasurer, his duties as such; constable to be assessor
and collector of taxes, his duties as such; alderman and constable to give bond
with security within twenty days after election; constable of Sulphur Spring
township may be elected town constable, powers of the constable.
12. Vacancies how to be filled, etc.
13. Proceeds of fines, forfeitures and taxes, how to be applied, duty of
alderman and council in relation thereto.
14. This act to take effect from and after
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas, That
the town of Mount Ida, in the county of Montgomery, be, and the same is hereby
incorporated, and that the alderman and council herein provided for, shall have
power to fix the metes and bounds of said corporation; a true description of
which said metes and bounds, when so fixed, shall be recorded in the office of
the clerk of the county court, of said county of Montgomery: Provided, That said
corporation shall not extend more than one-half mile east, one-half mile south,
and one-half mile west, from the court-house, in the said town of Mount Ida, and
that the northern boundary of said corporation shall be the south fork of the
Ouachita river; the said boundary line to form a parallelogram, with its
irregular side on .the south fork of the Ouachita river.
Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That for the preservation of peace and good
order, and for the good government of the said town of Mount Ida, and the
inhabitants thereof, there shall hereafter be an alderman and three town
councillors, who shall be styled and known by their corporate name of " The
Alderman and Town Council of the town of Mount Ida," and there shall also be a
town constable, to serve as such, within the corporate limits of said town.
Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That no person shall be eligible to the office of
alderman, or councillor, or to either of said corporation [offices] who is not a
qualified voter of the county, and in addition thereto, who is not the owner and
occupant of real estate, within the corporate limits of said town.
Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That the alderman and town council and town
constable of said corporation shall be elected annually, by the free white male
inhabitants thereof, over the age of twenty-one years, who reside within the
limits of said corporation, as above set forth in section one, the first election
to take place on the first Monday of March, A. D. eighteen hundred and
fifty-five, the same to be duly advertised by the sheriff of the county, and to
be conducted in all respects according to the laws now in force in this State,
respecting elections, and when so elected, the said town of Mount Ida shall be a
body politic and corporate, in deed and in law, by the name and description of
the alderman and town council of the town of Mount Ida, and shall have
continuous succession, for ninety-nine years, with full power to take, purchase,
hold, possess and enjoy lands, tenements and hereditaments, goods, chattels and
effects, and to sell where and convey the same, and to sue and-be sued, and by
that name plead and be impleaded, and to make and use a common seal for said
corporation.
Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That the said officers shall be elected annually
after the aforesaid first Monday of March, A. D. eighteen hundred and
fifty-five, on the first Monday of January.
Sec. 6- Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the alderman and
council, and of the town constable, elected under the provisions of this act,
within ten days thereafter, to take an oath before some justice of the peace,
faithfully to discharge the duties of the offices to which they were elected.
Sec. 7. Be it further enacted, That the alderman and council provided for in
this act, shall hold their sittings in public, the alderman presiding, and be
governed by such rules as may be prescribed by said town council, and that a
majority of said town council, with the alderman, shall decide all questions
before them, and in case of a tie, the alderman shall give the casting vote.
Sec. 8. Be it further enacted, That the alderman of the town of Mount Ida,
herein provided for, and his successors in office is hereby invested as such
alderman, with all the powers and jurisdiction, which under the laws of the
constitution of this State, pertain to justices of the peace, both in civil and
criminal proceedings; to this end, he may, as such alderman, issue processes,
hear and determine causes, and in all things be governed in the extent and
exercise of such jurisdiction, by the laws now in force, defining and governing
the proceedings of justices of the peace in this State.
Sec. 9. Be it further enacted, That said alderman and town council, or a
majority of them, shall have power and authority from time to time, and at all
times hereafter, to make such bylaws, ordinances, and regulations in writing,
not repugnant to the constitution of this State, and the same to revoke, enforce
or alter, so as to them may appear necessary for the good order and civil
government of the said town and its inhabitants ; and to make, limit and impose
reasonable fines, and immunities for all misdemeanors, disorders, neglect or
nuisances committed within the limits of said corporation, upon persons
committing them therein, and in which the laws of the State have not provided
ample remedy and penalty.
Sec. 10. Be it further enacted, That the alderman and town council and their
successors in office, shall have power to levy and collect a tax upon all real
and personal property within the corporate limits of said town of Mount Ida,
which said tax shall in no instance exceed the sum of one-fourth of one per
centum per annum; they shall also have power to levy and collect, on each free
white male inhabitant of said corporation, over the age of twenty-one years, and
under sixty, a poll tax not exceeding one dollar, and they shall also have power
to levy and collect on each person who shall exhibit a circus, menagerie of wild
beasts, exhibition of tricks or slight of hand, and upon all tippling shops and
groceries, such sum or sums as [to] the said alderman and town council shall
seem expedient, and which shall be levied and collected in accordance with the
existing laws of this State, not inconsistent with the present enactment.
Sec. 11. Be it further enacted, That the alderman of said corporation shall be
ex-officio treasurer thereof, whose duty as treasurer shall be defined by the
laws of said corporation, and that the constable of said corporation shall be
the assessor and collector of all taxes ordered to be collected in said
corporation, and shall also, by virtue of his said office, be overseer and
superintendent of the streets, in such manner as may be defined by the by-laws
of said corporation, and shall do and perform all other legal requirements of
said aldermen and town council, and that the said alderman and the said town
constable, shall, respectively, give bonds with satisfactory security, to the
alderman and town council, of the town of Mount Ida, and their successors in
office, for the faithful performance and discharge of their respective duties,
as ex-officio treasurer and as town constable, in a sum not less than five
hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, at the discretion of the said
alderman and town council, for the use of any person or persons who may be
aggrieved by any of the official acts of the said alderman as ex-officio
treasurer, and by the official acts of the said town constable; the bond of the
said alderman, as ex-officio treasurer, to be approved of by the said town
council; and of the said constable to be approved of by the said alderman and
town council; the said bonds to be executed, delivered and approved of within
twenty days after their election, otherwise the said offices to be declared
vacant, and a successor or successors shall be elected according to law :
Provided, That the constable of Sulphur Spring township may be elected as said
town constable, and that the said town constable shall have full and ample power
to serve all process, civil or criminal, within said corporation limits, the
same as the constables of townships have in their respective townships.
Sec. 12. Be it further enacted, That whenever a vacancy shall [occur] in any of
the offices herein created, said vacancy shall be filled by election, at such
time and in such manner as the by-laws of the corporation shall direct, and when
so elected, shall hold their respective offices for the unexpired term of their
predecessor.
Sec. 13. Be it further enacted, That all fines, forfeitures and taxes collected,
in pursuance of the provisions of this charter, after paying the expenses
incident thereto, shall be laid out in the improvement of the said town of Mount
Ida. and it shall be the duty of the alderman and town council, once in each
year, to put up on the court-house door of said town, a statement of all the
moneys coming to the corporation from all sources, and the objects for which
said fund was expended, and the balance, if any, for or against the corporation.
Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, That this act take effect and be in force
from and after its passage.
Approved 18th December, 1854.
Montgomery
County ARGenWeb Project
Traditionally, a courthouse had been built as a statement of the importance of the law.
Montgomery County Courthouse, 1975, Mount Ida, Arkansas
County Officers
L.J. Warneke - County Judge
Essie Black - County and Circuit Clerk
E.L. Hawthorne - Sheriff and Collector
R.L. Lenderman - Tax Assessor
Phillip Kelley - County Treasurer
Architect: D.M. Lewis and Associates, A.I.A.
General Contractor: Wade Abernathy - Custom Builder, Inc
