Montgomery County Courthouse is located "on the square",
Mount Ida, Arkansas

1998 Christmas lighting

  Corner 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.

Centennial Sept. 2023

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