On January 15, 1851 the Governor of Iowa approved an act of the legislature defining the boundaries of Montgomery County. It is the first legislation in which the name of a county appears. These same boundaries exist today.

    was surveyed in 1851. At that time there was only five families in the county - S. F. Snider, E. Heady, John Ross, James Ross and John Stafford. The County was ordered to be organized in January of 1853.  Amos G. Lowe was appointed Organizing Sheriff. Three commissioners, W. S. Townsend, R. B. Lockwood and R. W. Stafford, met to locate the seat of justice of .

    On July 22nd, 1854 the County Seat was located in Frankfort Township, described as SW 1/4 of Section 17 Twp. 72 North of Range 37 West. An order was issued by Judge A. G. Lowe on November 13, 1854 that the Seat of Justice of be called "Frankfort." As soon as the County Seat was located in Frankfort, Red Oak, then known as Red Oak Junction, cast a wishful eye upon it and ardently coveted the honor of being the capital of . The question of removal was finally voted upon in November, 1864.    

   The new town of Red Oak Junction was almost universally called Red Oak but the legal or Post office name was Red Oak Junction. The canvassers therefore threw out the votes cast for Red Oak. This gave a majority in favor of retaining the County Seat at Frankfort.  In case the votes cast for both Red Oak and Red Oak Junction were counted, the majority would be in favor of the County Seat being removed to Red Oak. Upon these facts H. H. Campbell, who built one of the first houses in Red Oak, sued out a writ of mandamus to compel the canvassers to count as for Red Oak Junction the votes that were cast for Red Oak.  It was not until the 8th day of June, 1865 that the legal entanglement was cleared and the supervisors were required to provide necessary offices for the removal of the books, records and other public documents to the new County Seat "Red Oak Junction." The court house was to be moved by January, 1866. The first term of District Court of was held at Frankfort on November 17, 1856. Before that date had been attached to Adams County for judicial purposes and court was held in Quincy, Adams County.

   The first court in Frankfort was held in the home of Dr. Amasa Bond, then District Clerk. Hon. E. H. Sears of Fremont County was District Judge and presided at a common dining room table in the log cabin owned by Amasa Bond. L. C. Cook was sheriff at that time. The first business done was to impanel the grand jury. The following persons were named; Wm. Dunn, I. N. Poston, Wm. Dinwiddle, John Bolt, Tyra Stafford, James Robertson, Isaac Coon, R. M. McMellon, Henry Kerns and Wm. Stipe.  Five others had been summoned, James Carlisle, G. P. West, H. C. Shank, A. G. Wallingford and Jeptha Pitman, but they did not appear. Carlisle, West and Shank were excused but attachments were issued for Wallingford and Pitman and made returnable for the next term of court. Five bystanders were summoned, namely, John Honey, Daniel Stennett, A. J. Glover, Henry Billman and G. A. Gordon. Gordon was appointed foreman.  The grand jury found six indictments at this first session. One of these was against Issac Bolt and J. T. Patterson for .......continued on page 20.