The incorporated city is Crawfordsville, population 10,335; towns: Ladoga, 829; Darlington, 690; Waynetown, 664; Waveland, 542; Linden, 541; Wingate, 408; New Richmond, 391; New Ross, 350; New Market, 330, and Alamo, 163. Population of Montgomery County in 1890 was 28,025; 1900, 29,338; 1910, 29,296; 1920, 28,490; 1930, 26,980.

Crawfordsville is twenty-eight miles south of LaFayette and is served by three railroads. Although it is essentially a college town, it has a number of industries including those manufacturing lumber, matches, wire nails, roofing, fencing, paving bricks, caskets, automobile accessories, acetylene lighting plants, steel culverts, and gloves. According to the figures of the 1935 federal census, Crawfordsville had twenty-six manufacturing establishments employing 995 wage earners on payrolls totaling $1,007,796.

This city has been called the "Athens of America," not only because Wabash College is located at Crawfordsville but also the county was the birthplace of a number of writers. Among the writers were General Lew Wallace, soldier, statesman, and author of "Ben Hur"; Meredith Nicholson, outstanding contemporary author and at present United States Ambassador to Nicaragua; Maurice Thompson, of "Alice of Old Vincennes" fame; Mary Hannah; Caroline Kraut, and playwrights Kenyon Nicholson, Maurine Watkins, and Katherine Kingston. Caleb Mills, known as the "father of the Indiana public school system," was a resident of Crawfordsville.

Wabash College owes its origin to a few friends of sound learning who were the first settlers of the upper Wabash Valley. When it was founded there were but two colleges in the state, and both in the southern part. Educated men themselves - among them graduates of Dartmouth in the east and Miami in the west - the founders felt the necessity of bringing the college to the doors of the sons of pioneers and who could afford the expense of seeking the older and more distant institutions.

So it was that in the fall of 1832 a meeting was held in Crawfordsville, at which "it was resolved unanimously that such an institution be established, at first a classical and English high school, rising into a college as soon as the wants of the country demanded." Trustees were chosen, a frame building was erected - which still stands - and in December 1833, the first classes were formed under the direction of the Reverend Caleb Mills, a graduate of Dartmouth and Andover Theological Seminary. He was known as the father of the "Public School System of Indiana."

It was first charted as "Wabash Manual Labor College and Teachers Seminary," and in 1838, it conferred the degree of A.B. on two men, and since that time has turned out its quota of full-fledged graduates annually, with the exception of one year, 1841. The manual labor feature seems never to have been carried out fully, perhaps for want of suitable equipment. Very soon, Wabash was offering the regular curriculum, which was the standard among colleges.

Many of the professors have served long terms, John Lyle Campbell having been a member of the faculty fifty-five years, from 1849 to 1904.

Wabash is one of the few western colleges which does not admit women, and its list of graduates numbers more than 1,200 which is only a small fraction of those who have studied here one, two or three years. Among its alumni are Vice-President Marshall and Judge Anderson, and among those no longer living were Judge William Allen Woods, John A. Finch, John Maynard Butler and General John Coburn. Among its non-graduates were General Lew Wallace, E. R. S. Canby and Bayless W. Hanna.

From the first Wabash has been a Christian College without being under the control of any denomination. George L. Mackintosh, an alumnus of the college is the President.

Another of the distinguished sons of Crawfordsville was Governor Henry S. Lane. His residence is among the city's features. The home and study of General Lew Wallace is an outstanding point of interest to people from all parts of the world. A statue of General Wallace marks the residence, which is located on the estate. This statue was modeled after the one in the U. S. Hall of Fame.

There are many war memorials in and about Crawfordsville. Eight miles southwest, at Offield's Creek, is a boulder marking he site of the first white settler's cabin, built in 1821. In the town of Waveland there is a memorial to the arrival to the artist, T. C. Steele, whose boyhood home was here. Near Waveland is one of the county's chief points of interest, "Shades of Death," a natural beauty spot.

According to the figures of 1935 federal census the county had thirty-one manufacturing establishments. A total of 1,119 wage earners were employed on payrolls totaling $1,080,448. The value of the products was $5,651,036.

The county had 2,560 farms averaging 96.2 acres each. The value of these was $17,126,205. A total of 113,355 head of livestock was reported.

The total county tax valuation for 1936 was $31,203,423.