Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Montezuma, Ohio

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1908 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Franklin Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45866. It stands on Beaver Creek. The Survey maps it on the Montezuma quadrangle. 152 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 883 feet above sea level.

Montezuma within Mercer County

Population over time

2 figures

Montezuma fell from 165 to 152 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	165
2020	152	-13 (-8%)

Then and now

1908 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 78 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Montezuma, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Montezuma, surveyed 1908

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

1,369 words on this township

History of Mercer County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, published 1907 names this settlement in its chapter on Franklin Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The Montezuma class of the United Brethren Church was organized in 1845 by Rev. R. Gillen. Among the first members were: Elizabeth Buxton, Mary Taylor and William Beauchamp and wife. Until the first church building was erected, about 1862, services were held at^the homes of the various members. The present church building was erected at Montezuma in 1879 at a cost of about $2,000, being dedicated by Bishop Weaver on the first Sunday in June of that year. The following pastors have served this church since Rev. R. Gillen: Revs. John Slife, A. Shingledecker, Michael

Passage source: History of Mercer County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, published 1907.

The Montezuma Methodist Episcopal Church was organized at a very early day, but for different reasons was at one time abandoned. The organization was revived in 1880 by Rev. Lyman E. Prentiss, of Celina. A frame church was built and furnished at a cost of a little more than $2,000, being dedicated by Rev. Belt on May 7, 1882. The church now has a membership of 70 with an average Sunday-school attendance of 75. The church property is valued at $1,500. The following pastors have served this church since 1882: Revs. W. G. Wesselius, 1882-83; James G. Day, 1884-85; E. T. Daily, 1888-89; J°hn F. Naugle, 1890; W. J. Hagerman, 1891-92 ; B.W.Day, 1893; Charles McCord, 1894-95; C. B. Kramer, 1896-97; J. J. Richards, 1898-99; J. M. Longsworth, 1900; F. M. Houser, 1901-02; J. S. Bell, 1903-04; A. H. Weaver, 1905-06; and C. M. Baker, the present pastor, who also has charge of Center Chapel and Copp's Chapel in Center township and the Coldwater Methodist Episcopal Church.

Passage source: History of Mercer County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, published 1907.

Is situated in the northwest part of Franklin township on Beaver Creek and Lake Mercer. It was laid out in 1835, the plat being recorded on March 1 2th. Morris Kelly came to the county in 1850; at a later date he engaged in business as a storekeeper at Montezuma. A. J. Platt was for many years a merchant here. Jimmy Johnson at one time owned and operated a gristmill at Montezuma and also distilled whiskey. Montezuma was incorporated as a village in 1894 and its first mayor was William A. Lacey and its second, George Preston. The present village officials are as follows: Mayor, William Cochran; clerk, J. J. Ulrich; treasurer, W. L. Hoel; marshal, Jacob Hoel ; Council - L. E. Springer, Cornelius Franks, I. N. Stump, William Roush, G. H. Preston and A. C. Long. William A. Lacey is postmaster. The population of the village was 210 in 1890 and 317 in 1900.

Passage source: History of Mercer County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, published 1907.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Franklin Township - it names this place 2 more 2 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 221 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 221 specimens collected within 10 miles of Montezuma between 1886 and 1975: 215 Animalia, 4 Plantae, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by . R. Slonakerj, Adler, K. K., Brown, H P and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Carex grayi J.Carey	1903	Wetzstein A.
Procambarus blandingii (Harlan, 1830)	1920	R. Rhoades	St. Marys Lake at Celina
unnamed	1934	P. P. Pirone	Coldwater
Umbra limi (Kirtland, 1840)	1886	Meek and Harris	Montezuma
Ardea alba egretta Gmelin, 1789	1888	J. R. Slonaker	Celina
Calidris canutus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1888	J. R. Slonaker	Celina
Ceryle alcyon alcyon Cramp & Simmons, 1977-1994	1888	J. R. Slonaker	Celina
Charadrius vociferus Linnaeus, 1758	1888	J. R. Slonaker	Celina
Cistothorus palustris dissaeptus Bangs, 1902	1888	J. R. Slonaker	Celina
Gallinago gallinago delicata (Ord, 1825)	1888	J. R. Slonaker	Celina
Porzana carolina (Linnaeus, 1758)	1888	J.R.S.	Celina
Tringa flavipes (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)	1888	J. R. Slonaker	Celina

All 221 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

9 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Montezuma in 9 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2019	Flood	Montezuma	$100,000	Houses and trailers in the area of Karafit Road were flooded. Several roads were impassable.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Montezuma	$5,000	A few power poles and trees were downed in Montezuma.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Montezuma	$5,000	Six utility poles were downed.
March 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Montezuma	$3,000	Large tree limbs were downed.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Montezuma	$3,000	Numerous trees downed.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Montezuma	$2,000	Large tree limbs and branches were downed.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Montezuma	$1,000	A tree was reported down due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
June 2006	Flood	Montezuma	-	A few roads were flooded. Three automobiles were washed off roads.
May 1998	Hail	Montezuma	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Mercer County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Coldwater Beach	0.9 miles	14
Turtle Neck Point	1.0 miles	14
Montezuma Acres	1.0 miles	14
Bass Landing	1.9 miles	14
The Maples	2.6 miles	14
Doss Landing	3.2 miles	14
Lees Landing	3.3 miles	14
Sebastian	3.5 miles	13

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Montezuma	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1895212	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1043452. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.