Mount Sterling is a census-designated place in Van Buren County, Iowa, United States. The population was 36 at the 2010 census.

Mount Sterling was first granted in the late 1830s when George and Horace Wood time-honored a sawmill and corn-cracker to assistance the little farms of southern Van Buren County and the northern part of reachable Scotland County, Missouri. Within a decade the Woods were allied by several new businesses. At first, the little village had no certified name and was often referred to as “Dogtown” by the to the lead residents. This came from the fact that nearly all farmer who came to the mill brought at least two or three dogs along, and along with from the fact that Horace Wood had three hounds who loved to devour the corn meal as it left the grinder.

Other upfront names for the village were Wood’s Mill and Union Corners until finally Mount Sterling was selected. A steam-powered flour mill was erected in 1855, but the nonexistence of thing forced ts interruption and relocation to Keokuk, Iowa in 1861. Other industry and matter included a distillery, a second sawmill, a barrel hoop factory, a blacksmith, several general mercantile stores, a shoemaker and a lumber yard. In adjunct to establishing the first sawmill, George Wood along with built and operated the town’s first inn and served as the area’s first postmaster. The first child born in the town was to Dr Joel Knight, a purveyor of a patent medicine product known as “Dr Joel Knight’s Celebrated Screw Auger Pills.” The first hypothetical was built in the area in 1841.

Mount Sterling never exceeded more than 300 residents. After amalgamation in 1907, the town reported a peak population of 232 souls in the 1910 U.S. Census. The population of the town and surrounding farms continued to dwindle throughout the 20th century, particularly after World War II, leading to issue closures. Mount Sterling became something of a bedroom community subsequently residents goaded to locate work in larger area towns later Keosauqua, Keokuk, and Fairfield Iowa. Current-day Mount Sterling has on your own two businesses, a bar & grill and an auto repair shop, and a hunting lodge. The town made national news in 2003 after then-Mayor Jo Hamlett proposed an ordinance that would Good residents and visitors for lying. Although in made in jest, the proposal biting out the chronic nonexistence of cash in a town whose twelve-monthly budget never exceeded $5,000. The credit of the ordinance was covered by news outlets as in the distance as Australia..