Monticello

Monticello is on Farm Road 127 just south of Lake Monticello eight miles southwest of Mount Pleasant in southwestern Titus County. It began in the 1850s and received a post office in 1857 with Cicero J. Corder as postmaster. A steam mill operated by Theodore Stewig was the largest business. The settlement remained small and in 1890 had an estimated population of thirty. By 1892 it had two stores, two mills, two gins, a brick factory, and a school. By 1896 only a store remained. From that point the population seems to have remained fairly constant until the late 1960s. It reached 149 by 1974, and the town was incorporated shortly thereafter. At the time of the 1980 census the population of Monticello was forty-three. It was forty-eight in 1990. In 2000 the population was twenty.