Montgomery is a village in Kane and Kendall counties, Illinois. While roughly from Chicago, it is not considered a Chicago suburb. The population was 20,262 at the 2020 census. Between 2000 and 2010 the village population grew 237 percent, making Montgomery the ninth fastest growing municipality in Illinois during the decade. Geography Montgomery is located in southern Kane County and northern Kendall County at (41.7188316, -88.3920915). It is bordered to the north and east by Aurora, to the south by Oswego and Boulder Hill, and to the southwest by Yorkville. The village sits on both sides of the Fox River. U.S. Route 30 passes through the village, leading southeast to Plainfield and northwest to Sugar Grove. Illinois Route 31 runs through the village on the west side of the Fox River, leading northeast to the center of Aurora and southwest to the center of Oswego. Illinois Route 25 runs along the east side of the Fox River, also leading to Aurora and Oswego. According to the 2010 census, Montgomery has a total area of , of which (or 98.19%) is land and (or 1.81%) is water. Education Montgomery is served by five different school districts: West Aurora, East Aurora, Oswego, Yorkville, and Kaneland. History The first European settler arriving in the area was Jacob Carpenter, who came to the Chicago area from Logan County, Ohio, in November 1832. In the fall of 1835, Daniel S. Gray, from Montgomery County, New York, visited the area where his brother Nicholas Gray had located in the previous spring, on a farm now within the limits of Kendall County. He made immediate preparations to settle there, and in the fall of 1836, after his family moved from New York state, he built the first wooden house in the area. It was located in the southern part of what is now Montgomery, near the west bank of the Fox River. Daniel Gray is considered the founder of Montgomery, and bought land grants from the federal government, and had ownership of large tracts of land. The settlement was called "Graystown" for several years, but eventually Gray convinced other settlers to call the small village "Montgomery" after the New York county where he and several other settlers had origins. Daniel Gray founded many companies in Montgomery, including a tavern, store, warehouse, foundry, combine and fabrication shop, and one of the best stone grain mills in the county