It is not clear why it is spelled differently than the many other towns in the United States named after Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. Some say the "u" in "Mount" was accidentally dropped by a town clerk filling out official papers; some say the change was made deliberately to draw attention to the town; some say it uses the French spelling of "mont" as a nod to what was then the region's large French-Canadian population. According to town histories, as late as the 1920s, there was some dispute about how to spell the name, with the post office and one of its most prominent hotels using a "u" for many decades.
Mont Vernon's general history follows that of many towns in this region: Originally settled for agriculture, its farms were hard hit after the Civil War when railroads opened up better farming land in the Midwest. Population peaked in 1870 and began to decline.






