Monroe County, Kentucky Johnson during his 1964 landslide the last to pass thirty percent. Monroe County, Kentucky Monroe County is a county located in the Pennyroyal Plateau region of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,963. Its county seat is Tompkinsville. The county is named for President James Monroe. It is a prohibition or dry county. Monroe County is the only county of the 2,957 in the United States named for a President where the county seat is named for his Vice-President. The county was formed in 1820; and named for James Monroe the fifth President,
James Monroe of Virginia and rose to national prominence as a diplomat in France when he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During the War of 1812, Monroe served in critical roles as Secretary of State and the Secretary of War under President James Madison. Facing little opposition from the waning Federalist Party, Monroe was easily elected president in 1816, winning over eighty percent against Rufus King (who hadn't even been chosen by a convention since the Federalists were too weak to organize) of the electoral vote and becoming the last president during the First Party System era of American politics.