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Adair cont.
McDonald and Alfred Jones, settled in different parts of the county, and
commercial improvements. As they all located in the timber, and were in a
manner isolated, the early settlements progressed slowly. The first
white child, Margaret Johnson, was born in 1850, and the first death was
that of a child of John Gibson, in the same year. During the years 1855
and 1856, the land was nearly all entered by capitalists, and has been
held by them for speculation, thus retarding the improvement of the
county, but heavy taxes have induced many of them to place their lands in
market, and good locations can now be obtained at from three to five
dollars per acre.
The county has an agricultural society which has been in operation for
years.
FONTANELLE, the county seat, is located a little southwest of the
center of the county, and is finely laid out on a beautiful prairie.
It contains some fine public buildings, and has a population of about two
hundred. The Methodists, Christians and Congregationalists, all have
societies organized, but are as yet without church edifices. There is one
newspaper, published weekly by James C. Gibbs. Fontanelle Lodge, No. 138,
A. F. & A. M., which has been in operation seven years, holds its
meetings on Saturday evenings previous to the full moon.
ARBOR HILL is a post office in Harrison township, 18 miles
northeast of Fontanelle, on the State road from Des Moines to Council
Bluffs. It receives six miles per week. The soil of the surrounding
country is rich and well adapted to the production of wheat and other
small grains. Population of township 180.
There are also the villages and post offices of Adair, Greenford, Hebron
and Holiday.
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Adams County.
Is situated in the third tier of counties
from the Missouri River, and the second north of the State line. It is
bounded on the north by Cass and Adair, on the east by Union, on the south
by Taylor, and on the west by Montgomery.
Its
prairies are high and rolling, and watered by the Nodaway, One Hundred and
Two and Little Platte Rivers, and their tributaries, which are skirted
with good timber. The soil is rich and fertile, and like the adjoining
counties is especially adapted to stock raising. Coal is found in large
quantities on the Middle Nodaway, and will supply the future wants of the
surrounding country.
The county
was settled in 1851, by Messrs. Walter Bowman and Toar from Nodaway Co.,
Mo., and the first election was held in April, 1853, when the county was
organized. The proposed line of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad
passes through the county.
QUINCY,
the county seat, is situated in the central western portion of the county,
two miles east of the Middle Nodaway River, on high prairie, with a heavy
body of timber on the west. It contains four general stores, one grocery,
one drug store, one agricultural implement dealer and two flour mills.
Population about 275.
SIMPSON is
situated on the banks of the East Nodaway, six miles south of Quincy,
contains a Methodist Church, a Lodge of I. O. G. T., and one general
store. The township consists of prairie interspersed with fine groves of
oak, hickory, walnut and maple. Population of village 100.
CARL is in
the northeastern part of the county, ten miles from Quincy. It has one
Methodist Church. Population of the township 120.
NEVINSVILLE
is a post office in the north-eastern corner of the county, 18 miles from
Quincy. There are in addition the post offices of Mt. Etna, Mt. Washington
and Queen City.
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