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History of Iowa

Volume III

Counties

(continued)

O'BRIEN COUNTY  lies in the second tier east of the western boundary of the State and also in the second south of the Minnesota line.  It is twenty-four miles square, containing an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles and was originally one vast prairie, entirely destitute of timber with the exception of a few small groves along the Little Sioux River in the southeast corner.  The county was created in 1851 from territory belonging at one time Fayette and was named for William O'Brien, one of the leaders for the independence in Ireland in 1848.  

The first white settlers in the county were H. H. Waterman and family who came from Bremer County and settled in a grove in the southeast corner of the county on the banks of the Little Sioux River in 1856.  Other settlers entered claims in the vicinity and in 1860 a county government was organized by the election of the following officers:  J. C. Furber, judge; H. H. Waterman, treasurer and recorder; Archibald Murray, clerk and surveyor.

The first county-seat was O'Brien, a village in the southeast corner of the county, in the vicinity of most of the settlers.  Here the first term of the District Court was held by Judge Henry Ford.  The first school was taught by Mrs. H. H. Waterman and for some time religious meetings were held in the Waterman cabin.  The O'Brien Pioneer was the first newspaper which was published by B. F. McCormack and J. R. Pumphrey.  At an election held in 1872, it was decided to locate the permanent county-seat in the center of the county where a town was laid out by the county officers.  The name for the town was fixed upon in the following manner:  the first letter of the names of the officials and a few others was taken-Pumphrey, Roberts, Inman, McCormack, Green, Hays, Albright and Renok.  These, P-R-I-M-G-H-A-R, made the name of the new county-seat.  The first house was built by J. R. Pumphrey for the use of the county.  A hotel was erected by C. F. Albright.  In 1873 the Sioux City and St. Paul Railroad was built through the county and the town of Sheldon was laid out upon the line in the northwest part of the county.

OSCEOLA COUNTY, once a part of Fayette, was created in 1851 and named for an Indian chief.  It lies on the Minnesota line in the second tier east of the western boundary of the State and contains twelve townships embracing an area of four hundred square miles, being the smallest county in the State.  It was originally a gently rolling prairie without a tree.  The east fork of the Rock River and the Ocheydan furnish water and drainage.

The first white man who settled within its limits was Captain E. Huff who in the fall of 1870 took a claim in the southwest corner in the valley of Otter Creek.  In the spring of 1871 D. L. McCausland, C. M. Brooks, F. M. Robinson, W. W. Webb, A. M. Culver, Frank Stiles, R. O. Monroe and A. M. Churchhill came from the eastern part of the State and took homesteads.

The county government was organized in October, 1871, by the election of the following officers:  F. M. Robinson, auditor; A. M. Culver, treasurer; C. M. Brooks, clerk; D. L. McCausland, recorder; and Delia Stiles, superintendent of schools.  The election was held in the house of A. M. Culver.  In the fall of 1872 the Sioux City and St. Paul Railroad was built through the town of Sibley which was laid out upon its line.  The town was named for General H. H. Sibley of Minnesota.  The first building was erected the same year by F. M. Robinson, and the first business house by H. K. Rodgers.  Rev. S. Aldrich, a Methodist minister, organized the first religious society in June.  The first school was taught in the fall of 1871 by Mrs. Delia Stiles.

The county-seat was located at Sibley in 1872 and the first term of court was held by Judge Henry Ford in July of the same year.  L. A. Baker established the first newspaper, the Sibley Gazette, in July 1872.  During the same year a court-house was erected costing $5,000

PAGE COUNTY lies immediately north of the Missouri State line and in the second tier east of the Missouri River.  It was created in 1847 and named for Captain John Page of the Fourth United States Infantry who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Palo Alto in the Mexican War.  The area of the county is five hundred fifty-seven square miles and the eastern portion is well supplied with timber along the Nodaway River which flows south through the county.

As early as the spring of 1840 three brothers, George W., Henry and David Farrens, all young unmarried men, came from Jackson County, Missouri, took claims near the southeast corner of the county where they built a cabin and opened farms.  In the spring of 1841 George and David Brock settled near them and in 1842 Burket and Thomas Johnson, William Campbell and Robert Wilson with their families joined the settlement.  In 1843 three brothers, Joseph, Moses and Larkin Thompson settled a few miles southeast of where Clarinda stands.  Nodaway is an Indian name signifying "vindictive" and was given by the Indians to the river because in early days its banks were infested with rattlesnakes.

In 1851 the county was organized by the election of Dr. Alexander Farrens, clerk; Benjamin W. Stafford, sheriff; S. F. Snyder, John Duncan and William Shearer, commissioners.  The election was held at Boulwar's mill where for several years the county business was transacted. The first court was held there in September, 1851, Judge Sloan, presiding.  The commissioners chosen to locate the county-seat met at Boulwar's mill in March, 1853, and selected a site two and one-half miles north on the Nodaway River, where a town was laid out and named Clarinda.  In April, 1853, the first house was built on the plat by Rev. S. Farlow and soon after Judge Snyder erected the second cabin at the new county-seat.  George Rible kept the first hotel and Isabella Farlow opened the first school in  the summer of 1853.  The first mill was built by George Stonebraker in 1846 on the Nodaway River and afterward became known as Boulwar's Mill, where quite a village grew up.  The first orchard in the county was planted in the spring of 1842 by George W. Farrens.  Shenandoah is a thriving town in the western part of the county on the line of a branch of the Burlington Railroad.  Amity or College Springs is in the southern part of the county where a college has been established.  The first newspaper was the Page County Herald, which was established in May, 1859, at Clarinda, by Shoemaker Brothers.

PALO ALTO COUNTY lies in the second tier south of Minnesota and in the fourth east of the west line of the State.  It is twenty-four miles square, containing five hundred seventy-six square miles.  The county was created in  1851 and named for the Battle of Palo Alto, the first fought in the Mexican War.  The west fork of the Des Moines River flows through it in a southeasterly direction and the broad valley is of unsurpassed fertility.  Among the beautiful sheets of water in the county are Medium Lake, Lost Island Lake, Silver Lake, Rush Lake and Elbow Lake.  There were originally about 2,000 acres of native timber in the county, mostly lying along the Des Moines River.

The first settlers were members of an Irish colony who, in July, 1856, made claims in the vicinity of Medium Lake where they built cabins and opened farms.  Among them were John and James Nolan, John Neary, Martin Laughlin, Edward Mahan, Thomas Downey, Jeremiah Evans, R. F. and William Carter, John McCormack, R. Shippey and others, nearly all of whom had families.  They came from Kane County, Illinois, and engaged extensively in stock raising.

The county was organized on the 20th of December at an election held at the cabin of James Nolan where the following officers were chosen:  James Hickey, judge; John W. Mulroney, treasurer; Thomas H. Tobin, sheriff.  Paoli, the first county-seat, is situated on the east bank of the Des Moines River near the center of the county.  Here the first court-house was built about two miles from the south end of Medium Lake.

Emmetsburg was laid out by Martin Coonan at the south end of Medium Lake but for a long time was a town in name only, though  it finally became the county-seat.  Most of the early settlers were Catholics and their first religious services were held in the cabin of James Downey, July, 1857.  In 1869 James P. White established the first newspaper at Emmetsburg called the Palo Alto Democrat.  In 1871 the proprietor of Emmetsburg replatted the town in anticipation of the Milwaukee Railroad which was located through the county-seat.

PLYMOUTH COUNTY lies on the Big Sioux River in the third tier south of the Minnesota line and is one of the largest counties in the State containing eight hundred sixty square miles.  It was created by act of the Legislature in 1851 and named for the Plymouth Colony of the Massachusetts Puritans.  It was attached to Wahkaw County in 1853.  The Little Sioux and Floyd rivers flow through a portion of the county.  In the summer of 1856 J. B. Pinckney, David Mills, Isaac T. Martin, J. McGill, Bratton Vidito, John Hopkins, James Dormichy and Mr. Galletin took claims in the valley of the Big Sioux River and built cabins.  In July they laid out a town which they named Westfield.  The same year A. C. Sheets, James B. Curry, E. S. Hungerford, Joel Phillips and Coryden Hall took claims on the Floyd River.  The county was organized on the 12th of October, 1858, by the election of the following officers:  William Van Linda, judge; Isaac T. Martin, recorder and treasurer; A. C. Sheets, clerk; David M. Mills, sheriff, and A. E. Rea, superintendent of schools.  The place first recognized as the county-seat was the village of Melbourne on the Floyd River where the first court was held by Judge A. W. Hubbard of Sioux City.  Here the first school was taught by William Van Linda.  Westfield, the competitor of Melbourne for the county-seat, was abandoned in 1860 on account of a settlement of half-breed Indians on lands in the vicinity upon which their scrip was located.  The plat upon which Le Mars was laid out was first owned by Jerry Ladd, Mr. Marvin and B. F. Betsworth.  The town was platted the summer of 1869, soon after the completion of the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad to that point.  John I. Blair, who built the road, visited the place with officials of the company and a party of ladies.  It was agreed to form the name of the new town by using the initial letter of the Christian names of the party which were arranged by them to spell Le Mars.  The ladies were Mrs. Adeline M. Swain, Mrs. Galusha Parsons, Mrs. W. W. Walker, Mrs. John Weare, Mrs. W. R. Smith and Mrs. John Cleghorn.  The letters when arranged would make the names Selmar, or Le Mars, and the ladies decided by ballot in favor of Le Mars, which thus became the name of the town.

Among the firs to open business houses in Le Mars were Blodgett and Foster, J. W. Young, John Gordon, Orson Bennett and C. H. Bennett.  On the 3d of February, 1871, J. C. Buchanan established the first newspaper, called the Le Mars Sentinel.  At the general election in 1871 Le Mars was made the county-seat.

POCAHONTAS COUNTY was created in 1851 and named for the Indian maiden who saved the life of Captain John Smith in the early years of the settlement of the colony of Virginia.  It lies in the third tier south of the Minnesota line in the fourth east of the Missouri River and contains an area of five hundred seventy-six squares miles.  The county was attached to Webster in 1855.  The Lizzard and the west fork of the Des Moines River flow through the eastern part of the county among the small lakes within its limits are Swan Lake, Clear Lake and Lizzard Lake.

In February, 1855, Michael Collins, Mr. Hickey and families ascended the Lizzard from Fort Dodge, took claims and built cabins.  The following year John and Patrick Calligan, Dennis Connors, Patrick McCabe, James Donahue and others joined the settlement and opened farms near the Lizzard.  In May, 1857, Robert Struthers, William H. Haite, A. H. Malcome and Gurnsey Smith of Fort Dodge settled in the northern part of the county in what is now Des Moines township.  In 1858 David Slosson, O. F. Avery, Ora Harvey and others settled in the same vicinity and a county government was established by the election of the following officers:  David Slosson, judge; W. H. Haite, treasurer and recorder; A. H. Malcome, clerk; Oscar Slosson, sheriff.  In August, 1859, Judge A. W. Hubbard appointed C. C. Carpenter of Webster County, Miles Mahon of Palo Alto, and Hiram Benjamin of Humboldt, commissioners to locate the county-seat.  They selected a site near the Des Moines River and gave it the name of Rolfe.  Here a town was laid out which became the county-seat.  The entire county was organized into one school district and Miss Nellie Harvey taught the first school in the house of W. H. Haite in 1860.  In the fall of that year a brick courthouse was built in which Judge Hubbard held the first term of court in November.  On the 15th of July, 1869, W. D. McEwen and J. J. Bruce issued the first number of a weekly newspaper named the Pocahontas Journal, which was the first in the county.

Unlike the early officials of many of the counties of northwestern Iowa, those of Pocahontas were honest and competent men who protected the public interests and labored unselfishly for the permanent prosperity of the county.  The town of Pocahontas Center was platted by Frederick Hess on land belonging to Warrick Price in 1870.  It was near the geographical center of the county and in 1875 was made the county-seat.  In 1869 the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad was built through the southwest corner of the county and the town of Fonda was laid out on its line.  The town of Rolfe was laid out in September, 1881, where the Rock Island Railroad crosses the line of the Northwestern, several miles west of the old town of that name.

Gilmore is a town on the line of the Des Moines and Fort Dodge Railroad which was platted by L. C. Thornton for a land company in 1884.

POLK COUNTY was established from the territory of the original county of Keokuk in January, 1846, and named for President James K. Polk.  When first created it embraced a part of Jasper and Dallas but in 1853 the boundaries were fixed as they now are.  It lies in the sixth tier east of the Missouri River and in the fourth north of Missouri.  The Des Moines River flows through it from north to south and the Raccoon entering from the west unites with the Des Moines.

An account of its earliest settlements and the establishment of Fort Des Moines will be found elsewhere.  Thomas Mitchell settled at Apple Grove in April, 1844, and in 1845 John Saylor located in a grove on the east side of the Des Moines River about six miles north of the fort.  In 1846 Eli Trullinger settled in Franklin township at a grove which bears his name.  Walker Corey and John Fisher with their families located in Elkhart township in 1846 near Corey's Grove; Riley Thornton settled in Delaware township, the same year, on Little Four Mile Creek and George Bebee located in Madison township.  James N. Stewart settled in Camp and James Smith in Douglass township in 1847.  Dr. T. K. Brooks, in 1845, bought a claim on the east side of the Des Moines River and was the first postmaster of Fort Des Moines.  A town was laid out on the east side and named Brooklyn which aspired to become the county-seat but failing disappeared from the map.  James C. Jordon took a claim several miles west of the fort in 1846 on a creek which flows into the Raccoon River.

The first election in the county was held April 2, 1846, at which the following officers were chosen; John Saylor, probate judge; W. T. Ayres, treasurer; Thomas Mitchell, sheriff; Thomas McMullen, recorder; Benjamin Saylor, W. H. Meacham and E. W. Fouts, commissioners.  On the 25th of May of the same year the county-seat was established at Fort Des Moines and the first term of court was held that spring by Judge Joseph Williams, one of the log houses of the garrison serving as a court-house.

The town of Fort Des Moines was platted by A. D. Jones, county surveyor, in July, 1846.  In July, 1849, Barlow Granger established the first newspaper in the county which was a weekly named the Iowa Star.  In 1847 Miss Davis opened a school in one of the government buildings, room No. 26.  The Capital of the State was located at Des Moines in 1857 and the first railroad, the Des Moines Valley, reached the city on the 29th of August, 1866.  This road was built up the Des Moines valley from Keokuk.  The Rock Island Railroad reached the Capital a year later.

POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY lies on the east side of the Missouri River in the third tier north of the Missouri State line.  It is one of the largest counties in the State containing an area of nine hundred sixty square miles.  Next the Missouri River are level bottom lands ranging in width from three to ten miles; while back of these high bluffs rise abruptly to a height of from one to three hundred feet.  Eastward the surface is broken into steep ravines and hills gradually becoming gently rolling prairie.  As originally created in 1847 Pottawattamie County embraced the territory now divided into the counties of Fremont, Page, Taylor, Adams, Montgomery, Mills, Cass and a portion of Ringgold, Union, Adair, Guthrie, Decatur and Harrison.  Its name is derived from the Pottawattamie tribe of Indians which formerly occupied that portion of Iowa.  A sketch of the earliest settlements has been given in another place.

The county was organized in September, 1848, by the election of the following officers:  A. H. Perkins, David D. Yearsley and George D. Coulter, commissioners; T. Burdick, clerk; Alexander McRea, sheriff.

The first town laid out was called Hart's Bluff and stood on the present site of Council Bluffs, which was later called "Traders Point," and was established by Mormons who were the early settlers.  In 1846 Colonel Kane of Pennsylvania came to the settlement and organized the "Mormon Battalion" for service in the Mexican War.  He was a warm friend of the Mormons who changed the name of their town to Kanesville in his honor.  It retained this name until 1853 when the Legislature, acting upon a petition of the citizens of the village, changed it to Council Bluffs.  Evan Greene was the first postmaster, appointed in 1848.  The first court was held by Judge James Sloan in 1851.  In 1849-50-51 vast numbers of gold seekers passed through Kanesville on their way to California and large stores were established to furnish supplies for the long overland journey.  It became one of the chief outfitting frontier towns and was for several years infested with lawless desperadoes who were strong enough to defy the civil authorities.  The citizens finally organized and resorted to lynch law before these outlaws could be driven out.

In 1848, Orson Jyde, one of the Mormon leaders, established a weekly newspaper at Kanesville, named the Frontier Guardian, which was conducted in the interest of the Mormon church.  In 1850 L. W. Babbitt established a weekly Democratic paper the Bugle.  In 1853 a United States Land Office was established at Council Bluffs.

Most of the Mormon settlers who founded Kanesville and were among the pioneers in that part of the State eventually joined their brethren in Utah and were among the founders of Salt Lake City.

The Methodists of Kanesville organized a society in 1850 of which Rev. William Simpson was the first pastor.  In 1853 they built the first church in Council Bluffs.  The Rock Island Railroad was completed to Council Bluffs in May, 1869.

POWESHICK COUNTY was created on the 17th of February, 1843, and named for a chief of the Sac Indians.  The name signified "Roused Bear."  This county is in the fifth tier west of the Mississippi River, in the fourth north of the Missouri State line, is twenty-four miles square and contains five hundred eighty-two square miles.

Richard B. Ogden was the first white settler, taking a claim in Union township in the spring of 1843.  Daniel and Joseph W. Satchell and Richard Cheeseman settled near him the same year.  In 1844 Mahlon Woodward, Thomas Rigdon and others arrived.  William English settled on Mill Creek in 1845 where he built the first sawmill in the county.  Martin Snyder, in 1846, took a claim adjoining the land upon which Montezuma stands.  Henry Zook settled in a grove on Bear Creek in 1845 and in 1846 John J. Talbott with his wife, seven sons and six daughters came from Ohio, locating in a grove which took the name of the family and which was near where Brooklyn stands.  Talbott entered the first tract of land in the county in 1851 and became the first postmaster.  The survey of public lands was completed in 1847.  The first school was taught in the winter of 1847-8 by Stephen Moore in a log cabin in Union township.  In 1847 the first mail route was established from Iowa City to Fort Des Moines, running through Poweshiek County, over which the mail was carried on horseback.

The county was organized in April, 1848, by the election of the following officers:  Richard B. Ogden, Martin Snyder and Jacob Yeager, commissioners; Stephen Moore, clerk; Isaac G. Wilson, treasurer, and William English, sheriff.  The county-seat was located at Montezuma where land was entered by the county and platted for the town.  Lots were sold to raise money to build a court-house.  William H. Barnes erected the first building at the new county-seat in 1848.  Isaac G. Wilson built a log hotel the same year and in June, 1850, the first store was opened by Gideon Wilson.  In 1856 John Cassady established the first newspaper, the Montezuma Republican.

In March, 1854, J. B. Grinnell, Dr. Thomas Holyoke, Rev. Homer Hamlin and Henry M. Hamilton from the States of New York and Massachusetts laid out a town for the purpose of planting a colony and founding a college.  The town was named Grinnell for the projector of the enterprise.  During the year several buildings were erected; a store was opened by Anor Scott, a hotel was started by George Chambers and a small building erected for school and church purposes.  Grinnell college was founded in 1855.

Brooklyn was platted by Robert Manatt in April, 1855, and the first house built the same year by Robert Shimer.  Malcom was laid out in 1866 by Abel Kimball and Z. P. Wigton.  The Rock Island Railroad was built through the towns of Grinnell and Brooklyn in 1863.

RINGGOLD COUNTY was created in 1851 and named for Major Samuel Ringgold who was mortally wounded in the Battle of Palo Alto in the Mexican War.  It lies on the Missouri State line in the fourth tier east of the Missouri River and contains five hundred forty-two square miles.  The Platte and several branches of the Grand River flow through the county in a southerly direction.  Belts of native woods are found along the water courses but a large part of the county is rolling prairie through which the larger streams cut the drift to a depth of from one to two hundred feet.

The first settler was Charles H. Schooler who, in 1844, located with his family in the southeast corner of the county, they were for two years the only white people.  In 1846 James M. Tithrow and family settled near them.  In the spring of 1848 several families took claims in various portions of the county.  In 1851 commissioners chosen by the Legislature located the county-seat four miles south of the center of the county where a town was laid out and named Urbana.

In October, 1852, while Ringgold was attached to Taylor County, Judge Taylor ordered an election district to be made of Ringgold to be called Schooler township and a voting place to be at the house of Lot Hobbs where the citizens might vote at the presidential election in November.  In January, 1855, commissioners were again chosen to relocate the county-seat.  The place selected was on a farm belonging to Edward A. Temple, who sold it to the county.  Here a town was laid out and named Mount Ayr.  Soon after an election was held at which the following officers were chosen:  J. C. Hagans, judge; M. R. Brown, clerk; J. W. Cofer, recorder and treasurer, and Hiram Imus, sheriff.  A log court-house was erected in the spring of 1856 where the first court was held by Judge J. S. Townsend in May, 1857.  The first settlers in Mount Ayr were David Edwards, Oran, Give, Chester Stancliff, B. B. Dunning and A. G. Beal who located there in 1855.  Dr. E. Keith was the first physician and Henry Crabb the first merchant.

In 1852 L. P. Allen came to Ringgold County from North Carolina, bringing with him two slaves, a boy fourteen and a girl sixteen years of age.  Finding that he could not legally hold slaves in Iowa, he sold them to a man in St. Josephs, Missouri, for a thousand dollars.

The Mount Ayr Republican was the first newspaper in the county and was established in the spring of 1861 by P. O. James with George Burton as editor.  The Burlington was the first railroad in the county.

In 1852 L. P. Allen came to Ringgold County from North Carolina, bringing with him two slaves, a boy fourteen and a girl sixteen years of age.  Finding that he could not legally hold slaves in Iowa, he sold them to a man in St. Josephs, Missouri, for a thousand dollars.

The Mount Ayr Republican was the first newspaper in the county and was established in the spring of 1861 by P. O. James with George Burton as editor.  The Burlington was the first railroad in the county.

RISLEY COUNTY was created in 1851 and embraced the territory now constituting the county of Hamilton.  It was attached to Polk and afterwards to Boone for election, revenue and judicial purposes.  In the same month, by an act of the Legislature, the county of Webster was created embracing the territory of both Risley and Yell counties by which act these two ceased to exist.  An act of the same session which took effect before the union of these two counties, changed the name of Risley to Webster, so that for a period of five months and nine days the former county of Risley (now Hamilton) was Webster County.  This came from the fact that the act changing the name of Risley to Webster took effect upon publication January 22, 1853, while the act consolidating Yell and Risley did not become a law until the first of July following.

SAC COUNTY was created in 1851 and named for the Sac Indians.  It lies in the fourth tier south of Minnesota and in the third tier east of the Missouri River, is twenty-four miles square and embraces five hundred seventy-six square miles.  The county is watered by branches of the Boyer and Raccoon rivers flowing in a southerly direction through the county which is on the divide between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers; the waters of the Raccoon flow into the former and the Boyer into the Missouri.

The first settler in the county was Otho Williams who, in 1854, located at Big Grove in the southeast corner on the North Raccoon River, where he cleared a farm in the woods while thousands of acres of fertile prairie ready for the breaking plow surrounded the grove on all sides.  Soon after F. M. Corey, Leonard Austin, Joseph Austin, W. F. Lagourge and Seymour Wagoner settled in various parts of the county.  Mr. Wagoner became major of a cavalry regiment during the War of the Rebellion and was killed while gallantly leading his command in battle.  On the 4th of July, 1855, a town was laid out on the banks of the Raccoon River for the county-seat and named Sac City.  Previous to 1856 Sac had been attached to Greene County for judicial, election and revenue purposes.

The first election was held April 7, 1856, at the house of Eugene Criss, at which the following officials were chosen:   Samuel Watts, judge; Francis Ayers, clerk; F. M. Corey, recorder and treasurer; W. F. Lagourge, sheriff, and H. C. Crawford, prosecuting attorney.  The first term of the District Court was held at Sac City by Judge C. J. McFarland in June, 1857.

For many years the settlers were obliged to go to Fort Dodge, a distance of fifty miles, for goods, groceries and mail.  The first house at Sac City was built by Eugene Criss for a hotel, which was for many years the station for the semi-weekly stage line running between Cedar Falls and Sioux City.  In 1863 Grant City was laid out in the southern part of the county on the Raccoon River.  The first newspaper was the Sac Sun, established in July, 1871, by J. N. Miller of Sac City.  Odebolt, in the western part of the county, was laid out by the Blair Land Company in 1877 on a branch of the Northwestern Railroad.  The town of Wall Lake was platted by the Blair Company in 1877, three miles south of the famous lake of that name in the Maple valley.

SCOTT COUNTY was created in 1837 from territory belonging to the original counties of Dubuque, Cook and Muscatine.  It lies on the Mississippi River in the fifth tier north of Missouri and contains four hundred fifty-five square miles.  The county was named for General Winfield Scott who was in command of the department of which this county was a part in 1832.  An account of the earliest settlements and the contests for the county-seat have been given elsewhere.

The survey of the public lands of Iowa began in the fall of 1836 and was completed in Scott County, by A. Bent, in March, 1837.  The first county officials were appointed by Governor Lucas in 1838 and consisted of Ebenezer Cook, probate judge; A. H. Davenport, sheriff; and Isaac A. Hedges and John Porter, justices of the peace.  D. C. Eldridge was the first postmaster of Davenport.  In October, 1838, Judge Thomas S. Wilson held the first term of court in the county.  Alexander McGregor opened the first law office in 1836.  The first steam mill was built by A. C. Fulton in 1844.  The first church was organized in the spring of 1838 by Father Samuel Muzzuchelli, and Italian Catholic priest.  A Presbyterian church was organized the same year with ten members.  The first sermon was preached by the noted pioneer Congregational minister, Rev. Asa Turner, in Pleasant Valley in the summer of 1836.

The Wapsipinicon River forms a large part of the northern boundary of the county, while the Mississippi flows along the eastern and southern limits.  These rivers are bordered with fine bodies of native timber while several groves are found in the interior of the county.

SHELBY COUNTY was embraced in the original county of Keokuk when it extended west to the Missouri River.  In 1850 the county was organized with present boundaries and named for General Isaac Shelby, an officer of the Revolutionary War.  It lies in the second tier east of the Missouri River and in the fourth north of the Missouri State line, is twenty-four miles square, embracing in its area five hundred ninety square miles.  The entire surface is rolling and was originally largely prairie with numerous small groves of native woods scattered over it.  The West Nishnabotna and numerous branches of the Missouri and Boyer rivers furnish a water supply.

The first white men known to have made homes in the county were two hunters and trappers, Nicholas Beery and Mr. Bowman, who built a cabin near the Nishnabotna in the fall of 1847 and spent several years at their occupation along the numerous water courses.  In 1851 Mr. Beery was attacked by a wandering band of Indians, robbed and beaten so brutally that he died of his injuries.  The next settlers were largely Mormons who separated from the main body who, in 1848-9, made settlements in several of the Missouri River counties.  Abraham Galland and his son-in-law, William Jordan, made claims at a large grove in the northwest portion of the county in the fall of 1848, built a log cabin and became the first permanent residents of the county.  Galland's Grove contained about a thousand acres of timber land and attracted about it many families.  Among the earliest settlers were William Felshaw, Solomon and Joseph Hancock, Joseph Roberts, James M. Butler, Andrew Foutz, Franklin Rudd, Mansel Wicks and John A. McIntosh.  The latter was a noted Mormon pioneer preacher.

The county was organized in 1853 by the election of the following officers:  William Vanausdall, judge; Andrew Foutz, sheriff; Vinsan G. Perkins, clerk; Alexander McCord, recorder and treasurer, and James Ward, prosecuting attorney.  There were but thirteen votes polled at this election.  The first court was held in 1853 by Judge Samuel H. Riddle in a building used for a grocery and saloon at Galland's Grove.  A location was chosen for the county-seat in what is now Grove township, where a town was laid out and named Shelbyville.  Several buildings were erected and for five years the new town grew into a thriving village.  But, on losing the county-seat, the town soon became deserted and finally disappeared by the removal of the buildings to other places.  In 1857 the town of Simoda was platted near the center of the county with the expectation that it would become the county-seat.  A newspaper was established by Samuel Dewell named the New Idea; the first number was issued early in 1858.  This town attained a size of twenty buildings and made a vigorous fight to secure the county-seat but failing, fell into decay, the buildings were for the most part removed to Harlan and the town entirely disappeared.  In 1858 the town of Harlan was laid out near the geographical center of the county and named for the first Republican United States Senator in Iowa.  The first building was erected by Isaac Plum and in the fall of 1858 William W. Newton built a hotel.  In January, 1859, the Shelby County Courier was established at Harlan by J. B. Besack and a determined campaign opened to secure the county-seat which was successful before the end of the year.  In 1878 a railroad was built from Avoca, on the line of the Rock Island, to Harlan; in 1881 a branch of the northwestern was built through the northeastern part of the county; and the next year the Milwaukee road was built through the northwestern portion of the county.  Shelby is a flourishing town in the south side of the county on the Rock Island road.

SIOUX COUNTY was at one time included in the original county of Fayette and was created in 1851.  Its western boundary is the Big Sioux River and it lies in the second tier south of Minnesota.  The county has an area of seven hundred sixty-nine square miles and was named for the Sioux Indians who, at one time, occupied northwestern Iowa.  The Rock and Floyd rivers flow through it in a southwesterly direction and the surface is rolling prairie with but little native timber.  There are bluffs along the Big Sioux River rising to a height of from one to two hundred feet.

Among the first settlers in the county were E. L. Stone, F. M. Hubbell, W. H. and Francis Frame and Joseph Bell.  They located in the valley of the Big Sioux River in 1859.

In 1860 the county was organized by the election of the following officers:  W. H. Frame, judge; F. M. Hubbell, clerk; E. L. Stone, recorder and treasurer.  There were but fifteen persons in the county at this time and for many years the danger from attacks of the Sioux Indians was so great that but few settlers ventured so far on the frontier.  In 1860 a town was laid out on the Big Sioux named Calliope.  It was in the southern part of the county and became the first county-seat, remaining such until 1872.  There the first school was taught in 1867.  A newspaper was established at Calliope by John R. Curry named the Sioux County Herald.  In 1869 Henry Hospers and others from Pella visited the county and made arrangements to establish a colony of Hollanders.  Five hundred sixty-two preemptions were filed on Government lands in the vicinity of the Floyd River in the southeastern part of the county and in the spring of 1870 forty families from Pella settled upon them.  During the summer Henry Hospers laid out the town of Orange City, which, in 1872, became the county-seat and the Sioux County Herald was moved to that place.

SLAUGHTER COUNTY was created in January, 1838, and embraced a portion of the territory now included in the counties of Louisa, Muscatine and Henry.  It was named for William B. Slaughter, Secretary of the Territory of Wisconsin.  The county-seat was located at Astoria where the first courts were held in 1837 by Judges Irwin and Williams.  The citizens of the county were dissatisfied with the name which had been secured through the manipulations of the obscure official whose name it bore and,  upon petition the Legislature relieved them by changing the boundaries of the county and naming it Washington.

STORY COUNTY was created in January, 1846, and named for Chief Justice Joseph Story of the United States Supreme Court.  It lies near the geographical center of the State, being in the fifth tier both from  the north and south and in the sixth from both the east and west boundaries.  It contains an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles.  The Skunk River and several tributaries flow through it in a southeasterly direction, the shores of which are bordered with native woods.

On the 4th of April, 1848, William Parker settled in a grove near the southeast corner o the county and was the first white man to make a home within its limits.  In 1850 James C. Smith of Indiana, with a family of five sons, opened a farm.  In the spring of 1851 D. W. and Mormon Ballard, William Brezley and Isaac Atkinson settled in a body of timber which was given the name of Ballard's Grove.  The same year J. K. Keighley and S. M. Cary made claims on the Skunk River and G. N. Kirkman settled on Indian Creek.

In 1853 commissioners selected for that purpose located the county-seat and gave it the name of Nevada.  In June the land thus chosen was deeded to the county by J. W. Mortis and a town laid out in which he was the owner of every alternate lot.  The first election was held in April, 1853, at which the following officers were chosen:  E. C. Evans, judge; Franklin Thompson, clerk; John Zenor, recorder and treasurer; Eli Deal, sheriff, and John Keagley, school fund commissioner.  The first term of court was held in a little log cabin at the new county-seat in August, 1854, at which Judge J. C. McFarland presided.  The first house in Nevada was built in October, 1853, by T. E. Alderman who was the first store-keeper and postmaster.  The first court-house built in 1856 was burned on the night of December 31, 1863.  The State Agricultural College was located in Story County in 1859 on a farm of six hundred forty-eight acres lying on Squaw Creek.  Story County secured the college by a donation to the institution of $10,000 and several tracts of land from citizens.  In 1857 the Nevada Republican, a weekly newspaper, was established by R. H. Shrall.  The Northwestern Railroad was extended to Nevada in the summer of 1864 and the town of Ames laid out on its line near the Agricultural College in February, 1865.  This town was named for Oakes Ames one of the largest stockholders in the construction company.

 

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