Chapter Eight

ORGANIZATlON OF MAHASKA COUNTY.

By an act of the legislature of the Territory of Iowa, February 5, 1844, provision was made for the organization of the counties of Keokuk and Mahaska. This act provided that the inhabitants of all territory ranging north and west from the last organized county should be under the jurisdiction of said county for all judicial and other legal purposes. For this reason Mahaska county records show that its county commissioners controlled the scattered iilhabitants of the territory as far west and including that on which the city of Des Moines is now located. Mahaska county territory was a part of the original Des Moines county. William Edmundson was appointed sheriff, and Micajah T. Williams was appointed clerk. Upon these two officials, according to law, devolved the duty of perfecting the organization. As there was no official in the community authorized to administer oaths. William Edmundson was also appointed justice of the peace by Governor Chambers, March 10, 1844.

M. T. Williams was a young attorney who had recently come into the new community from Mount Pleasant. The author knew him as an
accurate, painstaking and reliable business man. No selection could have been more fortunate than Mr. Williams for the task of making accurate reco.rds for the new county. He continued to serve as clerk of the court until 1854. He also served two terms in the state legislature and filled other important offices in the county.

William Edmundson, the first sheriff of the county, served from 1844 to 1850. He was also elected to that office in 1856 to fill a vacancy, serving until 1859. He was a good executive officer. The first sheriff of Mahaska
county had quite an interesting experience in the pioneer life of the west. Born in Harrison county, Kentucky, on October 7, 1805, where he spent his boyhood and received a good common-school education. At twenty-two years of age he went with his father's family to Putnam county, Indiana. From that state in 1832 he enlisted in the Black Hawk war. His company reached the frontier, but were not actively engaged, as the war was of short duration. He made a trip to New Orleans with a boat load of provisions and was in Texas at the time it was passing through its revolution. After his father's death in 1836 the entire family moved to Des Moines county, Iowa, where he engaged in farming. While here he served for several years as justice of the peace and one year on the board of county commissioners. These experiences were valuable to him in view of his subsequent history. In 1843 Mr. Edmundson came to the New Purchase, locating on a claim near Six Mile. While there he received appointment as sheriff, and also justice of the peace. He represented this county in the state legislature during the sessions of 1847-8. In 1850 he went with a company of emigrants to California, where he remained until 1855, since which time his home continued to beat Oskaloosa, until the time of his death in 1862.

These two gentlemen had no easy task before them. Their first duty was to divide the new county into election precincts. There was no map or outline of the county. Indian trails were the only highways. No bridges or well known fords in the rivers. It sometimes required hours of search to find a settler's cabin hidden away in some sheltering grove. Having divided the county and its adjacent western territory into election precincts, they called to their assistance John W. Jones and William A. Delashmutt to aid them in finding and appointing a sufficient number of election officers for holding the first election, which took place on the first Monday in April, 1844. The elections were held at some settler's cabin having a central locatIon. Nine election precincts were named, each having a board of five members, except Jackson. They were as follows:
Harrison - Brittain Edwards, John Newell, Jacob Hamilton, Ephraim Munsell and Col. Vance.
Spring Creek - Jonathan Williarns, Isaac N. Seevers, D. Bowers, George W. Seevers and William Pilgrim. Dr. D. A. Hoffman has among his relics and curios the box used in receiving the ballots at this first eleetion in Spring Creek. The election was held at the home of Poultney Loughridge.
Jefferson - A. C. Sharp, Allen Lowe, Thomas Long, Thomas Stanley and John Long.
White Oak - John N. Butler, Henry Bond, Pleasant Parker, B. Stone and Jacob Hunter.
Six Mile Prairie - G. G. Rose, Thomas Wilson, Wesley Freel, William Bassett and John Patcher.
Monroe - John Hollingsworth, Isaac Bedwell; M. P. Crowder, Robert Ritchey and George Bailey.
Red Rock - William E. James, Samuel Geddis, Argus A. Martin, John M. Mikesell and John Jordan.
Jackson (now Scott) - Jacob H. Majors, Mr. Highland and Hezekiah Gay.
White Breast - J. B. Hamilton, Albert Vertreese, Elias Elder, Osee Matthews and Green T. Clark.
Red Rock and White Breast are now parts of Marion county.

The election returns showed the following officers to have been chosen:  John White, probate judge; William Edmundson, sheriff; William Pilgrim, recorder; William D. Canfield, treasurer; W. A. Delashmutt, assessor; Brittain Edvvards, coroner; A. S. Nichols, Wilson Stanley and Robert Curry, county commissioners; David Stump, surveyor; and John W. Cunningham, commissioner's clerk.

These gentlemen were sworn into office shortly after their election and constitute the first quorum of officers which appears on the records of the county.

The county commissioners met on May 14, 1844, and selected the first grand jury and petit jury. On the same day the county was divided into twelve election precincts. For the want of a suitable seal the commissioners selected the eagle side of a dime, which on July 17th was superseded by substituting a twenty-five-cent piece to be used as a temporary seal.

The first court ever held in Mahaska county was in July, 1844, by Joseph Williams, of Muscatine, who was judge in the second judicial district of Iowa Territory. The court had jurisdiction in both federal and local affairs and was supported by the government. Its sessions were held in a log house ovmed by William D. Canfield and located within the present city limits of Oskaloosa. The building was unfinished, being without a floor. By the use of some flour barrels and loose boards a platform and desk were improvised for the use of the judges. The other attendants at court fared as best they could. Major Thompson was United States attorney. Other attorneys present were W. W. Chapman, C. W. Slagle, George Atchison, Henry Templeton and John W. Alley. The last named gentleman was from Red Rock.

There seems to have been but very little business before this court, but they managed by frecluent recesses and adjournments to remain in session for one week. The grand jury held its session in the hollow a quarter of a mile north of the square, hidden away in the tall prairie grass. There were no accommodations for strangers except in the cabin homes of the increasing population. As these were always open to the wayfarer, those in attendance at court sought lodging wherever it could be found.

The records show eight civil and four criminal cases on the docket. The jury case was an appeal by James Hall vs. Joseph Koons, and involved a conflict of claims. The grand jury brought in four indictments. One for larceny, two for assault and one for selling liquor to the Indians. In each of these indictments the United States was the prosecuting party.

On July 28, 1845, the first naturalization papers were granted by this court.

Judge Joseph Williams was quite a noted character in his time. At the time of his appearance in Mahaska county he was about fifty years of age a,nd had been on the bench as a judge in the district courts of the Territory of Iowa for a number of years. From what is said of him, he seems to have had a good reputation as a jurist, but was very popular as an entertainer. He was especially skillful in the use of musical instruments, as well as being a good singer and an entertaining lecturer. He always had a faculty of making the most of the rude surroundings of frontier life, which made him welcome wherever he went.

We are told also that Judge Williams was a ventriloquist of peculiar power, and that he never failed to exercise his gifts on the uninitiated when opportunity offered.

Micajah T. Williams, clerk of Mahaska county, granted the first marriage license on May 30, 1844, to S. N. Nicholson and Eleanor May, and the marriage ceremony was performed June 2d by Levi Brainbridge, a justice of the peace. These parties, however, lived west of the present boundary of the county. In point of fact, the first marriage of persons living in the county occurred June 6, 1844. George Lawrence and Amanda Jered were the contracting parties. George N. Duncan was the justice who performed the ceremony.

We are told of one wedding occasion where the justice required the contracting parties to take an oath with up-lifted hands.

The first bill of divorce found on the county records bears the date of November 15, 1845, Rebecca Ash vs. Thomas Ash, in which the court granted the petition.

The first Mahaska county courthouse was built during the winter of 1844-45. The means were secured from the sale of certain town lots, the law requiring the proceeds of such sale to be set apart for the purpose of building a court house and jail. Mr. James Edgar had the contract for the erection of the building. It was a frame structure, 28x50 feet two stories in height. A house raising was advertised on a given day and the timbers were put in place with a frontier frolic. It was built on the northwest corner of the square, the lot now occupied by the Oskaloosa National Bank. The second floor was used for offices. The first floor was occupied by the county as a court room until 1855. It was also used for religlous services and other public gatherings. In 1875 the building was sold and moved three blocks west on High Avenue, where it was used for a time as a hotel. Later it was partly destroyed by fire and gave place for buildings of a more substantial character.

We have no absolute census of the county until 1850, when its  population is reported by the government census to be 5,989. In 1860 the census returns show 22,508; 1870, 25,202; 1880, 28,805; and in 1900, 34,273. The census returns of 1905 show a falling off in population of 2,941, reducing our population to 31,332. It is quite probable that the child is now 1iving who will see Mahaska county with twice its present population.