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"Past 2 Present"

 Clarke County, Iowa

I have no books which are specifically for this County, but most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

Click here for a brief history of Clarke County

Periodicals

• October 1968
  • 1850 Census
  • 1854 Special Census
  • 1863 Tax List
  • Abandoned Towns
  • Grand Army of the Republic
  • Township Map
• January 1969
  • Bible - John M. WALLACE
  • Bible - Robert JAMISON
  • Bible - Thomas Benton JAMISON
  • Bible - Thomas KEERAN
  • Chaney Cemetery
  • First Book of Wills
  • First Marriages
  • Gregg Cemetery
  • Hebron Cemetery
  • Lacelle Cemetery
  • Warrick Cemetery
• Marriages Performed by the Rev. Sherburn A. Elliott (Winter-Spring 1982)
• Rhoades/Rhoads/Rhodes/Roads Cemetery (Summer 1983)
• Civil War Veteran Burials, Maple Hill Cemetery, Osceola (Autumn 1988)
• Harrison Cemetery (Summer 1989)
• Webster Funeral Home, Osceola (Spring 1990)

Palimpsest:

• Hopeville (October 1945) (Text Only)

Annals of Iowa History:

• History of Clark Co. (October 1869) TEXT Only

CLARKE COUNTY lies in the second tier north of the Missouri line, in the seventh west of the Mississippi River and contains twelve congressional townships embracing an area of four hundred thirty-two square miles. It was originally a part of Demoine County but in January, 1846, the new county was established and named for James Clarke who was then Governor of Iowa Territory. The boundaries formerly included the east half of Union County but did not then embrace the eastern tier of townships. In 1849 the boundaries were changed and the county assumed its present form. In 1846, when the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo took place, John and James Longley and John Conger, with their families, became separated from one of the trains and camped six miles south of where Osceola stands. Not being able to find the train they decided to remain where they were, open farms and make homes. The place was long known as "Lost Camp" and became the first settlement in Clarke county. In the spring they found other families of Mormons who had made homes but a few miles from them and all remained and became prosperous farmers. In 1850 Robert Jamison, A. Colier, Bernard and James G. Arnold, J. Ellis, John Shearer and William Overton settled in the southern part of the county. Soon after a colony from Van Buren County came and laid out the town of Hopeville near the west line of the county, settling in that vicinity.
     In 1851 the county was organized by the election of the following officers: John A. Lindsley, judge; Alonzo R. Williams, clerk; G. W. Glenn, treasurer, and Ivison Ellis, sheriff. The commissioners chosen to locate the county-seat selected a farm entered by George W. Howe, which was purchased for one hundred dollars and the town of Osceola laid out upon it. George W. Howe built the first house in Osceola in 1851 in which he opened the first store in the county. At a sale of lots in October eighty-five were sold at an average price of twenty-two dollars each. The first term of court was held in 1853 by Judge J. S. Townsend. At the general election in August, 1852, but eighty-one votes were polled. The first newspaper was established in 1858 by G. S. Pike and T. R. Oldham and named the Osceola Courier. The Burlington and Missouri Railroad was built through the county and through the town of Osceola, and completed to the Missouri River in 1868.

Source: History of Iowa: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century by Benjamin F. Gue. New York: The Century History Co. 1903 #