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"Past 2 Present"
"Past
2 Present"
Clay County, Iowa
Books
-
Northwestern Iowa : its history and traditions,
1804-1926 : comprising the counties of Woodbury, Monona,
Plymouth, Cherokee, O'Brien, Sioux, Lyon, Osceola, Sac, Buena Vista,
Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Calhoun, Ida,
Crawford, Carroll and Greene / Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1927,
1563 pgs. (Surname list
and Table of Contents)
Most counties are included in
the Iowa statewide books
Click here for a brief
history of Clay County
Periodicals
Palimpsest:
CLAY COUNTY is in the second tier south of the
Minnesota line, in the third east of the western boundary of the State
and contains sixteen congressional townships embracing an area of five
hundred seventy-six square miles. It was created in 1851 and named for
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Clay, Jr., who was killed at the Battle of
Buena Vista in the Mexican War. In January, 1853, Clay County was
attached to Wahkaw for judicial and election purposes.
In July, 1856, the first white settlers came
and took claims in the woods on the south side of the Little Sioux River
in the southwest corner of the county. They were Christian Kirchner and
Andrew S. Mead with their families and John J. Bicknell. They built
cabins and broke up prairie for farms. In the fall Ezra Wilcox, James
Bicknell and two brothers named Gillett brought their families and
settled in the same vicinity. A town was laid out on the river bluff and
named Peterson which became the first county-seat. In the spring of 1857
Inkpaduta's band of Sioux Indians stopped in this settlement, robbed the
people, killed or drove off about fifty head of cattle and fourteen
horses belonging to Kirchner, Mead and Gillett, shot their hogs and
destroyed much other property. The settlers were so few in number that
they were unable to defend their homes and possessions. A deep show
covered the ground, the cold was intense and the few isolated settlers
had all they could do to defend their families from the savages.
The county was organized in October, 1858, by
the election of the following officers: C. C. Smeltzer, judge; S. M.
Foreman, treasurer, and E. M. Wilcox, clerk. John A. Kirchner built a
dam across the river and erected the first saw and grist mill in that
part of the State. The public business was recklessly managed for many
years, fastening a heavy indebtedness upon the county which brought it
into bad repute and retarded settlement. The officials who were
responsible for these disreputable transactions were, as the county
settled up, dislodged from the control of the county business and the
large bonded indebtedness was declared illegal by the courts. In 1859
George E. Spencer of Jasper County made a claim on the west side of the
Little Sioux River near the geographical center of the county, laid out
a town giving it his own name. In 1869 the town of Spencer was
established on the east side of the river where a flourishing town grew
up which became the county-seat. In 1878 the Milwaukee and St. Paul
Railroad was built through the county from east to west through the town
of Spencer. The first newspaper was the Clay County News which
was established at Spencer in January, 1871.
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 #
The items on this page are not for sale, but are
available to me to research your family tree
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