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"Past 2 Present"

Howard 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 Howard County

Periodicals

• Spring 1993 Hawkeye Heritage
  • Golden Wedding Anniversaries, Cresco
  • Couples Married Over Fifty Years

Palimpsest:

• Indian Villages on the Iowa River (December 1961)

• Welsh Settlements in Iowa (January/February 1978)

HOWARD COUNTY lies in the third tier west of the Mississippi River and its northern boundary is the Minnesota line. It was originally a part of Fayette and as first established in 1851 contained but twelve townships. In 1855, however, the north half of townships ninety-seven, ranges eleven to fourteen were detached from Chickasaw and added to Howard, giving it an area of four hundred seventy-six square miles. The county was named for General T. A. Howard of Indiana.
     The first white man who built a cabin within the limits of this county was Hiram Johnson who in December, 1851, settled at Oregon Grove on the Turkey River. In 1854 several families came to Oregon Grove among whom were S. M. Cole, H. S. Shuttle worth, George Scofield, Thomas Lewis and C. M. Munson. This grove is about two miles south of the town of Cresco. Soon after the beginning of this settlement several families located near Cresco. Among them were C. S. Thurber, M. L. Shook, James Siddall, M. G. Goss and others. In 1855 other families settled on the Little Wapsipinicon.
     The county was organized in 1855, electing the following officers: James G. Upton, judge; Edmund Gillette, clerk; William Woodward, recorder and treasurer; John Harlow, sheriff, and M. V. Burdick, prosecuting attorney. Vernon Springs was the first county-seat and there the first mill was built on the Turkey River by George Sprague in 1853. Mr. Miller opened the first store the following year. Harriet Cole taught the first school in a log cabin at Oregon Grove in 1854. The land upon which Cresco stands was entered in 1853 by one Mr. Barber who built a log cabin in the woods which was purchased by Martin L. Shook in 1854 and was known as Shook's Grove. In 1866 it was owned by Augustus Beadle, W. M. Strong and B. H. Edgarton who laid out the town of Cresco. Judge Samuel Murdock held the first court in the county at Howard Center in 1857.
     In February, 1858, a weekly newspaper was established at New Oregon named the Howard County Sentinel with J. H. Field as editor. The Milwaukee Railroad runs through the northwest part of the county passing through the towns of Cresco and Lime Springs.

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 #