The items on this page are not for sale, but are available to me to research your family tree
Home -- Periodicals -- Books -- Research service -- Email "Past 2 Present"

"Past 2 Present"

Jefferson County, Iowa

Books

1. Portrait and Biographical Album of Jefferson and Van Buren Counties, Iowa. / Chicago: Lake City Pub. Co., 1890, 657 pgs. (Surname list)

2. Fulton, Charles J.. History of Jefferson County, Iowa : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement / Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1912-1914, 945 pgs. (Surname list and Table of Contents)

• Most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

• Click here for a brief history of Jefferson County

Periodicals

• July 1967
  • "Trail's End" For Some of the 1840 Pioneers
  • 1840 Census
  • First Marriages 1839-1843
  • Iowa Towns of Today and Yesteryears, Abandoned Post Offices and Vanished Villages
• Records (October 1975)
• Gleanings (Spring-Summer 1982)
• Swedish Settlement (Spring 1991)
• Pleasant Plain Academy, Pleasant Plain (Winter 1991)
• Names Gleaned from Wills (Summer 1998)
• Tax List, 1843 (Summer 1999)

Palimpsest:

• Fairfield Ledger - Fairfield Ledger (January 1957) (Text Only)
• New Sweden, Iowa (January/February 1978)
• Pilgrims of the Impossible (January/February 1980)
• The Death of an American College: A Retrospective Look (September/October 1984)
• Hospital Unit R in World War I: Fairfield to France (September/October 1986)
• Public and Private Words from Unit R (September/October 1986)
• A Farm Family Enters the Modern World (Summer 1987)
• An Amish Mennonite Farmer Chooses Iowa (Winter 1988)

Annals of Iowa History:

• Jefferson County at the Beginning of the Civil War (July-October 1913) TEXT Only
• Jefferson County Politics before the Civil War (July 1914) TEXT Only

Iowa Historical Register:

• Jefferson County Pioneers (January and July 1899) TEXT Only

JEFFERSON COUNTY, originally a part of Demoine, was established in January, 1839. It is the third county west of the Mississippi River in the second tier north of the Missouri State line and contains twelve townships, embracing an area of four hundred thirty-two square miles. It was named for Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence. The county-seat was located in March, 1839, where a town was laid out and named Fairfield. The county was organized by the election of the following officers: J. J. Smith, Daniel Seares and B. F. Chatlin, county commissioners; John A. Pizer, clerk; J. W. Sullivan, treasurer; James Sanders, recorder.
     The first settlement had been made in the spring of 1836 by James Lanman, Amos Lemon, George Stout, Alfred Wright and others who took claims in the eastern part of the county. The first term of court was held by Judge Joseph Williams in August, 1839. A court-house was built in the fall of the same year and a jail was built in 1841. The first house in the town was erected by Henry B. Notson in the spring of 1839. The United States land office was removed from Burlington to Fairfield in 1842. The first store was opened by William Hutson immediately after the town was platted and a tavern was kept in a log cabin with but one room and a loft, by Thomas Dickey. Miss Clarisa Sawyer taught the first school in a log cabin in the spring of 1839. On the 12th of June, 1847, the first number of a weekly newspaper was issued by A. R. Sparks, called the Iowa Sentinel.
     The state Agricultural Society was organized at Fairfield on the 28th of December, 1853. Parsons College was located at Fairfield in December, 1874, in consideration of $30,000 donated to the institution by the citizens. The Burlington Railroad traverses the county from east to west.

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 #