|
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"
Keokuk County, Iowa
Books
-
The History of Keokuk County, Iowa. /
Evansville, Ind.: Unigraphic, 1975, 826 pgs. (Table
of Contents)
Periodicals
Hawkeye Heritage:
Annals of Iowa History:
- Early Recollections of Keokuk Co. (April 1895) TEXT Only
Iowa Journal of History and Politics:
- Pioneer Experiences in Keokuk County, 1858-1874 (October 1954)
TEXT Only
KEOKUK COUNTY as first created in December,
1837, comprised all of townships seventy-seven to eighty-one from the
west line of Johnson County to the Missouri River. This immense county
was afterwards divided into a number of smaller ones. On the 17th of
February, 1843, the present county of Keokuk was created. It lies in the
third tier west o the Mississippi River and in the third north of
Missouri, is twenty-four miles square and has an area of fine hundred
seventy-six square miles. This county was named for the Sac chief whose
name signifies "Watchful Fox." The northern tier of townships
was contained in the old county of the same name, while its entire
territory was once embraced in the original county of Demone.
The first white settlers came before the Indian
title became extinct but no record of their names has been preserved,
Aaron Miller settled in Richland township in the spring of 1838 and was
soon followed by William Searcy, John Wasson, Cyrus Jordon and Jacob
Wisner. Mr. Griffith took a claim on Clear Creek in 1837, Dr. W. Neeley
settled near him in 1838 and in 1839 Harvey Stevens and William Grimsley
joined the settlement. Farther up the river at Stillman's Grove Jacob
Shaver, Robert Linder, John and William Shaver located in 1843-4.
The county was organized in March, 1844, and
the following officers chosen: Enos Darnell, J. Hollingsworth and J. H.
Smith, commissioners; J. M. Waters, judge of probate; Edom Shugarth,
clerk; W. H. Briwn, treasurer; and George W. Hayes, sheriff. In 1844 the
commissioners appointed for that purpose located the county-seat near
the geographical center of the county and gave it the name of Sigourney
for the well-known author, Lydia H. Sigourney. previous to this time the
county business had been transacted at a place called Newton, consisting
of a log cabin and school-house. Edom Shugarth built the first house in
Sigourney in 1844 and in it Judge Williams held his first court in July
of that year. A town was soon laid out and a public sale of lots held in
October at which but one lot was purchased and that by Joel L. Landreth
for twelve dollars. A court-house square was laid off upon which in 1845
a hewed log house twenty by twenty-four feet was built for the use of
county officers and courts, at a cost of two hundred eighteen dollars.
The first newspaper was the Western Friend established in June,
1854, by J. N. and J. L. Paschal.
The oldest town in the county is Richland which
was laid out by Pryor C. Woodward in 1840. Extensive coal mines have
been opened in various parts of the county and the town of What Cheer is
in the midst of these coal beds. Numerous railroads furnish excellent
shipping facilities.
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
Home -- Periodicals
-- Books -- Research
service -- Email
"Past 2 Present" |