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"Past 2 Present"

Lee County, Iowa

Books

1. Portrait and biographical album of Lee County, Iowa. / Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1887, 635 pgs. (Surname list)
2. Griffith, C. F.. Saint Peter's Parish, Keokuk, Iowa, 1832-1929 : a history / Keokuk, Iowa: unknown, 1929, 80 pgs. (Table of Contents)

• Most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

• Click here for a brief history of Lee County

Periodicals

• April 1970
  • Acklam Cemetery
  • Hoover Cemetery
  • Old Pilot Grove Cemetery
  • Williamson Cemetery
  • Woodmansee Cemetery
• July 1970
  • Fairview Cemetery
  • Lindquist Farm Cemetery
  • St. Barnabas Episcopal Cemetery
  • Yellow Banks Cemetery
• October 1970
  • McKeehan Cemetery
  • Oiler Family Cemetery
  • Turner Family Cemetery
• April 1971
  • Croton Cemetery
  • Hickory Grove Cemetery
  • Price Cemetery
• October 1971
  • Blacksmith Cemetery

• April 1972
  • DOVER and CONLEE Farm Cemeteries
  • Old City Cemetery
• October 1972
  • Galland Cemetery
• Meek School Students, 1863-1869 (Spring-Summer 1982 )
• Early Baptist Church at Denmark (Summer 1983 )
• 1911-1912 Mortality Report of the Old Settlers Association (Autumn 1986 )
• 1856 Census - Names Extracted That Lists Maine As Birthplace (Autumn 1990 )
• Burial Permits (Summer 1991 )
• Burial Permits (Autumn 1991 )
• Articles from the Montrose Journal, Newspaper (Summer 1992 )
• Winter 1992
  • Articles from the Montrose Journal, Newspaper
  • Residences of Settlers in 1834
  • Old Soldiers of Montrose Stand by Senator GEAR
  • Reminiscences of a Former Montrose Man
• Summer 1994
  • Abstracts from the Park Bluff Journal
  • Notes on Lee County
  • Montrose Journal
• Double Murder in Lee County (Winter 1996 )

Palimpsest:

• Keokuk - Gate City of Iowa (October 1951) (Text Only)
• Old Fort Madison (January 1958) (Text Only)
• Vignettes of Bygone Days: Grave of Kalawequois (May 1961)
• Old Fort Madison - 1808-1813 (January 1966)
• The Fall of an Iowa Hero (William Worth Belknap) (September/October 1976)
• The Hodges Hanging (March/April 1979)
• Fruit in Iowa: A Brief History (May/June 1981)
• Furlough (May/June 1979)
• Possessed of a Restless Spirit: a Young Girl's Memories of the Southern Iowa Frontier (September/October 1985)

Annals of Iowa History:

• Recollections of the early settlement of Lee Co. (July 1867) TEXT Only
• Recollections of the Early Settlement of Lee Co. (July 1868) TEXT Only
• Early Bar of Lee County (July 1871) TEXT Only
• Half Breed Tract in Lee County, Iowa, 1849, Decree in Partition of (October 1924) TEXT Only
• Place-names of Lee County, Iowa (July 1929) TEXT Only

Iowa Historical Register

• The Naming of Lee County (July 1893) TEXT Only

LEE COUNTY was first established in 1836 but the boundaries were changed in 1838 and in 1839 its present boundaries were fixed by the Territorial Legislature. On the 18th of January, 1838, the county-seat was located at Fort Madison. The county lies in the extreme southeast corner of the State, the Mississippi River forming the eastern boundary, while the Des Moines River forms the western and part of the southern boundary.
     The origin of the name of the county is involved in doubt. It was named in an act of the Legislature of Wisconsin Territory on the 7th of December, 1836. It has been claimed that it was named for Robert E. Lee but when it is remembered that he was an obscure lieutenant in the regular army when the county was named, not having been in or near that region until 1837, from which time he was an engineer in charge of improvements of the Mississippi until 1841, there is not even a remote probability that he had ever been heard of at Belmont where Lee County was created and named. There was a land speculator from New York operating in the "Half Breed Tract," by the name of Charles Lee, about the time the county was created and it has been supposed that the county might have been named for him. There is no evidence to substantiate this supposition. Lieutenant Albert M. Lea had, in 1835, descended the Des Moines River in charge, as engineer, of an exploring party making a survey of its course and rapids. He surveyed and mapped the shore of the Mississippi River in Lee County and above the same year. He was an officer in General Kearny's command at old Fort Des Moines, in Lee County, for some time. In 1836 he became widely known as the author of a book and map of the "Iowa District." This publication made his name familiar to the people of the "Black Hawk Purchase" the year that Lee County was named. Many of the prominent citizens of pioneer times understood and believed that the county was named for Albert M. Lea, who gave the name of "Iowa" to the region which afterwards became the State of Iowa. Lee County has an area of five hundred twelve square miles and an abundant supply of native woodland.
     In 1843 the county-seat was removed to West Point where the first term of court was held the same year. In the fall of 1845 by a vote of the people Fort Madison was again made the county-seat. Commissioners appointed in 1840 had selected a site for the county-seat near the geographical center of the county, where a town was laid out and named Franklin but no buildings were erected and the business of the country was never transacted there. By act of the Legislature of 1855 a court with concurrent jurisdiction was established at Keokuk where a deputy clerk kept records of the court. A history of early settlements at Fort Madison and Keokuk will be found elsewhere.

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 #