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"Past 2 Present"

Linn County, Iowa

Books

1. The History of Linn County, Iowa. / Chicago: Western Historical Co., 1878, 821 pgs. (Surname list and Table of Contents) HQ-AC

• Most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

• Click here for a brief history of Linn County

Periodicals

• January 1972
  • Abandoned Towns
  • Cemeteries in Linn County, A List of
  • Early Marriages
  • Early Settlers
  • Heads of Families, Census of 1840
  • Map of Linn County, Showing Townships
  • Some Early Settlers and other Firsts
  • Some Historical Notes
• Declaration of Intent, Naturalization Record (October 1973 )
• Gillian Cemetery (January 1975 )
• Bounty Lands (Winter 1990 )
• Summer 1991
  • Soldiers Buried in Marion Cemetery
  • War Veterans
• Two Soldiers of the American Revolution Buried in Linn County (Spring 1992 )

Palimpsest:

• Portias of the Prairie: Early Women Graduates of the University Law Department (January/February 1986)
• Linn County - Gleanings of an Editor in 1858 (Jesse Clement) (September 1968)
• The Cherry Sisters (July/August 1979)
• The Penman Builds and Empire (September/October 1980)
• "Miss Paul" Hits the Glittering Chautauqua Trail (July/August 1985)
• Cedar Rapids in the Roaring Twenties (Spring 1987)
• Adjusting to America (Fall 1987)
• Louis Sullivan in Iowa (March/April 1980)

Annals of Iowa History:

• History of Linn Co. (January 1870) TEXT Only
• Earliest Settlers in Linn County, The (January 1905) TEXT Only

LINN COUNTY was created in December, 1837, and named for Lewis F. Linn, United States Senator from Missouri. It lies in the third tier west of the Mississippi River and in the fourth south of the Minnesota line. The county is twenty-four miles wide by thirty long containing and area of seven hundred twenty square miles. The Cedar and Wapsipinicon rivers flow through it in a southeasterly direction having fine belts of woodland along their banks.

In February, 1838, John Mann of Pennsylvania, settled at Linn Grove on Upper Big Creek, where he built a mill and log cabin for his family. In 1851 his mill was carried away by a flood and he was drowned. John Crow of North Carolina took a claim on the Wapsipinicon in April, 1838. Soon after Robert Dean, John Gibson, Peter McRoberts and others settled in Franklin township; Judge Mitchell, Jacob Leabo and Mr. Henry in Bertram township and several families made homes in Linn township, in Marion and other localities. In July, 1838, Israel Mitchell laid out the first town and named it Westport. In September of the same year William Stone staked out a town plat where Cedar Rapids stands and called it Columbus. The first store in the county was opened at Westport in the fall of 1838 and William H. Merritt opened one at Ivanhoe in the spring of 1839. The first election was held at Westport in October, 1838, for members of the Legislative Assembly, at which thirty-two votes were cast.
     The county was organized in June, 1839, by the election of the following officers: Samuel C. Stewart, Peter McRoberts and Luman M. Strong, county commissioners; John C. Berry, clerk; W. H. Gray, sheriff; Thomas W. Campbell, treasurer; Ross McCloud, surveyor. The commissioners chosen to locate the county-seat selected the site of Marion where a town was laid out in 1839. The first store was opened the same year by Woodbridge and Thompson and Luman M. Strong built a hotel. A mill was built by Bales and Thompson and several shops were opened. A court-house was built in 1840; and a Methodist church organized the same year with Rev. Mr. Hodges as pastor. A school was opened the following year. In 1852 a weekly newspaper was established by A. Hoyt called the Prairie Star which in later years became the Marion Register. The first cabin on the site of Cedar Rapids was built by an outlaw by the name of Shepard, in the year 1838. It was for a long time the rendezvous of horse thieves which infested that region in early days. They secreted stolen property among the islands of the Cedar River. The gang was not broken up until 1851. The first permanent settlement of that place was made in 1839 by T. Gaines and D. W. King who took claims on the west side of the river.
     In 1841 the town of Cedar Rapids was laid out by N. B. Brown and others; the following year a dam was built across the Cedar River and a sawmill erected. In 1844 N. B. Brown built a flouring-mill at a cost of $3,000; and in 1849 a woolen factory was built at a cost of $10,000. In 1850 D. O. Finch established a newspaper named the Progressive Era.
     In 1847 the town of Mt. Vernon was laid out by A. J. Willits and others, where Cornell College, one of the leading educational institutions in the State, is located. The main line of the Northwestern Railroad runs through Linn County from east to west and was the first built to Cedar Rapids which has become one of the important railroad centers of the State.

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 #