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"Past 2 Present"

Marion County, Iowa

Books

1. History of Marion County, Iowa, and its people / Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1915, 815 pgs. (Surname list and Table of Contents)

2. Hollanders of Iowa by Jacob Van Der Zee.# I have placed this online!

• Most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

• Click here for a brief history of Marion County

Periodicals

• April 1968
  • 1847 Special Census
  • Abandoned Towns
  • First Marriages
  • Klein Cemetery
  • Probate Book "A"
  • The Dutch of Marion County
  • Marion County, Iowa
• Mikesell Cemetery (October 1970)
• Probate Records, Books A-D (January 1978)

Palimpsest:

• Tulip Time in Pella (April 1954) (Text Only)
• The Dutch in Iowa (April 1954) (Text Only)
• Visit to Pella (March 1959) (Text Only)
• Tulip Time in Pella (April 1964)
• The Dutch in Iowa (April 1964)

Annals of Iowa History:

• Pioneers of Marion Co. (April 1869) TEXT Only
• Pioneers of Marion Co. (January 1870) TEXT Only
• Pioneers of Marion County (April 1870) TEXT Only
• Pioneers of Marion Co. (July 1870) TEXT Only
• Pioneers of Marion County (October 1870) TEXT Only
• Pioneers of Marion County (January 1871) TEXT Only
• Incidents Relating to the Early Settlement of Marion County (October 1872) TEXT Only
• Incidents Relating to the Early Settlement of Marion County (January 1873) TEXT Only
• Incidents Connected with the Early Settlement of Marion County (July 1873) TEXT Only
• Incidents Connected with the Early Settlement of Marion County (October 1873) TEXT Only
• Pella--A Bit of Holland in America (January 1898) TEXT Only

MARION COUNTY was created in June, 1845, from territory embraced in the original county of Demoine. It lies in the fifth tier west of the Mississippi River an din the third north of Missouri, is twenty-four miles square and contains five hundred seventy-six square miles. The county was named for General Francis Marion of the Revolutionary War. The Des Moines River and its tributaries flow through the county in a southeasterly direction; the water courses are usually bordered with forests and the county has large deposits of coal.

The first white settlers were Indian traders who, as early as 1841, established trading posts at several points. William Phelps was the first who opened a trading house near the eastern border. John Jordon, Gaddis, Nye, Turner and Shaw established posts near Red Rock. The county was opened to white settlers May 1, 1843, when a large number secured claims upon which they made homes. During the year settlements were made at Red Rock, White Breast, Bluffington and other localities, making a population of more than seventy families.
     In the spring of 1845 the citizens held a meeting at the house of Nathan Bass on Lake Prairie and took the first steps toward organizing a county government. Commissioners were chosen, located the county-seat in August and gave it the name of Knoxville in honor of General Knox of the Revolutionary War. An election was held at which the following county officers were chosen: Conrad Walter, William Welch and David Durham, commissioners; Sanford Dowd, clerk; F. A. Barker, probate judge; James M. Walters, sheriff; David T. Durham, treasurer, and Robert S. Lowrey, recorder.
     Judge Williams held the first court at the new county-seat in March, 1846. The first settlers in Knoxville were Luther C. Conrey, Lysander W. B. Abbitt, George Gillaspy and Lewis Pierce. Mr. Conrey built the first house.
     In 1847 a colony of Hollanders under the leadership of Henry P. Scholte located at lake Prairie where they purchased 13,000 acres of land upon which they built sod houses thatched with slough grass. In the spring of 1848 Mr. Scholte and others laid out a town which they named Pella, the "city of refuge." In February, 1855, H. P. Scholte and Edwin H. Grant issued the first number of a weekly newspaper called the Pella Gazette which was the first journal established in the county. In 1853 the preliminary steps were taken to organize a college at Pella which was named the Central University of Iowa.
     In October, 1855, William M. Stone, afterwards Governor of the State, established the Knoxville Journal at the county-seat. The Des Moines Valley Railroad was the first built into the county.

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 #