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"Past 2 Present"

O'Brien County, Iowa

Books

1. Peck, J. L. E.. Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties, Iowa / Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914, 1428 pgs. (Surname list and Table of Contents)

2. Schee, George W.. Biographical data and army record of old soldiers who have lived in O'Brien Co., Iowa / Primghar, Iowa: Published privately, 1909, 203 pgs.

3. Northwestern Iowa : its history and traditions, 1804-1926 : comprising the counties of Woodbury, Monona, Plymouth, Cherokee, O'Brien, Sioux, Lyon, Osceola, Sac, Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Calhoun, Ida, Crawford, Carroll and Greene / Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1927, 1563 pgs. (Surname list and Table of Contents)

• Most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

• Click here for a brief history of O'Brien County

Periodicals

• Spring 1991 Hawkeye Heritage
  • Randolph Cemetery
  • Un-named Cemetery

Palimpsest:

• The Grasshopper Wars (September/October 1981)
• Old O'Brien (January 1924) (Text Only)

O'BRIEN COUNTY lies in the second tier east of the western boundary of the State and also in the second south of the Minnesota line. It is twenty-four miles square, containing an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles and was originally one vast prairie, entirely destitute of timber with the exception of a few small groves along the Little Sioux River in the southeast corner. The county was created in 1851 from territory belonging at one time Fayette and was named for William O'Brien, one of the leaders for the independence in Ireland in 1848.
     The first white settlers in the county were H. H. Waterman and family who came from Bremer County and settled in a grove in the southeast corner of the county on the banks of the Little Sioux River in 1856. Other settlers entered claims in the vicinity and in 1860 a county government was organized by the election of the following officers: J. C. Furber, judge; H. H. Waterman, treasurer and recorder; Archibald Murray, clerk and surveyor.
     The first county-seat was O'Brien, a village in the southeast corner of the county, in the vicinity of most of the settlers. Here the first term of the District Court was held by Judge Henry Ford. The first school was taught by Mrs. H. H. Waterman and for some time religious meetings were held in the Waterman cabin. The O'Brien Pioneer was the first newspaper which was published by B. F. McCormack and J. R. Pumphrey. At an election held in 1872, it was decided to locate the permanent county-seat in the center of the county where a town was laid out by the county officers. The name for the town was fixed upon in the following manner: the first letter of the names of the officials and a few others was taken-Pumphrey, Roberts, Inman, McCormack, Green, Hays, Albright and Renok. These, P-R-I-M-G-H-A-R, made the name of the new county-seat. The first house was built by J. R. Pumphrey for the use of the county. A hotel was erected by C. F. Albright. In 1873 the Sioux City and St. Paul Railroad was built through the county and the town of Sheldon was laid out upon the line in the northwest part of 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 #