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"Past 2 Present"

Winneshiek County, Iowa

I have no books which are specifically for this County, but most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

• Click here for a brief history of Winneshiek County

Periodicals

• Restoration of the Madison Settlement Cemetery (Winter 1984)
• Bloomfield Cemetery (Summer 1985)
• Stavanger Lutheran Cemetery (Autumn 1986)

Palimpsest:

• Indian Villages on the Iowa River (December 1961)

• Old Fort Atkinson (November 1921) (Text Only)

• Dvorak at Spillville (March 1930) (Text Only)

• Luther College (August 1961)

• Norwegian-American Museum (December 1965)

• Fort Atkinson Artifacts (January/February 1975)

• Vesterheim (Norwegian) (September/October 1975)

• The Golden Age of Luren (September/October 1975)

• At Luther College, 1877-1881 (September/October 1975)

• "A Soldier's Life at Ft. Atkinson" (November/December 1982)

• Stability and Change: Luther College After One Hundred Twenty-five Years (July/August 1986)

• Linka Preus' Sketches of Iowa (July/August 1986)

• Jens Jensen and the Prairie School Campus of Luther College (July/August 1986)

• Gothic Splendor in Northeast Iowa (September/October 1985)

WINNESHIEK COUNTY was established in 1847 from territory embraced in the original county of Fayette. It lies in the second tier west of the Mississippi River and extends north to the Minnesota line. It is one of the large counties containing twenty townships, embracing an area of six hundred ninety-four square miles. The county was named for a noted chief of the Winnebago Indians whose name appears on the records "Kinnoskik" which signifies "coming thunder." The surface of the county is divided between prairie and woodland, with high bluffs along the streams. The Upper Iowa and Turkey rivers with numerous tributaries flow through it.
     Fort Atkinson was erected in 1840 when the country was occupied by the Winnebago Indians who remained until 1848. A mission school was also established for the education of the Indian children, in connection with a large farm, where efforts were made to teach them agriculture. After removal of the Indians the mission was abandoned and the farm sold to white settlers.
     Among the first settlers were Francis Rogers, George Bachel, David Reed, F. J. Huber, William Day, George Ream, William Painter and Philip Morse who took claims in 1848. In 1849 Painter and Aldridge built the first mill in the county on the Upper Iowa River near where Decorah now stands. William Day built one of the first log cabins, in 1849, where Decorah was located. It was occupied by his family of nine persons and also sheltered travelers until winter when he built the Winneshiek House. Several families built cabins near him in 1850-51 and a village grew up which was given the name of Decorah, for an Indian chief of the Winnebagos, whose village and burial ground was at that place.
     In 1851 the first steps were taken to organize a county government and a vote was taken upon the location of the county-seat which resulted in the choice of Decorah. The officers chosen were David Reed, judge; Joseph Brown, clerk; George Bachel, sheriff, and David Kuykendall, recorder and treasurer. The first term of court was held at the house of William Day in Decorah in September, 1851. J. B. Onstine was the first lawyer and Aaron Newell opened a store the same year in a "slab shanty." Elder Bishop of the Methodist Church was the pioneer preacher who came in 1851. A school-house was built in 1853 in which T. W. Burdick gave instruction. For several years efforts were made to remove the county-seat from Decorah which delayed the building of a court-house until 1856. In 1855 a United States Land office was established which brought many there to enter land.
     In 1856 the Decorah Chronicle, a weekly newspaper, was established. A college was founded in 1865 at Decorah by the Norwegian Lutheran Synod. A branch of the Milwaukee Railroad was built to the town in 1869.

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 #