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"Past 2 Present"

Woodbury County, Iowa

Books

1. 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)

2. History of the Counties of Woodbury and Plymouth, Iowa. / Chicago: A. Warner & Co., 1890-91 AC

3. Woodbury County history, Iowa / Sioux City, Iowa: The Program, 1942, 178 pgs.

4. Schmidt, John F. A Historical Profile of Sioux City (Iowa) / self-published. 1969-1983, 344 ppg. #

5. The Maroon and White, 1920 Sioux City High School Yearbook #

• Most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

• Click here for a brief history of Woodbury County

Periodicals

• Cemetery Records (Spring 1979)
• Members of Consistory No. 5 of the Masonic Lodge, Sioux City (Autumn 1991)

Palimpsest:

• Portias of the Prairie: Early Women Graduates of the University Law Department (January/February 1986)
• A Treasury of Ding (J. N. "Ding" Darling) (March 1972)
• Sioux City Corn Palaces (October 1922) (Text Only)
• Boom in Sioux City (February 1940) (Text Only)
• The Sioux City Elevated (April 1941) (Text Only)
• Sioux City Frontier Guards (April 1942) (Text Only)
• Sioux City and the Frontier (December 1954) (Text Only)
• Trip to Sioux City (March 1959) (Text Only)
• Vignettes of Bygone Days: Floyd Monument Inscription (May 1961)
• The Sioux City Corn Palaces (December 1963)
• Maximilian's Missouri: 1833-34 (November/December 1979)
• Plain Honesty: Wallace Short and the I.W.W. (September/October 1980)
• Spanning the Missouri (January/February 1981)
• William Steele's Silent Music (March/April 1981)
• A Martyr for Prohibition: The Murder of Reverend George C. Haddock (November/December 1981)
• A Mercantile History of Sioux City in the 1880s (January/February 1984)
• The Winter and Summer of 1936 (September/October 1986)
• Walking Straight: Claud McMillan and the Anti-Saloon League (Winter 1988)

Annals of Iowa History:

• First Threshing Machine in Woodbury County ( 1960) TEXT Only

Iowa Journal of History and Politics:

• Settlement of Woodbury County (July 1911) TEXT Only

WOODBURY COUNTY is one of the largest in the State, embracing an area of eight hundred seventy-three square miles. It was first named Wahkaw but changed to Woodbury, January 22, 1851, in honor of Judge Levi Woodbury of the United States Supreme Court. The county lies on the Missouri River in the fourth tier south of Minnesota. Along the river in this vicinity is a broad expanse of level bottom land of great fertility, varying in width from five to ten miles. The bluffs beyond are high, steep and in places broken into deep ravines and lofty ridges, gradually spreading out into gently rolling prairie. The principal interior streams are the Floyd River, branches of the Little Sioux and Maple rivers and Perry Creek. The Big Sioux forms a part of the western boundary.
     The Indian title to this part of Iowa was extinguished in 1847. Early in 1848, forty-four years after this region was visited by the Lewis and Clark exploring expedition, a single adventurous pioneer, William Thompson, made his way up the Missouri valley and settled at Floyd's Bluff, within the limits of what is now Woodbury County. Here he built a log cabin, opened trade with the Indians and laid out a town which he named Thompsonville. After Wahkaw County was created this became the county-seat, but having no steamboat landing, made but little progress and in a few years was abandoned. In May, 1849, Theophile Brugnier a Frenchman who had married an Indian wife, built a cabin on the bluff near the mouth of the Big Sioux about two miles above where Sioux City stands. In the fall of the same year Robert Perry, an eccentric but well educated man from Washington D. C., settled near a creek where Sioux City stands; he lived there several years and his name was given to the creek. In 1850 Paul Paquette built a cabin about two miles from the mouth of the Big Sioux River.
     In 1853, soon after the change of name, the county was organized and the county-seat located at Floyd's Bluff. The first county officials were Marshal Townsley, judge; Hiram Nelson, recorder and treasurer; and Joseph P. Babbitt, clerk. At this time Woodbury County embraced a large territory north and east which has since been divided into several counties. In 1854 J. K. Cook, a government contractor, came with a party and bought claims in the vicinity of Sioux City. Among those who owned claims in this locality was the gallant General Lyon who was killed at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, the first year of the Civil War. In the winter of 1854 Sioux City was platted and among the pioneers in and about the new town were Joseph Lionels, Hiram Nelson, Francis Chappel, G. W. Chamberlin and Marshal Twonsley. In July 1855, a stage line was established supplying the town with weekly mail. The first term of court was held at Floyd's Bluff by Judge Riddle in September, 1855. Numerous settlers arrived in Sioux City early in 1856 and the population of the new town was one hundred fifty. By a vote of the people the county-seat was moved from Floyd's Bluff to Sioux City where a United States Land office was established in 1855.
     The Omaha, a steamboat from St. Louis, arrived at Sioux City in June, 1856, loaded with provisions and lumber framed ready to be converted into houses. In July a steam sawmill was built. The first white women in the new town were Mrs. S. H. Casady and Mrs. J. R. Myers who arrived with their husbands in the summer of 1855. By the close of the year 1856 the population had increased to more than four hundred, and ninety buildings had been erected. On the Fourth of July, 1857, S. W. Swiggett issued the first number of a weekly newspaper named the Iowa Eagle.
     In 1853 Mr. Shook settled on the Little Sioux River at a place which took the name of Correctionville. R. Candreau, C. Bacon and M. Kellogg arrived the next year. For many years Correctionville was a station on the old stage line from Fort Dodge to Sioux City. Another one of the early settlements was made on the Little Sioux River near the south line of the county at Smithland. In 1857, when Inkpaduta's band of Sioux Indians came through this settlement on the way to Spirit Lake, hostile demonstrations were made and the settlers gathered and disarmed a number of the Indians. The savages stole other arms, however, and continued their journey up the valley.
     Sergeant's Bluff was laid out in 1856 by Crockwell and Dr. Wright of Independence. It was a rival of Sioux City, lying six miles south. In 1857 a newspaper was established by Cummings and Ziebach, named the Western Independent which was later removed to Sioux City where it became the Sioux City Register. The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was completed to Sioux City in March, 1868.

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 #