Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/373

 miles south of Quincy which was named Corning, in honor of a New York politician and capitalist, Erastus Corning. It is on the main line of the Burlington Railroad and has become the county-seat. The first church in the county was organized at Quincy in 1856 by the Methodists. In 1859 they organized a seminary at Brookville and in the same year the first newspaper was established at Corning by D. N. Smith, with L. Raguet as editor, and named the Corning Sentinel.

Adams County has an undulating surface and is well watered by the East and West Nodaway rivers and their branches. One-tenth of the county was originally covered with forests. Coal, limestone and good building stone abound in portions of the county and it lies in the famous blue grass region. ALLAMAKEE COUNTY was established in 1847 by act of the First General Assembly. The name is of Indian origin says Fulton in his “Red Men of Iowa”; while other authorities claim that it took its name from “Allen Makee” a famous Indian trader and trapper who established a trading post within its limits at an early day. The county was formerly a part of Fayette and occupies the extreme northeastern portion of the State and, geologically considered, is the oldest in formation. The eastern boundary consists of the Mississippi River and the northern is the Minnesota line. It embraces five townships north and south and from three to four east and west, containing six hundred fifty-eight squares miles. Much of the county has a rough surface of hills, ravines and narrow valleys. The bluffs along the Mississippi River are abrupt and in many places have an altitude of four hundred feet above the water, thence having a gradual ascent westward reaching a height of six hundred feet. A large portion of the county was originally covered with a growth of hazel brush and trees of many varieties. It is well watered by the Upper Iowa and