Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/381

 townships, making seven hundred twenty square miles.

The first pioneers who made homes in the county were James Scott and Samuel Lockhart who, in the spring of 1839, took claims near where the village of Marysville stands. Several families from Indiana soon settled in that vicinity and the place was known as “Hoosier Point.” The same year Samuel Parker made a claim embracing a body of timber which was called “Parker’s Grove.”  Gilman Clark located a mile east of where Shellsburg stands and L. F. North, John Smith and George Wright settled in the vicinity during the year, opening farms.

The county was organized in May, 1846, and the county-seat located where a new town named Fremont was laid out. A log court-house was erected two stories in height. The name of the town was afterwards changed to Vinton, in honor of Plynn Vinton, a member of Congress from Ohio, who paid fifty dollars for the honor. A portion of the county on the east side was embraced in the “Black Hawk Purchase” and was therefore opened to settlement several years before the remainder. The early settlements were made on this strip, which was on the extreme frontier, by a band of desperadoes who found shelter in the Indian country beyond, and preyed upon the property of the pioneers for several years. It was impossible to arrest and punish these thieves and murderers and finally the settlers organized a “vigilance committee,” hunted them down and by lynch law rid the county of them.

The first election was held in August, 1843, when the county was attached to Linn. The first officers were chosen at an election held at Parker’s Grove in 1846, when twenty-nine votes were polled. James Mitchell was chosen county judge, John Royal sheriff, and David Pratt clerk. The first court was held in May, 1847, at the house of Thomas Way at which Judge J. P. Carlton presided. Among the attorneys present were Norman W. Isbel, I.