Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/423

 It was named for General M. M. Crocker of Iowa, a distinguished officer of the Civil War. The county-seat was located at Greenwood and the organization was completed in October, 1870, by the election of the following officers: George V. Davis, auditor; Cyrus Hawks, clerk; William Gibbon, treasurer; A. J. Garfield, recorder; J. H. Coffin, sheriff; Sarah A. Littlefield, superintendent of schools.

In December, 1871, the Supreme Court of Iowa declared the act creating this county a violation of the Constitution, which in article eleven declares that no new county shall be created which contains less than four hundred thirty-two square miles. Crocker County thus ceased to exist from and after the rendition of that decision and its territory reverted to Kossuth. DALLAS COUNTY lies in the fourth tier north of the Missouri State line, in the fifth east of the Missouri River and was formerly included in the county of Keokuk. On the 17th of January, 1846, the county was created and named for George M. Dallas, then Vice-President of the United States. It contains sixteen congressional townships with an area of five hundred eighty-eight square miles. The Indians continued to occupy the county until the beginning of the year 1846 and soon after it was opened to settlement by whites.

On the 12th of March, 1846, Samuel Miller took a claim in the central part of the county near the Raccoon River and built a cabin. Soon after Wilson Miller, John Wright, Levi A. Davis and others made claims in the fine groves in that vicinity. During the year many settlers came to different parts of the county and opened farms. Samuel Miller built the first mill in that region which was run by horse power.

The county was organized in February, 1847, and commissioners chosen to locate the county-seat. They selected a site in May, a town was laid out and named Panouoch, a word of Indian origin. The claim upon which the town