Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/447

 Buchanan counties and was named for Felix Grundy, a prominent citizen of Tennessee. The county contains no large streams and but little native timber but consists of a vast stretch of prairie of great fertility.

On the 4th of October, 1853, William D. Peck made a claim in the northeastern part of the county, now Franklin township. About two weeks later John Freel took a claim on Black Hawk Creek in the southeastern part of the county and built a log cabin. Thomas G. Hoxie made the first settlement in the vicinity of Grundy Center in 1855. C. F. Clarkson was the pioneer settler in the western part of the county where he built a house and established his family in May, 1855.

The county was organized in 1856 by the election of the following officers: A. W. Lawrence, judge; Thomas G. Copp, treasurer; T. G. Hoxie, sheriff; Elias Marble, clerk, and C. F. Clarkson, prosecuting attorney. The county-seat was located at Grundy Center in 1856 and the first term of the District Court was held in 1857 in a log house at which Judge J. D. Thompson presided. In 1861 a weekly newspaper was established by W. H. Hartman and J. M. Chaffee, named The Pioneer. The Burlington and Cedar Rapids Railroad runs in a northwesterly direction through the county and Grundy Center. GUTHRIE COUNTY was at one time a part of the original county of Keokuk and was created in 1851. It contains sixteen townships embracing an area of five hundred ninety-three square miles, and lies in the fourth tier east of the Missouri River and in the fourth north of the State of Missouri. The county was named in memory of Edwin Guthrie who was captain of the only company Iowa furnished for the Mexican War. He was mortally wounded in battle and his name was given to this county through the influence of his friend Theophilus Bryan.

In 1848 John Nevins made a claim and built a log cabin in what is now Jackson township. Other settlers came