Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/463

  officers were chosen:  Lewis Lansing, treasurer; G. W. Kitchen, recorder;  A. D. Stephens, probate judge; A. P. Kitchen, sheriff.

Commissioners selected a site for the county-seat on the banks of the Iowa River and caused a town to be platted which was named Marengo. William Downward built the first house in the new town and, in company with H. H. Hull, opened the first store. Robert Mckee was appointed postmaster and Mr. Kirkpatrick opened a public house. The Methodists organized the first church in 1848. In 1859 the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad was built to Marengo which was the terminus for several years. The town of Victor is on this railroad in the western part of the county. In 1856 Clinton Edwards established a newspaper at the county-seat named Marengo Visitor. The first court was held by Judge J. P. Carlton at the house of H. H. Hill in May, 1847. JACKSON COUNTY lies immediately south of Dubuque on the west shore of the Mississippi River. It was created in 1837 from the territory originally embraced in Dubuque County named for General Andrew Jackson. The county contains an area of six hundred thirty-eight square miles and large tracts of native woodland lie well distributed over the county. The Maquoketa River runs from west to east with several large tributaries. The first settlers came in as soon as the Indian title was extinguished and took claims along the Maquoketa River.

Among the earliest pioneers were William Jones, James Armstrong, Alexander Reed, Thomas Nicholson, David Dias and his sons. They built cabins in the forests and cleared the timber for farms near the Mississippi in the vicinity of Bellevue. James McCabe, Nicholas Carroll, Arthur Mullen and Anson Newbury made claims near Sabula. At the time the county was created it had a population of two hundred forty fur. J. E. Goodenow, in the spring of 1838, took a claim, built a cabin and the next