Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/464

 year laid out a town which he named Springfield and a few houses were built. But in the winter of 1856 Mr. Goddenow in company with A. Spaulding and Z. Livermore platted a large tract of land owned by them embracing that upon which Springfield had been laid out and gave the new town the name Maquoketa. John Shaw purchased a claim now in the limits of Maquoketa, in 1837, and removed to it in 1841. The first store was opened by S. M. Marr in 1844. In 1837 John Kindly took a claim and built a cabin at Andrew. The county was organized April 2d, 1838, by the election of the following officers: commissioners, William Jones, J. Leonard and William Morden; treasurer, John Sublett; probate judge, J. K. Moses; clerk, J. H. Rose; recorder, John Howe.

A movement was made to secure the county-seat to the new town of Andrew laid out on Hindley’s farm. Commissioners were appointed to relocate the county-seat and they selected Andrew in 1841. In 1845 a weekly newspaper was started there by M. H. Clark and Andrew Keesecker, with Ansel Briggs editor. In 1851 the county seat was again removed to Bellevue, and in 1861 it was again transferred to Andrew. In 1873 it was moved to Maquoketa where it has since remained. In the fall of 1835 John D. Bell made a claim, built a cabin, laid out a town and gave it the name of Bullevue. It was a beautiful site on the bank of the Mississippi River and protected on the north and west by a semi-circle of wooded bluffs. A hotel was built the following year by Peter Dutell. In 1837 Bellevue was made the county-seat.

In early days desperadoes settled in the Big Woods along the Maquoketa. They had confederates in Illinois and Missouri at points along the Mississippi River and for a time Bullevue appeared to be their headquarters. Horse stealing and passing counterfeit money were their chief crimes though they did not hesitate to commit murder when attempts to arrest them were made. In the spring of 1840, after a series of desperate conflicts