Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/478

 was held at Westport in October, 1838, for members of the Legislative Assembly, at which thirty-two votes were cast.

The county was organized in June, 1839, by the election of the following officers: Samuel C. Stewart, Peter McRoberts and Luman M. Strong, county commissioners; John C. Berry, clerk; W. H. Gray, sheriff; Thomas W. Campbell, treasurer; Ross McCloud, surveyor. The commissioners chosen to locate the county-seat selected the site of Marion where a town was laid out in 1839. The first store was opened the same year by Woodbridge and Thompson and Luman M. Strong built a hotel. A mill was built by Bales and Thompson and several shops were opened. A court-house was built in 1840; and a Methodist church organized the same year with Rev. Mr. Hodges as pastor. A school was opened the following year. In 1852 a weekly newspaper was established by A. Hoyt called the Prairie Star which in later years became the Marion Register. The first cabin on the site of Cedar Rapids was built by an outlaw by the name of Shepard, in the year 1838. It was for a long time the rendezvous of horse thieves which infested that region in early days. They secreted stolen property among the islands of the Cedar River. The gang was not broken up until 1851. The first permanent settlement of that place was made in 1839 by T. Gaines and D. W. King who took claims on the west side of the river.

In 1841 the town of Cedar Rapids was laid out by N. B. Brown and others; the following year a dam was built across the Cedar River and a sawmill erected. In 1844 N. B. Brown built a flouring-mill at a cost of $3,000; and in 1849 a woolen factory was built at a cost of $10,000. In 1850 D. O. Finch established a newspaper named the Progressive Era.

In 1847 the town of Mt. Vernon was laid out by A. J. Willits and others, where Cornell College, one of the leading educational institutions in the State, is located. The main line of the Northwestern Railroad runs through Linn