Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/495

 the spring of 1856 by Datus E. Coon of Osage, who issued the first number under the shade of a tree. In 1857 the Methodists organized a church at Osage with Rev. Holbrook as pastor. A. S. Faville taught the first school at Mitchell in 1854.

The first railroad constructed through the county was the Cedar Falls and Minnesota which followed the valley of the Cedar River. MONONA COUNTY lies on the Missouri River in the fifth tier south of the Minnesota line. It is about thirty miles long from east to west by twenty-four wide containing an area of six hundred eighty-five square miles. The county was created in 1851 from territory in the old county of Benton; the name is of Indian origin. In 1865 the eastern tier of townships was detached and given to Crawford County. The valley of the Missouri River spreads out to a great width in this county containing more than 165,000 acres of level bottom lands of unsurpassed fertility, the black soil varying in depth from six to fifteen feet. The Little Sioux River runs in a southwesterly direction through the county.

The first permanent settler was Isaac Ashton, who, in 1852, made a claim about two miles north of Onawa, while Josiah Sumner located near him. The same year Aaron Cook settled on the bank of the Missouri River at a place which became known as Cook’s Landing. In 1854, Charles B. Thompson, a Mormon leader, with several followers settled on Soldier Creek. During the year he was joined by about fifty Mormon families who preëmpted several thousand acres of the best lands in that vicinity. Thompson laid out a town called Preparation. A quarrel arose among the members of the colony; litigation ensued and the members gradually disposed of their lands and removed to other parts.

The county government was organized in 1854 by the election of the following officers: Charles B. Thompson,