Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/506

 south end of Medium Lake but for a long time was a town in name only, though it finally became the county-seat. Most of the early settlers were Catholics and their first religious services were held in the cabin of James Downey, July, 1857. In 1869 James P. White established the first newspaper at Emmetsburg called the Palo Alto Democrat. In 1871 the proprietor of Emmetsburg replatted the town in anticipation of the Milwaukee Railroad which was located through the county-seat. PLYMOUTH COUNTY lies on the Big Sioux River in the third tier south of the Minnesota line and is one of the largest counties in the State containing eight hundred sixty square miles. It was created by act of the Legislature in 1851 and named for the Plymouth Colony of the Massachusetts Puritans. It was attached to Wahkaw County in 1853. The Little Sioux and Floyd rivers flow through a portion of the county. In the summer of 1856 J. B. Pinckney, David Mills, Isaac T. Martin, J. McGill, Bratton Vidito, John Hopkins, James Dormichy and Mr. Galletin took claims in the valley of the Big Sioux River and built cabins. In July they laid out a town which they named Westfield. The same year A. C. Sheets, James B. Curry, E. S. Hungerford, Joel Phillips and Coryden Hall took claims on the Floyd River. The county was organized on the 12th of October, 1858, by the election of the following officers: William Van Linda, judge; Isaac T. Martin, recorder and treasurer; A. C. Sheets, clerk; David M. Mills, sheriff, and A. E. Rea, superintendent of schools. The place first recognized as the county-seat was the village of Melbourne on the Floyd River where the first court was held by Judge A. W. Hubbard of Sioux City. Here the first school was taught by William Van Linda. Westfield, the competitor of Melbourne for the county-seat, was abandoned in 1860 on account of a settlement of half-breed Indians on lands in the vicinity upon which their scrip was located. The plat upon which Le