Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/517

 Cook, probate judge; A. H. Davenport, sheriff; and Isaac A. Hedges and John Porter, justices of the peace. D. C. Eldridge was the first postmaster of Davenport. In October, 1838, Judge Thomas S. Wilson held the first term of court in the county. Alexander McGregor opened the first law office in 1836. The first steam mill was built by A. C. Fulton in 1844. The first church was organized in the spring of 1838 by Father Samuel Muzzuchelli, an Italian Catholic priest. A Presbyterian church was organized the same year with ten members. The first sermon was preached by the noted pioneer Congregational minister, Rev. Asa Turner, in Pleasant Valley in the summer of 1836.

The Wapsipinicon River forms a large part of the northern boundary of the county, while the Mississippi flows along the eastern and southern limits. These rivers are bordered with fine bodies of native timber while several groves are found in the interior of the county. SHELBY COUNTY was embraced in the original county of Keokuk when it extended west to the Missouri River. In 1850 the county was organized with present boundaries and named for General Isaac Shelby, an officer of the Revolutionary War. It lies in the second tier east of the Missouri River and in the fourth north of the Missouri State line, is twenty-four miles square, embracing in its area five hundred ninety square miles. The entire surface is rolling and was originally largely prairie with numerous small groves of native woods scattered over it. The West Nishnabotna and numerous branches of the Missouri and Boyer rivers furnish a water supply.

The first white men known to have made homes in the county were two hunters and trappers, Nicholas Beery and Mr. Bowman, who built a cabin near the Nishnabotna in the fall of 1847 and spent several years at their occupation along the numerous water courses. In 1851 Mr. Beery was attacked by a wandering band of Indians,