History of Wright County, Iowa

All life and achievement is evolution; present wisdom comes from past experience, and present commercial prosperity has come only from past exertion and sacrifice. The deeds and motives of the men who have gone before have been instrumental in shaping the destinies of later communities and states. The development of a new country was at once a task and a privilege. It required great courage, sacrifice and privation. Compare the present conditions of the people of Wright county, Iowa, with what they were seventy-five years ago. From a trackless wilderness and virgin land, it has come to lie a center of prosperity and civilization, with millions of wealth, systems of railways, grand educational institutions, splendid industries and immense agricultural and dairy productions. Can any thinking person be insensible in the fascination of the study which discloses the aspirations and efforts of the early pioneers who .so strongly laid the foundation upon which has been reared the magnificent prosperity of later days? To perpetuate the story of these people and to trace and record the social, political and industrial progress of the community from its first inception, is the function of the local historian. A sincere purpose to preserve facts and personal memoirs that are deserving of perpetuation, and which unite the present to the past, is the motive for the present publication. A specially valuable and interesting department is that one devoted to the sketches of representative citizens of these counties whose records deserve preservation because of their worth, effort and accomplishment. The publishers desire to extend their thanks to the gentlemen who have so faithfully labored to this end. Thanks are also due to the citizens of Wright county for the uniform kindness with which they have regarded this undertaking. and for their many services rendered in the gaining of necessary information.

 

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I — RELATED STATE HISTORY 23
CHAPTER II — INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY 42
CHAPTER III — GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL FEATURES 44
CHAPTER IV — EARLY SETTLEMENT 53
CHAPTER V — ORGANIZATION OF WRIGHT COUNTY 74
CHAPTER VI — COUNTY GOVERNMENT 79
CHAPTER VII — COUNTY, STATE AND NATIONAL REPRESENTATION 104
CHAPTER VIII — AGRICULTURE AND STOCK RAISING 116
CHAPTER IX — RAILROAD AND SWAMP LANDS 127
CHAPTER X — RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION 132
CHAPTER XI — MILITARY HISTORY OF THE COUNTY 137
CHAPTER XII — NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTY 143
CHATTER XX — BELMOND TOWNSHIP 240
CHAPTER XXI — BLAINE TOWNSHIP 247
CHAPTER XXII — BOONE TOWNSHIP 256
CHAPTER XXIII — CLARION TOWNSHIP AND CITY 263
CHAPTER XXIV — DAYTON TOWNSHIP 278
CHAPTER XXV — EAGLE GROVE TOWNSHIP AND CITY 281
CHAPTER XXVI — GRANT TOWNSHIP 299
CHAPTER XXVII — IOWA TOWNSHIP 300
CHAPTER XXVIII — LAKE TOWNSHIP 307
CHAPTER XXIX — LIBERTY TOWNSHIP 311
CHAPTER XXX — LINCOLN TOWNSHIP 321
CHAPTER XXXI — NORWAY TOWNSHIP 325
CHAPTER XXXII — PLEASANT TOWNSHIP 327
CHAPTER XXXIII — TROY TOWNSHIP 338
CHAPTER XXXIV — VERNON TOWNSHIP 345
CHAPTER XXXV — WALL LAKE TOWNSHIP 350
CHAPTER XXXVI — WOODSTOCK TOWNSHIP 356
CHAPTER XXXVII — MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 360

 

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Of what is termed the pre-historic race that inhabited this section of the Northwest, there is but little known, the only history of this extinct race being the mounds .and the contents of the same. These mounds are found scattered here and there in many sections of this and other states, and some have been found in Wright county. Whether these Mound Builders were a distinct race from the North American Indian or not, is still an unsettled question, but the evidence so far goes to show that they sprang from some? of the tribes of Asia. Those best versed in such matters claim that this settlement from the Orient came about either by ship-wrecked sailors or by true immigration from Asia, by way of Bering strait. There is evidence that the Mound Builders were people well up in art and science, as then understood in the world, and that copper was mined and worked in a fashion now unknown to the most skilled artisan. They made implements of war and had elaborate houses, practiced domestic economy and were possibly the ancestors of the North American Indian.