History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Wright
WRIGHT COUNTY was established by act of the General Assembly in 1851 and named for Silas Wright, a New York statesman and Governor Joseph A. Wright of Indiana. The county lies in the third tier south of the Minnesota line and in the sixth west of the Mississippi River. It is twenty-four miles square and contains five hundred seventy-six square miles. The Iowa River runs through the eastern portion of the county from north to south and the Boone River flows through the western tier of townships in the same direction. Excellent borders of timber are found along the banks of these rivers while the land between was, in early days, a vast rolling prairie of great fertility.
The first pioneer who made a home in the county was Major Anson Brassfield who, in 1854, made a claim on the banks of the Boone River in what is now Liberty township. The following year he constructed a dam across the river and built the first mill in the county. S. B. Hewett, his son, S. B. Hewett, Jr., and N. B. Paine of Massachusetts, in 1854 settled at Eagle Grove near the Boone River where they opened farms. H. B. Martin settled the same year near the mouth of Otter Creek where he laid out the town of Liberty. The same year three families located near the Iowa River, not far from where Belmont stands and William Stryker made a claim at Bach Grove. In 1855 Dr. L. H. Cutler, A. Dumont and T. Oliver took
AN IOWA STOCK FARM OF 3,000 ACRES, IN WRIGHT COUNTY
Improved by E. S. Ellsworth
claims near the Iowa River in the vicinity of Belmont. In July of the same year William Gray, H. Luic and A. Overacker settled near the Iowa River in the northeast corner of the county. C. H. Martin located on the Boone River in the northwest corner in 1855.
The first meeting to organize the county was held at the cabin of S. B. Hewett in Eagle Grove in the spring of 1854. At an election held in August the following officers were chosen: David Dean, judge; C. H. Martin, clerk; Anson Brassfield, recorder and treasurer; S. Crapper, sheriff; S. B. Hewett, Jr., surveyor, and N. B. Paine, prosecuting attorney. In 1856 John Melrose built and opened the first store in the county at Liberty which was the first county-seat. A town was laid out on the Iowa River in the summer of 1856 by A. Dumont, J. Elder and E. Rogers and was first named Crown Point, afterwards changed to Belmont. A dam was constructed across the Iowa River where a saw and grist-mill was built by Dr. L. H. Cutler, who also built the first house in the new town.
Several small lakes are found in the county the largest of which is Wall Lake, in the township of that name. In early days a wall of boulders was found along its shores, crowded there by the floating ice driven by the winds for thousands of years and from this wall the lake derived its name. When the first settlers arrived a large elm tree stood upon the southeast shore of a beautiful little lake lying near the geographical center of the county. It was given the name of Elm Lake. Cornelia Lake was named for the daughter of E. K. Eastman, one of the early settlers. Twin Lakes lie about four miles north of Cornelia. The first settler at Wall Lake was E. P. Purcell who built a cabin on its northern shore in 1856. Here he lived with his family for five years before the arrival of other settlers.
The first newspaper in the county was established by George D. Ingersoll at Liberty in 1861. It was named the Wright County Free Press and was published weekly. In 1865, one hundred twenty acres of land were purchased by the county near its geographical center where a town was platted and named Clarion, which became the county-seat. The largest town in the county has grown up at Eagle Grove where the Northwestern Railroad crossed the Mason City and Fort Dodge line.