EARLY HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTIES
THE first legislation providing for the creation of counties within the limits of the territory which eventually became the State of Iowa, was an act of the Legislative Assembly of Michigan Territory in 1834, as follows:
An act to lay off and organize counties west of the Mississippi River.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan—That all that district of country which was attached to the Territory of Michigan by an act of Congress entitled “An act to attach the territory of the United States west of the Mississippi River and north of the State of Missouri, to the Territory of Michigan, and to which the Indian title had been extinguished, which is north of a line to be drawn due west from the lower end of the Rock Island to the Missouri River, shall constitute a county and be called Dubuque; said county shall constitute a township which shall be called Julien, and the seat of justice shall be at the village of Dubuque.
Section 2.—All that part of the district aforesaid which was attached to the Territory of Michigan situated south of said line to be drawn due west of the lower end of Rock Island, shall constitute a county and be called Demoine; said county shall constitute a township and be called Flint Hill; the seat of justice shall be at such place therein as shall be designated by the judge of the county court of said county.
Section 4 of the act provided “That all laws now in force in the county of Iowa* not locally inapplicable, shall be and are hereby extended to the counties of Dubuque and Demoine and shall be in force therein.”
The Indian title was at that time extinguished to a region extending form the north line of Missouri to the mouth of the Upper Iowa River and fifty miles in width west of the Mississippi River. It will be seen that the two
*This was the name of a county east of the Mississippi River in that portion of Michigan Territory which afterwards became the State of Wisconsin.
