BLACK HAWK COUNTY, created on the 17th of February, 1847, by act of the General Assembly, lies in the third tier south of the Minnesota line and fourth west of the Mississippi River and contains sixteen congressional townships embracing an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles. It was attached to Buchanan in 1851.
The first white settler was Paul Somaneux, a French trader who, in the summer of 1837, ascended the Cedar River to the rapids where Cedar Falls stands, there built a cabin and opened a profitable trade with the Indians in furs and skins. Robert Stuart, another trader, reached the rapids the same season and engaged in traffic with the Indians. In 1844 William Chambers of Louisa County came to the rapids, built a cabin and also opened trade with Indians, but none of these earliest settlers engaged in farming. In the spring of 1845 William Sturgis and wife of Michigan and A. E. Adams and wife of Johnson County made an excursion of the Cedar River in search of good water power. They were charmed with the beauty of the valley and finding excellent water power at the rapids, took claims on the river banks where Cedar Falls now stands. Mr. Sturgis soon began to construct a dam across the river and for many years the settlement was known as “Sturgis Falls.” In May, John Hamilton and his sons came to the new settlement and took claims. George Hanna and family, John Melrose and William Virden soon after took claims near Black Hawk Creek, while E. G. Young and James Newell settled in the northern part of the county. In February, 1847, John W. Overman, D. C. Overman and J. F. Barrick came to Sturgis Falls, purchased the water power and land belonging with it, finished the dam and erected a sawmill. In 1851 a town was laid out and named Cedar Falls. Andrew Mularky opened a store in his log cabin, the first in the county, which was known as the “Black Hawk store.” In 1846 Mrs. J. F. Taylor opened the first school with six pupils. For many years the site of Cedar
