key River at that place. The first houses were built by Elisha Boardman and H. D. Bronson in 1836 on the land where the new town was located. Elkader first became the county-seat in 1856, lost it for a time but permanently regained it in 1860. In 1855 Elias H. Williams was elected first county judge.
The first newspaper published between Dubuque and St. Paul on the west side of the Mississippi River was the Clayton County Herald. It was established in January, 1853, by H. S. Granger at Garnavillo and two years later sold to A. W. Dripps who changed the name to the Journal. Dripps was Captain of Company A, in the ninth Iowa Infantry in the Civil War and was killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge.
McGregor, the largest town in the county, was laid out in 1847 by Alexander McGregor. In 1836 he established a ferry across the Mississippi River at this place opposite the old French town of Prairie du Chien. Soon after he made a claim where the town of McGregor stands and built a log cabin at the foot of Main street. In 1847 he moved his family into it and a store and public house were soon opened. For many years the village which grew up was called McGregor’s Landing. The ravine where the town was located was named by the early French traders “Coolie de Sioux.” The bluffs here rise to the height of nearly four hundred feet and overlook the mouth of the Wisconsin River and the adjacent country for a great distance.
The first newspaper in McGregor was established by Colonel A. P. Richardson in October, 1856. The first railroad constructed in the county was the McGregor Western which was built west in 1857. This company secured a large land grant but failing to comply with the requirements the lands were given to the Milwaukee and St. Paul Company which completed the road west to Sheldon in 1878.
