for the town. Lots were sold to raise money to build a court-house. William H. Barnes erected the first building at the new county-seat in 1848. Isaac G. Wilson built a log hotel the same year and in June, 1850, the first store was opened by Gideon Wilson. In 1856 John Casady established the first newspaper, the Montezuma Republican.
In March, 1854, J. B. Grinnell, Dr. Thomas Holyoke, Rev. Homer Hamlin and Henry M. Hamilton from the States of New York and Massachusetts laid out a town for the purpose of planting a colony and founding a college. The town was named Grinnell for the projector of the enterprise. During the year several buildings were erected; a store was opened by Anor Scott, a hotel was started by George Chambers and a small building erected for school and church purposes. Grinnell college was founded in 1855.
Brooklyn was platted by Robert Manatt in April, 1855, and the first house built the same year by Robert Shimer. Malcom was laid out in 1866 by Abel Kimball and Z. P. Wigton. The Rock Island Railroad was built through the towns of Grinnell and Brooklyn in 1863.
RINGGOLD COUNTY was created in 1851 and named for Major Samuel Ringgold who was mortally wounded in the Battle of Palo Alto in the Mexican War. It lies on the Missouri State line in the fourth tier east of the Missouri River and contains five hundred forty-two square miles. The Platte and several branches of the Grand River flow through the county in a southerly direction. Belts of native woods are found along the water courses but a large part of the county is rolling prairie through which the larger streams cut the drift to a depth of from one to two hundred feet.
The first settler was Charles H. Schooler who, in 1844, located with his family in the southeast corner of the county, they were for two years the only white people. In 1846 James M. Tithrow and family settled near them. In
