History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Boone
BOONE COUNTY is near the geographical center of the State, lying in the fifth tier from its north line, in the eighth west of the Mississippi River and containing sixteen congressional townships with an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles. It was created by act of the Legislature in January, 1846, and named for Captain Nathan Boone who, in 1832, commanded a company of Rangers in an expedition which explored the Des Moines and Boone River valleys. Lysander W. Babbitt, a young man with the expedition, was so fascinated with the beauty of this region, that in the spring so 1842 he, with two companions, went into the Boone valley where they spent several months hunting and exploring. They traveled nearly to the headwaters of the Boone, then crossed to the Des Moines and camped where Moingona stands. There they found the ruins of an Indian village, near which they made claims. They were at one time robbed of their furs by a band of Sioux Indians and finding it dangerous to remain so far from white settlements, surrounded by roving bands of Sioux, early in the winter of 1844 prudently abandoned their claims and returned to a settled country. They were the first white men to select homes in Boone County. In 1846 another member of Captain Boone’s company, Charles G. Gaston, with his family ascended the Des Moines valley as far as Elk Rapids where he made a claim and built a log cabin. Soon after John Pea, James Hull, J. M. Crooks and others built cabins in that vicinity along a creek three miles north of Boonsboro. Benjamin Williams the same year took a claim near where Madrid stands.
The county was organized in 1849 and attached to Polk. In 1851 commissioners were appointed to locate the county-seat and, as there was no town yet laid out, they drove a stake in the ground near where the first courthouse was afterward built and there established the county-seat. A town was laid out and, upon the suggestion of S. B. McCall, named Boonsboro and a public sale of lots was made in October, 1851. Samuel B. McCall was the sheriff selected to organize the county, an at the first election John M. Wayne was chosen clerk; John M. Crooks, treasurer; S. H. Bowers, sheriff, and W. C. Hull, prosecuting attorney. The first term of court was held in Boonsboro in October, 1851, at which Judge William McKay presided. The first building in the town was a two story log house erected by W. C. Hull on the east side of the public square.
In 1865 the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad was extended in the county to the new town of Montana which had been laid out by John I. Blair and other builders of the railroad. This town was a mile east of Boonsboro and the citizens of the county-seat were required to pay a large bonus to secure the road. Feeling sure of the road, they declined to pay the amount demanded and the construction company turned the road toward the southwest following the valley of Honey Creek, leaving Boonsboro a mile or more from the line. Then began a life and death struggle between the proprietors of Montana and the citizens of Boonsboro for supremacy which lasted for many years. Buildings were erected in each town but in the end the citizens of Boonsboro began to move to Montana, its name was changed to Boone and the old county-seat became a suburb of the new city which had absorbed its business and much of its population. The first newspaper was established by Capron and Sanders in July, 1856, at Boonsboro and named the Boone County News. Its editor, Luther C. Sanders, was one of the sharpest paragraphists in the State among the pioneer editors.
The Des Moines River flows through the county from north to south, with a heavy body of excellent timber growing along its banks, under which are found extensive deposits of coal. The soil of the entire county is of unsurpassed fertility.