History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Bremer
BREMER COUNTY was organized from a portion of the extensive territory at one time embraced in the original county of Fayette. It lies in the third tier west of the Mississippi River, in the third tier south of the Minnesota line and contains but twelve townships six miles square, giving it an area of about four hundred thirty-two square miles. In 1845 Charles McCaffrey of Scott County made a claim in the valley of the Cedar River at the “Big Woods,” near where the village of Jefferson stands. He built a cabin and opened a farm and during the year other claims were made in that vicinity by George Beeler, Andrew Sample, J. H. Messenger and others. The early settlements were within the limits of the Winnebago reservation and the last of the Indians remained until 1851. In 1850 Jacob Hess and Frederick Cretzmeyer settled on the west side of the Cedar River where the town of Waverly stands.
The county was established in 1851 by act of the General Assembly and at the suggestion of General A. K. Eaton, then a member from Delaware County, was named for the Swedish author Frederika Bremer. It was first attached to Buchanan County for revenue, election and judicial purposes. In 1853 William P. Harmon settled on the east bank of the Cedar River and laid out the town of Waverly. A log farm was built across the river, a sawmill and log hotel erected. The commissioners located the county-seat the same year at the new town. John T. Barrick located six miles south of Waverly in the spring of 1853 and laid out the town of Janesville, named for his wife, Jane. This was the first town laid out in the county and there the first newspaper was established in 1855, named the Bremer County Herald and published by Phineas V. Swan. The county was organized in 1853 and had at that time but eighty-two voters. The first officers were Jeremiah Ferris, county judge; Austin Ferris, sheriff; John Hunter, treasurer; and Herman A. Miles, clerk.
The first newspaper at Waverly was established on the 6th of March, 1856, by Herman A. Miles and was called the Waverly Republican. Richard Miles taught the first school in the county in 1853 in a log house in Jefferson township. Judge Thomas S. Wilson held the first term of court at Waverly in June, 1854.