History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Clinton
CLINTON COUNTY was created in December, 1837, from territory embraced in the original county of Dubuque. It was named for De Witt Clinton the illustrious Governor of New York, contains an area of seven hundred twenty square miles and lies on the Mississippi River in the fifth tier south of the Minnesota line extending farther eastward than any other county in the State. The city of Clinton lies farther east by more than sixty miles than Keokuk, both on the Mississippi River. Clinton and Jackson are the most easterly counties in the great bend of the Mississippi River forming the east boundary of Iowa. The Wapsipinicon River enters the county from the northwest and forms a large portion of the boundary line separating Clinton from Scott County.
In July, 1835, Elisha Buel crossed the Mississippi and made a claim where Lyons was laid out. In 1836 James D. Bourne who was an agent of the American Fur Company established a post and made a claim on the Wapsipinicon, becoming a permanent citizen. He was the first postmaster in the county and kept the office named Monroe which was on the mail route from Davenport to Dubuque. He also kept a ferry across the Wapsipinicon at that place. During the year 1836 Dr. George Peck made a claim on the banks of the Mississippi and laid out the town of Camanche, named for an Indian tribe. Joseph M. Bartlett made a claim two miles below Buel’s the same year and built a log cabin. He opened a store and laid out a town where Clinton stands, which he named New York. In 1837 Mr. Buel, G. W. Harlan and Suel Foster laid out the town of Lyons. Eli Goddard, D. C. Bourne, W. D. Follett and others settled in various parts of the county during the following year.
In February, 1838, the county-seat was established by a vote of the people at Camanche. The county was fully organized in 1840 and the first election was held April 6th in the house of Lyman Evans at Camanche. In 1841 three commissioners were chosen by the Legislature to relocate the county-seat. They selected a place twenty miles west of the Mississippi and gave it the name of Vandenburg. A log court-house and hotel were built and the court-house was used for school and church purposes. J. Wood was the first school teacher in the county. The name of the town was soon changed to De Witt and the county-seat remained there about thirty-five years, when it was removed to Clinton.
Clinton was laid out on the old site of New York in 1855 by the Iowa Land Company. The Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad Company was organized in 1856 to build a railroad from Clinton to the Missouri River. The road was pushed with energy and was the first to cross the State, reaching Council Bluffs in the fall of 1867.
The first newspaper in the county was established at Camanche in 1854 by Bates and Knapp and named the Camanche Chief. In June, 1860, Camanche was destroyed by the great tornado which swept through central Iowa that year. A railroad bridge was built across the Mississippi at Clinton and in the course of years Lyons and Clinton grew together and became one city.