History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Crawford
CRAWFORD COUNTY lies in the second tier east of the Missouri River and in the fifth south of the Minnesota line. It has twenty-four townships containing an area of seven hundred twenty square miles and was named for William H. Crawford who was Secretary of the Treasury from 1817 to 1825 and a candidate for President in 1824. The county was created in 1851 from territory originally embraced in Benton but at that time did not include the four western townships. In 1853 it was attached to Shelby County and in 1855 was organized at the April election by choice of the following officers: E. W. Fowler, judge; Thomas Dobson, clerk; A. R. Hunt, treasurer; D. J. Fowler, sheriff; and Cyrus Whitmore, prosecuting attorney. The present boundaries were established in 1865.
The first settlers were Franklin Prentiss, Cornelius Dunham and their families, who with Reuben Blake took claims on the East Boyer River in a grove about six miles east of where Denison stands, in the year 1849. The place was long known as Dunham Grove. Jesse Mason, George J. and Noah V. Johnson settled the next year at Mason’s Grove on the West Boyer. J. W. Denison came to the county in 1855 and entered a large tract of land for the Providence Western Land Company. In 1856 he laid out the town of Denison, and with others began the erection of houses.
The first school-house was built at Mason’s Grove in 1856 in which Morris McHenry taught the first school in the county. The Methodists organized the first church at Mason’s Grove in October, 1856, through the efforts of Rev. William Black who was a pioneer preacher in that part of the State. S. J. Comfort was the first lawyer in the county in 1867, following down the Boyer valley to Council Bluffs.
The county-seat was located at Denison in 1856, soon after the town was laid out. In October, 1860, J. W. Denison began the publication of a newspaper named the Boyer Valley Record. The Northwestern Railroad was built through the county in 1867, following down the Boyer valley to Council Bluffs.