History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Fremont

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FREMONT COUNTY lies in the extreme southwest corner of the State and is bounded on the south by Missouri and on the west by the Missouri River. It contains an area of five hundred nine square miles. The county was created in 1847 and named for Colonel John C. Fremont, a famous explorer of the Rocky Mountain region and an officer in the Mexican War.

The first settlements were made within its limits as early as 1840 when the southern townships were claimed by Missouri. James Cornelius, Daniel McKissick, Thomas Farmer, David M. English and others settled in that part of the county at McKissick’s Grove prior to 1842. A. M. Hitchock was one of the early settlers near Sidney where he kept a public house. Major Stephen Cooper was one of the pioneers in the vicinity of Bartlett and at one time a member of the Missouri Legislature. In 1848 several families from Oberlin, Ohio, settled on the east bank of the Missouri River five miles above Nebraska City with the intention of founding a college; but the floods overflowed their lands and they moved to where Tabor now stands. Rev. John Todd was one of the founders of the college which was there established in 1857.

The county was organized in 1850 by the election of the following officers: Thomas Greenwood, judge; A. H. Argyle, treasurer and recorder; J. S. Jones, prosecuting attorney; Milton Richards, clerk of court; and Tilden M. Buckham, sheriff. Among the earliest settlers in the southern part of the county were John Gordon, James Applegate and Dr. David Lincoln. The first term of the District Court was held in 1850 by Judge William McKay in a log cabin at McKissick’s Grove where a town had been platted, named Austin. The town of Sidney was laid out in 1851 on land belonging to Judge Thomas Greenwood. J. J. Singleton opened a store the same year and S. T. Crowell built and kept the first public house. Hamburg was laid out in 1857 by Augustus Borcher, a young German, who had settled there to trade with the Indians. He named it for his native city in the old country. In May, 1851, the county-seat was located at Sidney and in 1863 the Sidney Union, a weekly newspaper, was started there by L. J. Easton. The Kansas City and Council Bluffs Railroad was built through the county from north to south in 1867-8.