History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Introduction
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, SOUTH OF LANSING
THE first legislation providing for the creation of counties within the limits of the territory which eventually became the State of Iowa, was an act of the Legislative Assembly of Michigan Territory in 1834, as follows:
An act to lay off and organize counties west of the Mississippi River.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan—That all that district of country which was attached to the Territory of Michigan by an act of Congress entitled “An act to attach the territory of the United States west of the Mississippi River and north of the State of Missouri, to the Territory of Michigan, and to which the Indian title had been extinguished, which is north of a line to be drawn due west from the lower end of the Rock Island to the Missouri River, shall constitute a county and be called Dubuque; said county shall constitute a township which shall be called Julien, and the seat of justice shall be at the village of Dubuque.
Section 2.—All that part of the district aforesaid which was attached to the Territory of Michigan situated south of said line to be drawn due west of the lower end of Rock Island, shall constitute a county and be called Demoine; said county shall constitute a township and be called Flint Hill; the seat of justice shall be at such place therein as shall be designated by the judge of the county court of said county.
Section 4 of the act provided “That all laws now in force in the county of Iowa[1] not locally inapplicable, shall be and are hereby extended to the counties of Dubuque and Demoine and shall be in force therein.”
The Indian title was at that time extinguished to a region extending form the north line of Missouri to the mouth of the Upper Iowa River and fifty miles in width west of the Mississippi River. It will be seen that the two new counties embraced the entire “Black Hawk Purchase,” and were the only counties created within the limits of the territory embraced in Iowa, by the Legislative Assembly of Michigan, while it was a part of that Territory. When it became a part of Wisconsin Territory twenty-two counties were created; and when Iowa Territory was created, twenty-three additional counties were established. After it was admitted as a State many changes were made in the boundaries and names of counties and the remainder of its area was divided into counties until they numbered ninety-nine.
The organization of the older counties was provided for by special legislative acts; but the First and Fourth General Assemblies of the State provided general laws directing the method of county organization. The Constitution of 1857 gave a measure of stability to the boundaries of the counties as they then existed and all attempts to create new counties, divide or change the limits since the adoption of that Constitution have failed. The act expressly prohibits the creation of a county having less than four hundred and thirty-two square miles. The counties of Mitchell, Worth, Winnebago, Emmet, Dickinson and Osceola were each found to lack sixteen square miles but, by the terms of the Constitution, their boundaries were not interfered with.
Another clause of the Constitution provides “That no law changing the boundary lines of any county shall have effect, until upon being submitted to the people of the counties affected by the change at a general election, it shall be approved by a majority of votes in each county cast for and against it.” In 1862, notwithstanding this provision, the General Assembly passed an act authorizing counties to readjust their boundaries as they might see fit. Acting under this statute the people of Monona and Crawford counties moved the division line between them six miles west. The Code Commissioners in 1873, regarding this action as in conflict with the Constitution, omitted the act from the code and it ceased to have effect after the 1st of September, of that year.
The Third General Assembly, in 1850, created twenty-five new counties embracing all of the territory in which counties had not been established heretofore.
A bill providing for the creation of these counties was prepared by P. M. Cassady, Senator from the Polk County district, and was referred to the committee on new counties of which Mr. Casady was a member.[2] In the original bill the county now bearing the name of Union was named “Mason,” for Judge Charles Mason. The committee was opposed to discriminating among the many living men of note in the State and changed the name to Union. Objection was also made to the name of Buncombe but when it was explained that it was in honor of a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary War from North Carolina, it was permitted to remain. The bill also gave the name of Floyd to the one which is now Woodbury, to commemorate Sergeant Floyd of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The House amended the bill by naming that county “Wahkaw.” The committee fixed upon a large number of the names in the following manner: three were named in honor of colonels who fell in the War with Mexico—Hardin of Illinois, Clay of Kentucky and Yell of Arkansas. Three more were named for battle-fields in the same war—Cerro Gordo, Buena Vista and Palo Alto. Three for Irish patriots—Emmet, Mitchell and O’Brien. One county was named Worth, for Major-General William J. Worth; one for General William O. Butler who was the Democratic candidate for Vice-President in 1848; one for Major Frederick Mills, a talented young lawyer from Burlington who was killed at the Battle of Cherubusco; one for Edwin Guthrie, an early pioneer of Fort Madison, who died of wounds received in battle in Mexico. The Mexican War had closed but two years before this session, the names of its battle-fields and military officers were so fresh in the memory of the people that they were liberally drawn upon for names of the new counties.
- ↑ This was the name of a county east of the Mississippi River in that portion of Michigan Territory which afterwards became the State of Wisconsin.
- ↑ Many of the facts in relation to the naming of these counties were first given to the public in a paper read by Judge Casady in 1894, at a session of the Pioneer Lawmakers’ Association.