History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Keokuk
KEOKUK COUNTY as first created in December, 1837, comprised all of townships seventy-seven to eighty-one from the west line of Johnson County to the Missouri River. This immense county was afterwards divided into a number of smaller ones. On the 17th of February, 1843, the present county of Keokuk was created. It lies in the third tier west of the Mississippi River and in the third north of Missouri, is twenty-four miles square and has an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles. This county was named for the Sac chief whose name signifies “Watchful Fox.” The northern tier of townships was contained in the old county of the same name, while its entire territory was once embraced in the original county of Demoine.
The first white settlers came before the Indian title became extinct but no record of their names has been preserved. Aaron Miller settled in Richland township in the spring of 1838 and was soon followed by William Searcy, John Wasson, Cyrus Jordon and Jacob Wisner. Mr. Griffith took a claim on Clear Creek in 1837, Dr. W. Neeley settled near him in 1838 and in 1839 Harvey Stevens and William Grimsley joined the settlement. Farther up the river at Stillman’s Grove Jacob Shaver, Robert Linder, John and William Shaver located in 1843-4.
The county was organized in March, 1844, and the following officers chosen: Enos Darnell, J. Hollingsworth and J. H. Smith, commissioners; J. M. Waters, judge of probate; Edom Shugarth, clerk; W. H. Brown, treasurer; and George W. Hayes, sheriff. In 1844 the commissioners appointed for that purpose located the county-seat near the geographical center of the county and gave it the name of Sigourney for the well-known author, Lydia H. Sigourney. Previous to this time the county business had been transacted at a place called Newton, consisting of a log cabin and school-house. Edom Shugarth built the first house in Sigourney in 1844 and in it Judge Williams held his first court in July of that year. A town was soon laid out and a public sale of lots held in October at which but one lot was purchased and that by Joel L. Landreth for twelve dollars. A court-house square was laid off upon which in 1845 a hewed log house twenty by twenty-four feet was built for the use of county officers and courts, at a cost of two hundred eighteen dollars. The first newspaper was the Western Friend established in June, 1854, by J. N. and J. L. Paschal.
The oldest town in the county is Richland which was laid out by Pryor C. Woodward in 1840. Extensive coal mines have been opened in various parts of the county and the town of What Cheer is in the midst of these coal beds. Numerous railroads furnish excellent shipping facilities.