History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Mitchell
MITCHELL COUNTY, originally a part of Fayette, was created in 1851 and named for the Irish patriot John Mitchell. Its northern boundary is the Minnesota line and it is in the fourth tier west of the Mississippi River. The county embraces an area of four hundred seventy-three square miles. The Red Cedar, the Little Cedar and the Wapsipinicon rivers flow southward through the county. James B. Cutler and William Ramsdell were the first settlers in 1852; they took claims and built cabins about a mile north of where Osage stands. L. S. Hart and his son Orin entered land and settled at Spring Grove the same year. In June, 1853, a colony of Norwegians under the leadership of C. L. Clanson came from Wisconsin and settled near where St. Ansger stands on the Red Cedar River. In September of the same year Josiah Cummings and his son William E. located at Mitchell.
The county government was organized in 1854 by the election of the following officers: A. H. Moore, judge; Amos Cummings, clerk; B. C. Whitaker, treasurer and recorder, and L. S. Hart, sheriff.
In 1853 a town was laid out on the Cedar River by Dr. A. H. Moore and B. C. Whitaker which was named Cora. In 1854 the property was sold to Boardman, Downs and Gibbs, who changed the name of the town to Osage, in honor of Orin Sage of Massachusetts.
In 1855 the county-seat was located at Mitchell where a town had been platted on the east bank of the Cedar River. A bitter contest soon arose between the citizens of Osage and Mitchell for the permanent county-seat. Several elections were held with varying results until April, 1861, when Osage was declared the county-seat by a majority of nineteen votes. By injunction proceedings Mitchell held the county records until the fall of 1871 when the courts settled the contest in favor of Osage. In July, 1856, the United States Land Office was moved from Decorah to Osage.
The first mill in the county was built at Newburg in 1854. The first court was held by Judge Samuel Murdock at Mitchell in June, 1857. The Osage Democrat was the first newspaper in the county; it was established in
LITHOGRAPHIC ROCK LEDGES IN MITCHELL COUNTY
the spring of 1856 by Datus E. Coon of Osage, who issued the first number under the shade of a tree. In 1857 the Methodists organized a church at Osage with Rev. Holbrook as pastor. A. S. Faville taught the first school at Mitchell in 1854.
The first railroad constructed through the county was the Cedar Falls and Minnesota which followed the valley of the Cedar River.