History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Pocahontas
POCAHONTAS COUNTY was created in 1851 and named for the Indian maiden who saved the life of Captain John Smith in the early years of the settlement of the colony of Virginia. It lies in the third tier south of the Minnesota line in the fourth east of the Missouri River and contains an area of five hundred seventy-six squares miles. The county was attached to Webster in 1855. The Lizzard and the west fork of the Des Moines River flow through the eastern part of the county among the small lakes within its limits are Swan Lake, Clear Lake and Lizzard Lake.
In February, 1855, Michael Collins, Mr. Hickey and families ascended the Lizzard from Fort Dodge, took claims and built cabins. The following year John and Patrick Calligan, Dennis Connors, Patrick McCabe, James Donahue and others joined the settlement and opened farms near the Lizzard. In May, 1857, Robert Struthers, William H. Haite, A. H. Malcome and Gurnsey Smith of Fort Dodge settled in the northern part of the county in what is now Des Moines township. In 1858 David Slosson, O. F. Avery, Ora Harvey and others settled in the same vicinity and a county government was established by the election of the following officers: David Slosson, judge; W. H. Haite, treasurer and recorder; A. H. Malcome, clerk; Oscar Slosson, sheriff. In August, 1859, Judge A. W. Hubbard appointed C. C. Carpenter of Webster County, Miles Mahon of Palo Alto, and Hiram Benjamin of Humboldt, commissioners to locate the county-seat. They selected a site near the Des Moines River and gave it the name of Rolfe. Here a town was laid out which became the county-seat. The entire county was organized into one school district and Miss Nellie Harvey taught the first school in the house of W. H. Haite in 1860. In the fall of that year a brick courthouse was built in which Judge Hubbard held the first term of court in November. On the 15th of July, 1869, W. D. McEwen and J. J. Bruce issued the first number of a weekly newspaper named the Pocahontas Journal, which was the first in the county.
Unlike the early officials of many of the counties of northwestern Iowa, those of Pocahontas were honest and competent men who protected the public interests and labored unselfishly for the permanent prosperity of the county. The town of Pocahontas Center was platted by Frederick Hess on land belonging to Warrick Price in 1870. It was near the geographical center of the county and in 1875 was made the county-seat. In 1869 the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad was built through the southwest corner of the county and the town of Fonda was laid out on its line. The town of Rolfe was laid out in September, 1881, where the Rock Island Railroad crosses the line of the Northwestern, several miles west of the old town of that name.
Gilmore is a town on the line of the Des Moines and Fort Dodge Railroad which was platted by L. C. Thornton for a land company in 1884.