row escapes from the hostile Indians, returned to the settlements. In July, 1866, Lewis P. Hyde of Minnesota took a homestead on the Big Sioux River two miles below where Beloit stands. In 1868 Ole Nelson and his brother Halver of Clayton County, with a colony, settled near the Big Sioux River where they built a mill. During the same year Dr. H. D. Rice and wife, Emerick Irwin and H. W. Reeves settled on the Rock River near the present town of Doon. D. C. Whitehead and several others settled at Rock Rapids in 1869 and at the close of that year the population of the county was about one hundred.
The first school was taught at Rock Rapids during the winter of 1870-71 by Mrs. D. C. Whitehead and the first minister in the county was Rev. Ellef Oleson of Beloit. On the 25th of July, 1871, a weekly newspaper was established at Rock Rapids by C. E. Bristol which was named the Rock Rapids Journal. The county was organized in October of the same year by the election of the following officers: Charles E. Goetz, auditor; James H. Wagner, treasurer; D. C. Whitehead, clerk; T. W. Johnson, sheriff, and Thomas Thorson, recorder. Rock Rapids on the Rock River was made the county-seat. The Big Sioux River forms the western boundary of the county and State in this section. The Milwaukee and other railroads furnish transportation facilities.
MADISON COUNTY which was at one time a part of the original county of Demoine, was established in January, 1846, lies in the third tier north of the Missouri line and in the fourth east of the Missouri River and was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States. It is traversed by the North, Middle and South rivers along which are borders of native forest.
The first settler in the county was Hiram Hurst who came from Missouri in May, 1845, and took a claim in Crawford township. In May, 1846, Joel, Isaac and Charles Clanton and Caleb Clark with their families set-
