of water. The greater part of the land of Winnebago west of Lime Creek is rolling prairie of great fertility.
In the fall of 1856 Judge Robert Clark laid out a town on the west bank of Lime Creek, half a mile from the south line of the county, which was named Forest City. A post-office was established of which Mr. Clark was post-master. He built a mill on the creek and opened a store.
The county was organized in the fall of 1857 by the election of the following officers: Robert Clark, judge; C. H. Day, recorder and treasurer; B. F. Dinslow, clerk; John S. Blowers, sheriff, and C. W. Scott, superintendent of schools. In 1858 the commissioners chosen to locate the county-seat gave it to Forest City. On the 14th of June, 1867, J. W. Kelley issued the first number of a weekly newspaper named the Winnebago Press. It was printed on an old hand press which was first used at Belmont when that town was the Capital of Wisconsin and Iowa. It was moved to Burlington in 1837 and used to print the second paper established within the limits of the Territory which became Iowa in 1838 and is reported to have done good service on papers at Osage, Mason City and Ellington before it was taken to Forest City. In the fall of 1869 the village of Lake Mills was laid out by Charles D. Smith where a large mill was built.
WINNESHIEK COUNTY was established in 1847 from territory embraced in the original county of Fayette. It lies in the second tier west of the Mississippi River and extends north to the Minnesota line. It is one of the large counties containing twenty townships, embracing an area of six hundred ninety-four square miles. The county was named for a noted chief of the Winnebago Indians whose name appears on the records “Kinnoskik” which signifies “coming thunder.” The surface of the county is divided between prairie and woodland, with high bluffs along the streams. The Upper Iowa and Turkey rivers with numerous tributaries flow through it.
