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1914 History of Boone County
Chapter XXIV
  Grant Township

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At the time of the organization of Boone County, August 6, 1849, the county was divided into three voting precincts or townships. Each of these townships contained one-third of the territory of the county. That is, the south one-third was called Pleasant Township; the central one-third was called Boone Township, and the north one-third was called Boone River Township. The present territory of Grant Township was all contained in Boone River Township. This division continued from August 6, 1849, to March 8, 1852 - a period of little less than three years. At this last-named date Boone River Township was discontinued and Dodge and Yell townships were organized in its stead. In this division all that part of Boone River Township which was situated west of the Des Moines River was contained in Yell Township, which included all of the present Township of Grant. This division continued until September, 1858, a period of about six years and a half, when Pilot Mound Township was established and named. In this last division Pilot Mound Township contained all of its present territory and all of the present territory of Grant Township. This division continued from September, 1856, to January, 1871, a period of over fourteen years. At the last named date Grant Township was organized and named. It contains a full congressional township. It is bounded on the east by Pilot Mound Township, on the north by Webster County, on the west by Greene County, and on the south by Amaqua Township. Among the early settlers of Grant Township were John L. Good, Henry Bierman, Gustaf Johnson, Alex Lobeck, Philip Meyer, James E. Robertson and A. P. Sniggs. The first house built in the township was the residence of A. P. Sniggs. It was built in 1868. From this date the township settled up very rapidly. From the date of the first settlement in 1868 to 1875, the population had increased to 411. The first township officers elected were: Justice of the peace, Frank Barrot; clerk, Peter Johnson; trustee, James E. Robertson. The only stream in the township is the Beaver, which rises near the north line of the township and runs south through its entire length from north to south. Jt is a fine little stream and furnishes good drainage for the whole township. With the exception of a clump of willows here and there along the Beaver, there is no native timber in the township. Since the lands of the township have been drained it has become one of the best agricultural localities in the county. The soil is very fertile, which is evidenced by the bounteous crops which are produced from year to year. The farmers of Grant Township are fully up with any in the county in their industry and energy, which their farms and homes abundantly prove. There are no statistics to show where the first school in the township was taught, nor who taught it, nor in what year it was taught, but we may rightly conclude that all these things were attended to by the people of the township when it became necessary. The authorities of the township have established nine school districts in the township and have built nine good schoolhouses, which are kept in good repair. The schools are well regulated and competent teachers are employed. According to the census of 1910 the population of Grant Township was 982. With the exception of Des Moines and Dodge townships, Grant leads all of the other townships of the county in population. Grant Township has one railroad line that runs almost diagonally through the township from southeast to northwest. This is the Newton & Northwestern, commonly known as the Interurban Line. Boxholm is the only station in the township. The present officers of the township are: Justice of the peace, F. A. Snyder; constable, Theodore Freil; clerk, Joseph E. Reutter; assessor, J. N. Nichols; trustees. Gust Brod, W. A. Swanson and F. A. Hall. In the year 1912 the township trustees paid out for road and drainage purposes $2,012.34 and had a balance of $991.09. The lav of the land in Grant Township is very level. It took much drainage to make dry farms and good roads. Much of this has been accomplished, but there is still more to do. In the beginning of the settlement of the township there were seven very large ponds within its borders. Some of these partook of the nature of lakes, but nearly all of them were near enough to Beaver Creek to make their drainage easy. Some of these ponds or small lakes were originally three miles long and from one to three miles in width. These ponds are traced on the map of the county made by the Union Historical Association, in 1879, just as they appeared in their natural state. With all these natural difficulties to encounter the people of Grant Township have made good roads and have placed under good cultivation hundreds of acres of land which were formerly under water a part of each year. These lands are now the richest in the world. With proper care they will last for all time to come. The township contains 23,040 acres of land. If this were equally divided between the citizens of the township at the present time there would be a fraction over twenty-three acres for each one of them. There are three cemeteries in the township- one in Section 30, one in Section 35, and one in Section 15. There is but one postoffice in the township. This is located at Boxholm near the central part of the township. The other parts are supplied by rural delivery, giving the citizens a daily mail. BOXHOLM Boxholm, the only town in Grant Township, was laid out April 21, 1900. It is located in Section 15, Township 85, Range 28, and is on the line of the Newton & Northwestern Railroad. Years before Boxholm was laid out, John B. Anderson kept a small store on the present site of the town. He also kept a postoffice in the little store, which he was instrumental in having established by the Government. He was the first postmaster. It was his request that the town be named Boxholm, the name of a town in Sweden, in which he was born and raised. This request was granted, as it should have been. Boxholm has two general stores, two implement stores, two hardware stores, two garages, one drug store, one lumber-yard, one blacksmith shop, two grain elevators and two banks. One of these is the Farmers Savings Bank, the other the Farmers State Bank. J. E. Reutter is the president of the Farmers State Bank and A. Henderson is cashier. J. H. Roberts is president of the Farmers Savings Bank and A. Westeen is cashier. Dr. E. G. Johnson is the practicing physician of the place. There is an Odd Fellows lodge of fifty members and the lodge is in good working order. The town has a good school building of two departments, and an enrollment of eighty scholars. The principal for the coming term is Delia Wilson. The other teachers have not been elected. The town has two churches - one a Swedish Lutheran, with a membership of 190 and good Sunday school, and the other, a Methodist Episcopal, with a membership of 150 and a live Sunday school. The town has a population of 200, and at the spring election there were fifty-seven votes cast. The present officers of the town of Boxholm are as follows: Mayor, N. G. Wilson; councilmen, A. T. Johnson, J. A. Anderson, H. C. Steen, P. A. Stark and A. S. Thorngren. Boxholm is situated im a little elevation of land which makes one think it was destined for the location of a town. On Monday, July 20, 1914, the people of the town will vote upon two propositions. One of these is the building of a town hall and the other the granting of a franchise for electric lights. It is the consensus of public opinion that both propositions will carry. Boxholm is in the midst of a very rich farming country and the outlook is that a large volume of business will be transacted here from year to year. The people of Grant Township have been very law-abiding and peaceful, and for this reason no crimes of a serious nature have been laid against them. No coal mines have been developed within the borders of the township. It may not be long, however, until discoveries of coal will be made. For the present all the fuel used in the township has to be shipped from other parts. There is one church in Grant Township, situated on the bank of the Beaver, in Section 29, Township 85, Range 28. It is of the Evangelical denomination and it is said to have a fair sized body of faithful workers. Among the citizens of the township who have been honored with county offices may be  mentioned John L. Good, who served as a member of the board of supervisors and as a member of the lower house of the Iowa Legislature in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh General Assemblies, and A. Henderson, who served the unexpired term of F. M. Lorenzen, of Ogden, who resigned the office of county treasurer after serving six months. Mr. Henderson was then elected for the term following. Swan Johnson was a member of the county board of supervisors in the earlv '90s, and G. F. Frie is the present member of that body from the west side of the Des Moines River.

Source: History of Boone County, Iowa
N. E. Goldthwait, Supervising Editor
Illustrated, Volume I
Chicago, Pioneer Publishing Company
1914

Transcribed by Lynn Diemer-Mathews and uploaded August 5, 2024.

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