History of Cherokee County |
History of Cherokee County |
| The first
settlement
in Cherokee County was made in 1856. Robert Perry now a resident of
Pilot township, located his farm that year, a few days before Carlton
Corbett, one of Cherokee's wealthy citizens, the advance agent for a
Massachusetts colony, selected a location for the entire colony. The
prospect of the railroad largely induced these men to locate, but the
panic of the following year delayed its construction up to 1870. During
the first twelve years, at no time did the population exceed fifty, but
when in '68 and '69 the railroad became a certainty, people began to
flock in and in 1870 the census returns gave it a population of 1900;
now it cannot be less than six or seven thousand, the vote last fall
being 1200. The people are principally American, with a good percentage
of foreigners, especially Germans, there is a Norwegian settlement and
an Irish settlement, made up almost exclusively of these nationalities
and throughout the county there is an admixture of all classes. They
are in general, a thrifty, careful hardworking people; who are
bettering their social position each year; the buildings among the
farmers are generally of native timber, usually exclusively frame. In
some cases they are actually luxurious, as high as $4000 having been
expended in their erection. So far as known to the writer, there is not
a sod house in the county, while there are dozens as pleasant looking
farm homes as ever greeted the eye, many of them being surrounded by
forest and fruit trees. Source: History of Cherokee County, Published by Cherokee County Historical Society, based on Cherokee Times articles, January 1878 |
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