|
Shelby County |
CHAPTER XI -- CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES, PAST AND PRESENTVILLAGES THAT HAVE VANISHED.SHELBYVILLE.Although the above named commissioners were named the the General Assembly to fix a location for Shelbyville, it appears that the village was really located by a committee consisting of Marshall Turly, of Council Bluffs, J. F. Vails, of Crawford county, and Lorenzo Butler, of Harrison county, which committee was appointed for the purpose of selecting a site December 3, 1853, by Samuel H. Riddle, judge of the seventh judicial district at Council Bluffs, Iowa. This committee, on December 21, 1853, met at the house of James N. Butler and selected as the site of Shelbyville the northeast quarter of section 27, in what is now Grove township. On October 30, 1854, W. C. James, Addison Cochran, H. H. Fowler, Henry J. Runnels and Andrew Fouts platted the site of Shelbyville, and acknowledged their plat before Frank Street, county judge. The plat was approved by Mansel Wicks, county judge, on February 5, 1855. George H. White was the surveyor of the land covered by the plat. The streets of Shelbyville were named Washington, Pearl, Main, James and Jefferson and the cross streets were designated as First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth. The plat also provided that the court house square should lie between Main and Pearl streets and between Third and Fourth streets. Through vote of the electors of Shelby county, by a majority of nine votes, at an election held on April 4, 1859, Shelbyville ceased to be the county seat and Harlan succeeded Shelbyville, which soon ceased to grow and residents moved their houses away. Some years ago the only evidence that this site had ever been a village consisted of some large cottonwood trees that had been planted about the time the town was laid out. In her early days Shelbyville was on the main road from Harlan to Dunlap. For a number of terms, the county and district courts were held there. It had a court house. Some of the county officers had offices there, at least at intervals, and a few political speakers spoke at Shelbyville. From 1854 to 1860 Shelbyville had an interesting existence and no doubt many a pioneer yarn was spun in the court room, postoffice and in the little stores of the time, but the place is now merely an interesting memory. The land which constituted the site of what might be termed a forerunner of Harlan, the village of Somida (usually called Simoda, however), was platted by its owner, Milton Heath, and his wife, Elizabeth Heath, on September 25, 1858. The land platted consisted of the east one-half of the southeast quarter of section 8, and the west one-half of the southwest quarter of section 9, in township 79, range 38. This land lies in what is now Center township and for years has been a part of the farm of H. Baughn, lying on the east side of the Botna river. The plat was acknowledged by the grantors before S. Dewell, "notary public and land agent." The streets were eighty feet wide, with the exception of "Railroad street," which was one hundred feet wide. The plat also contains this provision: "The depot is two hundred feet by seven hundred and twenty feet." The names of the streets were West, Sweat, Ault, Wicks, Dewell, Baughan (Baughn), Heath and East. The cross streets were Iowa, Vine, Railroad, Wall, Main and North. The village had a newspaper, store, school house, and ambition. When Harlan became the county seat, Somida quickly dwindled to nothing. Not a building, or so much as a tree, now remains to mark its site. Action was brought in the district court a few years ago by H. Baughn to quiet the title to the lots, blocks, streets and alleys of this primitive forerunner, as well as rival, of Harlan. Even the "depot" is now vacated, never to hear the sound of a locomotive to mar its rural peace. Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, October, 2017 from the Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, by Edward S. White, P.A., LL. B.,Volume 1, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Co., 1915, pp. 223-224.
|
 Site Terms, Conditions & Disclaimer |