IAGenWeb - Marion County |
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Many thanks to Mary E. Boyer, who graciously transcribed these chapters for IAGenWeb Marion County (November 2006).
When this history was written the views of most people, including the author, toward Native Americans and Black Americans were very different from those we now find acceptable. Some passages in this work are, therefore, shocking and offensive more than 135 years later. I considered omitting them, but genealogists are concerned not only to discover the facts about their ancestors, but also to understand the times in which they lived. Just as we admire our ancestors' courage and resourcefulness in settling a new country, so must we recognize that they generally shared the prejudices and incivilities of their time.
Prefatory
Title Page - Dedication - Preface - Introduction
Chapter I
Dragoons - Trading Houses - Indian Payments, and How Made - Incidents - Character of the Traders.
Chapter II
The Indians - Language of the Sacs and Foxes - Brief Sketches of their History - Black Hawk Beheaded -
Installation of Keokuk as Chief - Indian Tragedy near Red Rock.
Chapter III
Poverty - Settlements - Marking off Claims - Primitive Houses and their Furniture - First Crop -
Grating Corn for Meal - Hominy - Samp.
Chapter IV
Going to Mill - Tally’s Ford - Origin of Roads - First Roads Located - Returning from Mill.
Chapter V
An Unpropitious Season - Primitive Mode of Cleaning Wheat - Dirty Bread - Wolves and other Beasts of Prey -
Failure of Crops - Better Times in Prospect - Erection of First Mill in the County.
Chapter VI
Claim Law, and Club Law.
Chapter VII
Major's War
Chapter VIII
First Election - First Political Convention - Name Proposed for the County - Organizing Act.
Chapter IX
County Officers - First Session of Commissioners’ Court - First Business Transacted -
Changing the Name of the County Seat - The Rose Ann McGregor Case.
Chapter X
County Revenue - Warrants - Stationery - First County Seal - Buying the County Seat - Building Court Houses -
The First Court House - Precincting the County - Road Districts - First Juries - First District Court -
Boarding Houses - Sleeping in the Court Room - A Sketch of Judge Williams.
Chapter XI
List of County Commissioners - Probate Judges - County Judges - County Supervisors and County Treasurers -
The Stanfield Defalcation - Robbery of the Treasury in 1867.
Chapter XII
A Legal Mistake - Brief Sketch of Lysander W. Babbitt - First Post Office at Knoxville - “Lake Prairie” P. O. -
Inconvenience of Mail Facilities - A Historical Incident - Sectioning the Lands - First Land Entered -
Des Moines River Land - Fowler Lands.
Chapter XIII
History of the Press in Marion County - Pella Gazette - Knoxville Journal - Democratic Standard -
Pella Week Blad - Marion County Republican - Pella Blade - Marion County Democrat - Pella Gazette -
Iowa Voter - Copperhead.
Chapter XIV
Iowa Central University - Marion County Agricultural Society - County Poor House.
Donnel: Part II (Township Histories)
Part I --- Prefatory -- I -- II -- III -- IV -- V -- VI -- VII -- VIII -- IX -- X -- XI -- XII -- XIII -- XIV
Part II --- I -- II -- III -- IV -- V -- VI -- VII -- VIII -- IX -- X -- XI -- XII -- XIII -- XIV -- XV -- XVI -- XVII -- XVIII -- XIX -- XX -- XXI -- XXII -- XXIII -- XXIV -- XXV -- XXVI -- XXVII -- XXVIII -- XXIX -- XXX -- XXXI -- XXXII
Index