History of Sac County, Iowa

All life and achievement is evolution: present wisdom comes from past experience, and present commercial prosperity has come only from past exertion and suffering. The deeds and motives of the men that have gone before have been instrumental in shaping the destinies of later communities and states. The development tif a new country was at once a task and a privilege. It required great courage, sacrifice and privation. Compare the present conditions of the people of Sac county, Iowa, with what they were one hundred years ago. From a trackless wilderness and virgin land, it has come to be a center of prosperity and civilization, with millions of wealth, systems of railways, grand educational institutions, splendid industries and immense agricultural productions. Can any thinking person be insensible to the fascination of the study which discloses the aspirations and efforts of the early pioneers who so strongly laid the foundation upon which has been reared the magnificent prosperity of later days? To perpetuate the story of these people and to trace and record the social, political and industrial progress of the community from its first inception is the function of the local historian. A sincere purpose to preserve facts and personal memoirs that are deserving of perpetuation, and which unite the present to the past, is the motive for the present publication. A specially valuable and interesting department is that one devoted to the sketches of representative citizens of these counties whose records deserve preservation because of their worth, effort and accomplishment. The publishers desire to extend their thanks to the gentlemen who have so faithfully labored to this end. Thanks are also due to the citizens of Sac county for the uniform kindness with which they have regarded this undertaking, and for their many services rendered in the gaining of necessary information.

In placing the "History of Sac County, Iowa," before the citizens, the publishers can conscientiously claim that they have carried out the plan as outlined in the prospectus. Every biographical sketch in the work has been submitted to the party interested, for correction, and therefore any error of fact, if there be any, is solely due to the person for whom the sketch was prepared.

 

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I — GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY 25
CHAPTER II — INDIAN OCCUPANCY — COMING OF THE WHITE MEN 30
CHAPTER III — ORGANIZATION OF SAC COUNTY 44
CHAPTER IV — PIONEER SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY 47
CHAPTER V — COUNTY GOVERNMENT 64
CHAPTER VI — THE BAR OF SAC COUNTY 77
CHAPTER VII — MEDICAL HISTORY OF SAC COUNTY 82
CHAPTER VIII — THE EVOLUTION OF AGRICULTURE IN SAC COUNTY 99
CHAPTER IX — NEWSPAPERS OF SAC COUNTY 109
CHAPTER X — BANKS AND BANKING 116
CHAPTER XI — EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS 126
CHAPTER XII — MILITARY HISTORY OF THE COUNTY 138
CHAPTER XIII — CHURCH HISTORY 155
CHAPTER XIV — LODGES OF THE COUNTY 175
CHAPTER XV — RAILROADS AND TRANSPORTATION 183
CHAPTER XVI — COUNTY AND STATE OFFICERS, ELECTIONS, ETC 187
CHAPTER XVII — TOWNSHIP HISTORIES 209
CHAPTER XVIII — SAC CITY 263
CHAPTER XIX — MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST 287
CHAPTER XX — REMINISCENCES 322
CHAPTER XXI — ANIMALS AND GAME BIRDS OF SAC COUNTY 331
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF SAC COUNTY 345

 

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Sac is the third county from the Missouri river, and the fourth from the north line of the state. It contains a superficial area of five hundred and seventy-six square miles, equal to 368,640 acres. It is admirably watered and drained by North Raccoon and Boyer rivers and their tributaries, together with several branches of Alaple river which have their sources in the county. Cedar and Indian creeks are important tributaries of North Raccoon. Boyer river, so famous in this state for the fertility of its valley, rises in Buena Vista county and flows south across the center of Sac county.