West Branch Times, West Branch, Iowa, Thursday, October 6, 1921
Transcribed by Sharon Elijah, June 27, 2018

FIRST SUPERVISOR RECORDS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION

     Having occasion recently to look up early records of the Cedar County board of supervisors, C. B. Potter unearthed at the court house the first record kept. The proceedings were dated Apr. 3, 1838. They are in a fine state of preservation, being on an excellent grade of rag paper. The penmanship of Moses B. Church, the clerk, looks like copper plate engraving. The minutes show that a permit was granted to Geo. McCoy to operate a ferry at Rochester, the then county seat, and specified that it was to depart from the foot of Van Buren St. The toll rates were fixed as follows: Wagon, 25 cents; each span of horses or yoke of cattle 25 cents; man and horse, 25 cents; footman, 12 ½ cents; loose cattle, per head 6 ¼ cents; hogs or sheep 4 cents per head. At the date of the meeting Iowa was still a part of the Wisconsin territory.—Tipton Advertiser