The first meeting of the county commissioners took place on September 10, 1849, and was devoted mainly to the approval of the bonds of the county officers recently elected. Nothing of interest is recorded until the third meeting of this board, which took place on October 15, 1849, when the following record was made which may still be of interest to some citizens:

“Ordered, that a county road is hereby established on the old road, commencing at the southern line of Fremont County near the forks of said road near the farm of H. Watts; thence northwest to A. H. Argyle’s ferry on the Nishna; thence northwest to C. Thomas”.

This was the first road established in the county. At this session was fixed the boundaries of what appears to be the only two townships at first established; and these were named Henry and Fulton Townships respectively. Later, at a meeting on Jan. 9, 1850, another township was incorporated under the name of Franklin, so that these three townships embraced the original township organization. Franklin Township, at its organization, comprised the territory now called Washington Township and the city of Hamburg, but in 1884 the farming community of the township became of a difference in opinion in the voting of railroad tax, asked for a division of the township, and organized Washington, thus leaving Franklin Township and Hamburg identical.

Source: "Standard Historical Atlas of Mills and Fremont Counties, Iowa, 1910".
Donated by Sandra Bengtson, Fremont County Historical Society.