The village of Sumner was located on the
Southeast quarter of Section 12 in Delana Township and embraced 160 acres.
The plot was filed for record on September 19, 1857, making it the first
town in Humboldt County.
The first to erect a building was Peter Collins
in the fall of 1857. At the same time, T. Elwood Collins built a frame house
which was used for his home, a meeting house and later a school. When a
minister was available, services were also held in T. Elwood Collins home.
Mahlon D. Collins located on Section 12, in
1857, although he had come here the year previous. He kept the store in
Sumner, the first in the county, and was the first Justice of the Peace.
When he came to Sumner, he was a member of the Society of Friends. He was
married to Kate Williams in 1857. He became afterwards a Methodist
clergyman and moved to Corning, Iowa in 1865.
Isaac Palmer built a cabin and a blacksmith shop
where he pursued that trade for several years. The shop later became the
kitchen of the John Fuhrmann home. However, the house burned completely on
December 6, 1978.
T. Elwood Collins was one of the few old
settlers who still resided in the township in 1884, when the county
history was published. He was one of the four original landowner and the
leader of the group. When he died, December 8, 1917, he had
lived in the county for sixty years.
The county history stated that he was born in New York in 1830 and was the son of
Peter and Sara (Hall) Collins. T. Elwood Collins came to Humboldt County in
1856. He had been married in Marshall County, Iowa in
1855 to Sarah Williams. The Collins' had eight children1, four of who were
living in 1884. Oella, born in 1860, she married Charles Hewitt; Olive,
born in 1862; Franklin, born in 1871, and Arthur E., born in 1875.
Sumner was on the stage coach route from Fort
Dodge to Algona. The post office was in the Theodore Smith home, later
called the John Frederick place. It was known as the Lott's Creek Post
Office. This office was closed in 1881 when mail began to come by rail to
Livermore.
The village of Sumner was abandoned in 1887. T.
Elwood Collins and others had previously moved their houses into Livermore.
Mr. Collins' home was just east of the Log Cabin Park.
The
Sumner cemetery, now named Union Cemetery, was laid out by Mahlon and T. E.
Collins. The land was donated by Mahlon Collins. It is on the southwest
corner of section 12. In April 1858, the infant daughter of T. Elwood
Collins was the first to be laid to rest here.
1
The other children were Alcaeus a son - died May 8, 1858; Alice M. a
daughter - died Oct 19, 1872; William D. a son - died Dec. 22, 1877.
