Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects 1879 History Preface

Nearly forty-three years have come and gone since civilization's advance-guard came to occupy and develop the rich agricultural lands and exercise dominion in that part of the Black Hawk country inlcuded in Jefferson County. If the pioneers of 1836, or some of those who immediately followed them, had directed their attention to the keeping of a chronological journal or diary of events, to write a history of the county now would be a comparatively easy task; but pre-occupied with the cares incident to frontier life, no such journals were ever attempted. In the absence of such records, the enterprise is one of no small moment, and the magnitude of the undertaking is still further increased by the removal, by death or otherwise, of nearly all the pioneer fathers and mothers who first came to gladden the prairie and forest wilds with their presence, and scatter the seeds of that better intelligence, which, growing and spreading as year was added to year, has made the country of their choice rank second to none in modern accomplishments. The seeds they scattered ripened into the fullness of a plentiful harvest, and schoolhouses, churches, cities, towns, telegraphs, railroads and princely dwellings occupy the old "camp-grounds" of the Sauks, Foxes and other kindred tribes of red men.

The struggles, changes and vicissitudes that forty-three years evoke, are as trying to the minds as to the bodies of men. Physical and mental strength waste away together beneath gathering years, and the memory of names, dates and events become lost in the confusion engendered by time and its restless, unceasing mutations. Circumstances that were fresh in memory ten and twenty years after their occurrence, are almost, if not entirely, forgotten when fifty years have gone. If not entirely obliterated and effaced from memory's tablet, they are so nearly so that, when recalled by one seeking to preserve them, the recollections come slowly back, more like the memory of a midnight dream than of an actual occurrence, in which they were partial if not actual participants and prominent characters. The footprint of time leaves its impressions and destroying agencies upon everything, and hence it would be unreasonable to suppose that the annals, incidents and happenings of nearly half a century in a community like that whose history we have attempted to write, could be preserved intact and unbroken.

The passage of three years marked the pages of time after the first settlements on Round Prairie before any records of a public nature, relating to what is now Jefferson County, were made, so that the gentlemen intrusted (sic) with the duty of writing this history were forced to depend upon the memory and intelligence of the few surviving pioneer settlers for a very large share of facts and information relating to immediate local events until after the organization of the county and the first meeting of the first Board of County Commissioners, at Lockridge, on the 8th day of April, 1839. And it is a subject of regret, that, even after that date, many important records are lost from the county archives, so that, in some instances, it has been impossible to supply certain names, dates, etc., from written data.

For those reasons, it is not to be expected that this volume will be entirely accurate as to names, dates, etc., or that it will be so perfect as to be above and beyond criticism, for the book is yet to be written and printed that can justly claim the meed of perfection; but it is the publishers' hope, as it is their belief, that it will be found measurably correct and generally accurate and reliable. Industrious and studied care have been exercised to make it a standard book of reference, as well as one of interest to the general reader. If, in such a multiplicity of names, dates, etc., some errors are not detected, it will be strange indeed.

Such as it is, our offering is completed, and it only remains for the publishers to acknowledge their obligations to the citizens named below for the valuable information furnished by them, without which this history of Jefferson County would not be so voluminous and comprehensive.

To John Huff, who is believed to be the first white man that visited the territory now included in Jefferson County; Mrs. Sarah A. Lambirth, the first white woman to cross Cedar Creek, and one of the two first women to settle on Round Prairie, and Joseph Tilford, of the same locality, where they have lived since the early spring of 1836, for incidents relating to the beginning of the settlement of the county; to Mrs. Major Woods, the especial friend of "Iowa's Boys in Blue,' during the late war, for information regarding the movement for the collection of sanitary supplies; to John Clinton, Col. J. W. Culbertson and wife, Messrs. Slagle and Acheson, H. B. Mitchell, Capt. C. Jordon (sic -Jordan), Hon. D. P. Stubbs, George Craine, John Du Boise (sic - DuBois), Messrs. Culbertson and Jones, for various incidents relating to early times in Fairfield; to Capt. W. T. Burgess, the excellent and obliging Postmaster, for the use of sundry papers of reference; to A. T. Wells, the Librarian, for access to the Library, as well as for his uniform courtesy and kindness; to W. W. and C. H. Junkin, of the Ledger, for the use of their well-kept files of the paper over which they preside with such signal ability; to Messrs. Frank Green and O. L. Hackett, of the Tribune, for similar favors; to the ministers and representative members of the several churches, and to the Superintendent, Principals and teachers of the schools of the county, for statistical and other facts, this paragraph of acknowledgment is, therefore, respectfully dedicated. To these parties, and the interest they manifested for the undertaking, is due, in a great measure, whatever of merit may be ascribed to this offering.

To the press and people of the county in general, and to the citizens of Fairfield in particular, our most grateful considerations are due for their universal kindness to our representatives and agents who were charged with the labor of collecting and arranging the infirmation herein preserved to that posterity that will come in the not far-distant by and by to fill the places of the fathers and mothers, so many of whose names and honorable biographies are to be found within the pages of this book.

In conclusiou (sic - conclusion), the publishers express the sincere hope that, before another forty-three years will have passed, other and abler pens will have taken up and recorded the annalistic events that will follow after the close of this offering to the people of Jefferson County, that the historical literature of the country may be fully preserved and maintained from county to nation.

Very respectfully,
January, 1879.
PUBLISHERS.