Introduction

The following is my best attempt to list the as many residents of Pocahontas County by township as possible from its earliest settlement until the mid-1880's in a somewhat chronological list.

The information is arranged by township. Each township page also contains a history of the township. City or town history, when available, is also presented.

This information has been compiled from many sources:

  • The Pioneer History of Pocahontas County, Iowa - by Robert E Flickinger, pub 1904
  • Pocahontas County Iowa History Compiled in 1981 by Pocahontas County Historical Society Members and Friends
  • Palmer Iowa 1900-2000 History Book, compiled by the Palmer Centennial Committee
  • Laurens "100" Chronicle of our first 100 years, compilied by the Centennial Committee
  • Calhoun County History, 1854-1982 by the people of Calhoun County Iowa, compiled by the Calhoun County Historical Society
  • Altas-Pocahontas County Iowa, Compiled and published by Mid-States Atlas Co. 1966
  • Queries; past and present, sent to this website and major genealogy web sites
  • Surname searches on the major genealogy web sites and major search engines
  • information from Federal Census records for the years 1880, 1900, 1910
I have compiled and transcribed these biographies from many sources. Events, dates and places may vary slightly. As anyone who has traced their family knows, records can have all sorts of errors in them. Whenever possible all dates or alternate information is provided so you may use your own judgement. I have not "decided" that one fact is right over another. I'll present all the information I have when the same item has multiple facts associated with it.

The information presented is about residents of the county who arrived prior to the early 1880's, when formal record keeping began. If family information is available after 1880, such as children who have married or important events in the pioneers life that occured after 1880, I've included it where appropriate.

Information researched, transcribe, compiled and arranged by Tim Meyer