SHELBY COUNTY.
The location of Shelby County is in the fourth tier from the southern boundary line of the State, nd in the second east from the Missouri River. Shelby County is twenty-four miles square, and contains about 576 square miles. The general surface of the county is rolling, with deeply excavated valleys along the larger streams, while in some portions of the county it is quite rough and broken, with steep, precipitous hills and deeply cut valleys. The universally conceived idea of a prairie country is not wholly realized in Shelby County. A writer some years ago ventured the following imaginative bit of description, which for want of a better illustration, we here insert: "If the imagination of the reader will enable him to conceive what a tract of land would be, that had been in a liquid state, and had been so violently agitated that high waves ran from east to west, and these had suddenly received a transverse motion and solidified while the breakers were dashing in ponderous masses towards the skies, he will have a tolerably correct idea of the appearance of a large portion of this county." Nevertheless, this is a very valuable agricultural section, the hillsides having an excellent soil, peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of fruit of all kinds, many considering it a decided advantage rather than a detriment to Shelby County.
The bottom lands usually slope towards the streams, and along the West Nishanabotany, which is one of the finest and most beautiful valleys in the State, average more than one mile in width, and are lined by narrow clumps of timber. All of the valleys in the county possess a soil of unsurpassed fertility, which, like most other portions of the county, is composed of a fine material known as the bluff deposit. The soil of the whole Northwestern Slope differs from that of the eastern and central portions of the State in that it has not the heavy sub-soil and under-stratum of clay. In Shelby County this peculiarity is quite noticeable, since, after a heavy shower or series of rain storms, plowing may be immediately resumed, the water which falls being soon absorbed by the earth, sinking rapidly away on account of the absence of clay to stop or impede its progress. The soil here is a rich, silicious loam, well adapted to the production of the usual western crops, with the single exception of the tame grasses. Corn, for which there is no better or more favorable soil than is found in these valleys, is probably the staple, while wheat, oats and other kinds of grains, as well as the different grasses and vegetables, grow to great perfection.
The county is thoroughly well water, the West Nishnabotany River, which flows southward nearly through the middle of the county, receiving from the east the waters of the Middle Nishnabotany, Whitt's and Indian Creeks, while the western part of the county is drained by the affluents of the Missouri and Boyer Rivers, the most important of which are Silver, Mosquito, Pigeon and Picayune Creeks. Mill Creek is a small stream in the northwest, which flows into the Boyer in Harrison County, and on which is Garland's Grove, a fine body of native timber embracing nearly one thousand acres. Besides this, there are several fine groves bordering some of the other streams, which embrace the varieties commonly found throughout this section of the State, such as burr and red oak, white and red elm, butternut, hackberry, black walnut, ash, linn and ironwood; while there is often found a heavy growth of sumac, hazel, thornapple, blackberry, gooseberry and grape. Where now may be observed a little outlaying thicket of hazel and sumac -- the pioneers of forest increase -- a few years hence, unless arested by the devastating fires, grove of thrifty saplings will have sprung up, and thus, within a comparatively short time, by the repetition of this process, the beautiful prairie slopes will be converted into forest-clad ridges and sombre thicket-dells, as wild and uninviting to the agriculturist as the native forests of the middle States. The apparent scarcity of timber in this county is in reality no serious drawback to its rapid settlement, as building lumber can be easily obtained from the pineries of the north, and as these vast meadows of unbounded fertility hold out inducements to the settler such as no forest-clad region can boast.
The entire county is supposed to be underlaid by the upper coal measure, as the strata is known to exist in counties to the south and west, but is here concealed under the post teritary deposit not less than 250 feet beneath the surface. The supply of building material is limited, yet a fair quality of brick is made of the material of the bluff deposit. The only stone obtained for building are the boulders of the drift formation found scattered in various places.
Previous to any permanent settlements in the county, it was frequently visited by trappers and hunters, two men named Bowman and Berry being among the number. The county was organized in 1853, the following being the first county officers: James M. Butler, County Judge; V. Perkins, Clerk of the District Court;; Andrew Foutz, Sherriff. The counties of Crawford and Carroll were at that time attached to Shelby for political, judicial and revenue purposes. Judge Samuel H. Riddle held the first session of the District Court for the three counties in the grocery of Solomon Hancock, at Galland's Grove. At this session the following attorneys were present: H. P. Bennett, of Glenwood; L. M. Cline, A. C. Ford and David Price, of Council Bluffs. At the election which made choice of the first county officers, only thirteen votes were polled.
About the time of the organization of the county, a town was laid out in the northwest corner township, to which the name of Shelbyville was given, and in 1854 this place was designated as the county seat, but the County Judge, being opposed to it, procured Hancock's grocery for holding the first court. The next term of the District Court was held, however, at Shelbyville. This was the first town laid out in the county, but is now known only in history, as the houses have all been removed to Harlan, and to the neighboring farms. Shelby County sent forty-seven soldiers into the war of the rebellion, though it had no organized company, the volunteers all joining organizations in the neighboring counties. Harlan, of which a lengthy description is given below, is the county seat, other settlements -- more or less inconsiderable -- in the county being Monteno, Mallory, Defiance, Westphalia, Kirkman, Shelby and ElkHorn.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass February, 2018 from History of Western Iowa, Its Settlement and Growth, Sioux City, IA.: Western Publishing Company, 1882, pp.403-405.
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