March or April, 1857, we "old ones" came near seeing the elephant, or thought we did. Who of us have forgotten the trials brought upon us in part by that extraordinary winter of 1856-57. The old settlers cannot forget it.
We notice that the "Agricultural Society, the Board of Directors of the County Society, are (were) requested to meet at the office of the President on Tuesday next, at 2 o'clock, P. M. Important business demands attention." I also find under the head of "Announcements," the following: "The Rev. Mr. Noe will preach at the residence of John H. Keigly, on Skunk River, Saturday, August 29, at 2 o'clock, n. M.; and on the following Sabbath at 11 A. hi., and 3 P. u." There had been preaching, however, in Nevada and elsewhere in the county a number of years prior to 1857; for I was at a meeting in December, 1854, held at Mr. Geo. Dye's house, who then resided on section 24, township 83 north, range 22 west—and still that was not the first.
EARLY BOUNDARY OF STORY COUNTY:
"It was a part of Benton County in 1837, and even later. Established and boundaries defined, January 13, 1846. Attached to the county of Benton four days later, for election, revenue and judicial purposes; and the same day to the county of Polk for the same purposes. Attached to the county of Boone, January, 22, 1853. See Acts of the Seventh Legislative Assembly, chapters 82, 96 and 101: Fourth General Assembly, chapter 12.
Named in honor of the eminent jurist, Joseph Story, for a third of a century Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Story County completed her organization by electing her county officers April 4, 1.853, under an Act of the General Assembly approved January. 1853. The boundary of the county, as it now exists, was fixed January 13, 1846. So it is, now, 1887, fortyone years old.
The following is clipped from the Story Country Advocate of August 26, (1857). which would seem to show the fears some had those days of the Indians north and northwest of us:
"ST. PAUL, August 9, (1857,)—Little Crow and his band of one hundred and twenty warriors have returned from their expedition in search of Ink-pa-du-tab, having found his camp and dispatched four of the murderers. He brought the scalps of the slain to the Superintendent of the lower Sioux Agency.
A band of fifteen or sixteen Chippewas are plundering settlers about fifty miles north of this place." "St. Louis, August 15, (1857 ) —Advices from Fort Kearney state that a party of nineteen drovers in charge of upwards of 800 cattle, arrived; destination, Utah. The expedition was attacked twenty-seven miles above the Fort on the first instant by one hundred and fifty Cheyennes; all the cattle and twenty mules run off, one man killed, another severely