Introductory.

To review in detail the marvelous growth of Audubon county from the period that the first setlers came hither, a date reaching back to 1851, to the present, to carefully note the advancement and growth that has greeted these fertile prairies, would cover more pages than it is possible for us to devote in this article, and yet it is the desire of the publishers to present to the readers of the "History of Audubon" facts that will enlighten them to some extent as regards the past, present and future of this the most prosperous county and most progressive city in the whole Hawkeye state.

Audubon is a progressive little city, whose increasing age adds to its strength. Though but a few years have greeted the place it holds a rank among the thriving towns of the section in which it is located. It lies in the famous Blue Grass region, which is famed to the world as possessing soil as fertile as any spot 'neath the azure sky and far in either direction stretch the pleasant prairies dotted here and there with comfortable farm houses, occupied by the thrifty tillers of the soil, on whom prosperity has shed its golden rays. "Twas Henry Clay who on the summit of the Alleghanies with his hand to his ear stood in a listening attitude, when asked by a friend what he heard, said: "I can hear the tramp of the coming millions bound for the prairies of the west." What a prophesy! The stroller o'er this land in '50 would have pronounced the land a desert through which the plow share would never slide, yet when the brightest stars which shine from the railroad firmament, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and Chicago & North-Western, pushed their roads to the muddy Missouri. A few years later people came with curiosity to view the land.

"And the desert shall blossom as the rose."

Then all eyes were turned on the prairies of the West and a new luminary shown with such brilliancy that all other stars were darkened by its brightness. Hundreds departed from their eastern homes to begin life anew on the prairies of western Iowa. In this brief article we cannot go into detail and relate the disadvantages and hardships of those who came into Audubon county before the iron horse glided over the gleaming rails, but those who marketed their grain twenty and thirty miles from where it was raised can appreciate the advantages of to-day.

Here indeed prosperity reigns, the people are content with their county, their state and their government and the rising sun, far yet from its zenith, is casting its rays o'er a glorious future in store for all. No section of the universe has a brighter prospect and no people are more deserving than those of whom we will speak more fully hereafter.