INTRODUCTORY.

AUDUBON COUNTY.

EACH year as it rolls its resistless way along the might pathway of time, is fast thinning the ranks of the hardy pioneers, who, in their adventurous way, first made the broad pathway of emmigration into the bright valley and beautiful rolling prairie land of what is now Audubon county. The relentless hand of death, pursuing his remorseless and unceasing avocation, is cutting down, one by one, the hardy and brave men and women who first dared, into this westernn [sic western] wilderness, to cope with the untried realities of a domain unknown to civilization, and uninhabited, save by the savage, roaming tribes of Indians. No tongue can tell, no pen portray, the hardships and vicissitudes of fortune endured in those early days by the little band of pioneers, who left the comforts of beautiful homes in the far away East and volunteered here to plow the first fields and reap the first grain. These, too, often endured penury and want while trying to subdue and fully conquer Dame Nature and establish for their families comfortable homes in what, at that time, was a boundless wilderness.

The PAST-TERTIARY formation everywhere occupy the surface, burying completely from view the olcer geological formations. The drift deposits are but imperfectly known, however, it is so deeply covered by bluff deposits that it has no influence in modifying the soil, even in the valleys. The soil could not be more fertile. Cereals and corn are peculiarly adapted to the soil of this region, whose fineness and depth afford a very thorough under-drainage and at the same time it is retentive of sufficient moisture, even in unusally dry season, to insure at least a medium crop. A drouth was never known in the history of the county.

The county is fairly estimated to contain 1,6000 acres of excellent timber. It is entirely free from ponds or slough. Every township is drained with running water of the best and purest.

Early in 1851 five men, named Nathaniel Hamlin, James Hamlin, Samuel Ogden, Wm. Powell and David Edgerton, left Mahaska county, Iowa, to seek homes in western Iowa. In the latter part of March, 1851, Nathaniel Hamlin staked off his present valuable farm, section 35, township 68, range 35. There was not a white settler within twenty miles of the place. In 1852 a mail route from Ft. Des Moines to Council Bluffs was established by the way of Hamlin's Grove, thus turning all of the Pike's Peak and Pacific coast travel to the very door yard of the first settler in Audubon county. Mr. Hamlin was soon made postmaster, receiving his first commission from President Zach Taylor. He served until after the election of Abraham Lincoln.

Audubon county was organized by order of Judge Benedict, then of Cass county, in the spring of 1855. The first election was held April 2d, 1855, at the house of John S. Jenkins, and resulted in the election of the following officers: John W. Beers, Clerk of the District Court; Miles Beers, Treasurer and Recirder [sic Recorder]; David L. Atkins, Prosecuting Attorney; Benjamin M. Hiatt, Sheriff; Robt. Stansberry, Coroner; John W. Beers, County Surveyor; Urbane Herrick and Carlos E. Frost, Justices of the Peace; W. W. Bowen, Road Supervisor and Assessor.

Transcribed February, 2023 by Cheryl Siebrass from 1857-1891 History of Exira Audubon County, Iowa, From Its Foundation to the Present, Crane Publishing Company, Atlantic, Iowa, pp. 2-3.