County Seats Established: Brooklyn, Lake City, Rockwell City

Calhoun County was organized in August 1855 by Judge Phillips of Greene County.  The first election was held that month at which time nine votes were cast and the following officers elected:
Peter Smith, County Judge
Christian Smith, Treasurer
Joel Golden, Clerk
Eli Vanhorn, Recorder
Ebenezer Comstock, Prosecuting Attorney
William Oxenford, Sheriff

Two men had to be private citizens and go without offices; all others in the county were county officials.  The county seat was made by a commission appointed by Judge C. I. McFarland, and consisted of William Phillips, John F. Howes, and Rufus Keigley.  They performed their duty on October 1855 selecting a location on section 34, township 87, range 33, and naming it Brooklyn.  No buildings were erected there, it being a county seat on paper only.  In April 1856 and election was held at the house of Peter Smith, to vote on the question of relocating the county seat on what was afterwards the site of Lake City.  Twenty-one votes were cast, all for removal.  The new location was surveyed and platted into village lots by Charles Amy, and the place named Lake City, as before mentioned.  In 1858 a courthouse was built at a cost of $1,100.00.  On September 10, 1877 the county seat was removed to Rockwell City.

Sources:
(1) The Courts and Legal Profession of Iowa, vol.1, p.519-520, by Chester C. Cole, Chicago, 1907
(2) 1856 Iowa Census, Calhoun County, 4 pages, on Ancestry.com
(3) Research on Ebenezer Comstock, including daughter, Harriet Comstock’s birth and christening record in 1854 giving birthplace as Calhoun County, IA.