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The county was organized in 1853. The first officers were Jeremiah Bradshaw, county judge; V. M. Conrad, treasurer; C. C. Woodward, clerk; F. E. Ball, sheriff; L. M. Mills, drainage commissioner; David Chapman, surveyor; J. N. Benedict, coroner; H. L. Bradshaw, assessor, and T. N. Johnson, supervisor. The county-seat was located at Lewis on March 11, 1853, by Thomas G. Palmer and Milton Richards, commissioners. In November, 1869, the county-seat was moved from Lewis to Atlantic.

The attorneys of Cass county are as follows: Julian Phelps, Ezra Willard, J. B. Rockafellow, T. B. Swan, C. A. Meredith, John W. Scott, H. M. Boorman, H. A. Disbrow, James B. Bruff, L. H. Pine, James E. Bruce, C. B. Clovis, D. M. Reynolds, D. F. Harding, E. M. Willard, C. A. Grubb, Geo. E. Pennell, W. A. Follett, B. N. Wood, S. H. Rudolph, C. D. Brown, C. A. Savery, B. A. Goodspeed, Guy A. Curtis, J. C. Bryant, C. L. O. Knopp, W. C. Bryant, W. E. Haynes, A. H. F. Zeigler, F. J. Macomber and G. L. Scovill.

Ezra Willard was born in Wyoming county, New York, December 22, 1840. He removed to Adel, Iowa, from Elkhart, Ind., in 1864, and then to Atlantic in 1881. He read law and was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1861, and to the Iowa bar in 1864. He was in the Civil War from 1861 to 1863. He is engaged in general practice with his son, E. M., under the firm name of Willard & Willard.

Edward M. Willard was born in Adel, Iowa, May 24, 1865. He read law with his father and one year at the University of Iowa, and was admitted before the supreme court, at Iowa City, June 21, 1887. He is engaged with his father in the practice of law at Atlantic. He has served six years on the school board, four of which he was the president.

William A. Follett was born in Marion county, Iowa, October 16, 1869. He remained on his father's farm in Marion county until twelve years of age, and then he went with his father to Washington, Kansas, and resided there until July, 1890. He received his education at the district schools and at Ottawa University, Kansas. He read law in the office of H. G. Curtis in Atlantic, Iowa, and in 1893 passed an examination and was admitted at Des Moines. He at once became associated with his former preceptor, which association continued until the death of Mr. H. G. Curtis, and then the firm became Follett & Curtis. Mr. Guy A. Curtis is the junior member, and they are engaged in general practice at Atlantic.

James E. Bruce is a native of Iowa, having been born in Brooklyn, April 14, 1860. He received a common school education in that part of the state, and after graduating from the law department of the State University at Iowa City in 1881, commenced the practice of law at Anita, Iowa. He was junior member of the firm of Swan & Bruce from 1891 to 1901 at Atlantic, Iowa, and has been the senior member of Bruce & Zeigler from 1897 to 1907 at Anita, Iowa. For the past five years Mr. Bruce has been in the banking business, though continuing the practice of law at his home in Atlantic.

Joseph B. Rockafellow was born in Fulton county, Illinois, January 29, 1851. When Joseph was five years old the family moved to Galva, Illinois, and there he passed his boyhood and went to school until he graduated from the Galva high school. He read law at the Union College of Law at Chicago, now the law department of the Northwestern University, where he was graduated with the class of 1875. He was admitted in the district court of Iowa in August, 1875, and to the supreme court of the United States January 22, 1901, and the United States circuit court of appeals in January, 1905. He has been in active practice at Atlantic since 1875, and gives considerable attention to corporation practice. In 1886 he formed a partnership with John H. Scott, which was carried on successfully until 1894, when the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Rockafellow has been in practice since that time alone. He served as the first city attorney after Atlantic became a city, and revised its city ordinances. He is referee in bankruptcy and president of the library board. He belongs to the Masonic order, is a member of Kedron Commandery, No. 42, at Atlantic.

John W. Scott was born in Ohio in February, 1843. He came to Atlantic, Iowa, in 1873, where he has been in active practice for thirty-four years. He served in the Civil War in Company G, 2d Iowa Infantry, and held every position from corporal to captain. He was county attorney four years and republican elector, last election, for Roosevelt. He was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1866.