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This village was situated between Iranistan and the present town of Lewis. V. M. Conrad originally owned the land on which the town was laid out, but sold it to Wm. N. Dickerson. Then Mr. Conrad laid out an Addition on the west. He was warmly identified with the place, and expected it would be the county-seat some day, and continues to hold the opinion that the county-seat commissioners appointed by the General Assembly, betrayed their trust in fixing the seat of justice on the prairie where Lewis now stands. Mr. C. had his revenge in 1869 by assisting Atlantic in taking the seat of justice from Lewis, and to many who know him, this will be the first explanation of the wonderful love, by him manifested, for the new railroad town, in the year last named.

Indiantown was located near the spot where stood the wigwams of the old Pottawattamie Indian village. It was the successor of what was known to the emigrants as the Indian town. Although surpassed in importance by its western rival, Indiantown, from its being the follower of the Indian village, was known far and wide, and by its NAME had been known long before Iranistan was dreamed of. So well was it known, that travellers westward bound, would begin to inquire for THE Indian town, near the Nishnabotany, before they were within an hundred miles of the place. For several years, a large oak post, bearing Indian hieroglyphics, in red ink, standing on the north side of the road, was the only indication to the weary traveller that he was in or near a village of either red or white men. The post had been placed there by the Indians for the guidance of their tribe, and it may be presumed that the inscription was in the most approved Pottawattamie dialect, and was to the efect that a few blocks to the north, over the hill, on level ground, was the village of Mi-au-mise.

Brewster & Krewson kept a store at Indiantown in 1853. Jeremiah Bradshaw and V. M. Conrad also kept stores there. Mr. Bradshaw informs us that he used to sell a better quality of whisky for ten cents a pint, than can be had now for one dollar a pint. He bought his whiskey at wholesale of Brandford & Singleton, of Sidney, Iowa. The Bradford of the firm was Judge Brandford, who held the first term of the district court that was held in the county, at Indiantown in V. M. Conrad's house in 1853.

Cook, Sargent, & Haycock, (of Des Moines, Davenport, and other places) had a real estate office at Indiantown, in 1854, but did not continue it but a short time.

The towns of Iranistan and Indiantown were both swallowed up in Lewis, about the year 1856, and now their respective sites are devoted to agriculture.


From the History of Cass County, Iowa Together With Brief Mention of Old Settlers by Lafe Young, Atlantic, Iowa: Telegraph Steam Printing House, 1877, pp. 16-17. Transcribed for Cass County by Cheryl Siebrass, July, 2013.