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The first marriage in the county, is the ceremony that united Alvin Jessup and Harriett Driscoll, which took place on the 8th day of June, 1853.

The second was that of George Shannon and Melissa Hedges, and the third, that of G. I. Chizum and Hannah A. Bradshaw, the latter taking place Aug. 24, 1854.

The honor of being the first white child of Gentile parentage, born in Cass county, falls to the lot of a son of Victor M. Bradshaw. This boy was born Sept. 6, 1852, at Indiantown, and was named Jeremiah, in honor of its grandfather.

In 1850 the daughter of a Mormon widow named Breeker, was playing with some embers left from an emigrant party's fire, and was so severely burned that she died in a short time. This was probably the first death of a white in the county.

The first death which occurred among the Gentiles in Cass county, was a tragic one, and happened in the fall of 1852. The victim was a young man named Pettit, who had come a short time before, and whose family lived at the conference of Indian Creek and the Nishnabotna. David Hoopes was going out a short distance to locate some land, and took a tam and wagon. Pettit and a young companion accompanied him. On arriving at his destination, Mr. Hoopes got out of his wagon, and went on his errand, looking around in the vicinity for a location. He had not gone far when he heard the report of a gun, and simultaneously an agonizing cry. Hastening back to the wagon, a sight met his gaze which caused the heart of even this stern frontiersman to grow faint. Pettit lay there dying, with a horrible hole in his head, and over him bent the form his young friend. The cause of the tragedy was plain. Pettit had got out of the wagon with intention of looking for game, and was pulling his gun out muzzle first, when the hammer caught; that instant it descended , and Pettit had received the charge full in the forehead. His two companions, sick at heart, put their fast expiring friend in the wagon, and mournfully turned their course towards this home; he lived until they had got within three hundred yards of the cabin where his wife and child were, all unaware of the dreadful tragedy which had deprived them of husband and father. Word soon got 'round among the settlers of what had happened, and it was not long before they were at the scene, offering their sympathy and condolence to the bereaved, and expressing their sorrow for the dead. It was the first time death had called upon them for one of their number, and the scenes there witnessed, with the attending circumstances, will never fade from the memories of those who saw them, till the last one of them has been gathered to his fathers. Pettit was buried at Rock Ford, Indian Creek, about one-half mile above Steven's mill. He was the first Gentile buried in the county.

A single man, named Taylor, came to Iranistan in the spring of 1854, and soon obtained employment at school teaching. He had been engaged at this occupation about a month, and one day in June, after he had been out bathing, he was missing. Search was instituted for him, and about eight o'clock the next day, which was Saturday, his lifeless body was found near the mill-dam, near where he had been bathing. The body was soon taken up and cared for, and preparation for the last sad rites soon commenced. A coffin was constructed of dressed boards, made as neatly as the facilities at the command of the settlers would allow; other preparations went on anon, and when the hour for the burial arrived, which was ten o'clock on Sunday morning, all the people in the whole settlement (Mormons and Gentiles) were on hand to participate, and lend their presence to the sad affair. A procession was formed to the place of burial, the school children walking behind regretted, and the affair cast a gloom over the community.

The first school in the county was taught in an old cabin at Indiantown, in the winter of 1852-53. The teacher was named Hazen; he was an Eastern man. Among the first scholars were Lucy, Harvey, Calving and Lydia Bradshaw, Orson and Mary Conrad. The cabin in which the school was held was used for education purposes only two terms, and has long since been destroyed.

The next school was taught in the spring of 1854. A young man by the name of ------Taylor open this school in an old building on section 8 of what is now Cass township, on the banks of the river, southwest of Indiantown. He taught here but one month, when he had the misfortunate to be drowned, as detailed before, and G. I. Chizum finished the term, teaching two months.

The first election held in the county took place in 1849, when there were none but Mormons in the county.

The first election in which Gentiles figured in what is not the count of Cass was held at Jeremiah Bradshaw's house in the fall of 1851, while Cass was a township of Pottawattamie county, and was for township officers. Fifteen men voted at this election. They were: Jeremiah and Victor M. Bradshaw, Jesse and Lewis Hyatt, John and Elihu Pettingill, James Jacob and Joseph Ferran, John D. Campbell, A. J. Milschlagel, W. S. Townsend, Johnson Brandom, and Messr. Weeks and Elliott. The election passed off without any incident of note occurring. The voters stayed around during the day, and had considerable amusement, telling stories, etc.

The first brick made in Cass county were burned by James F. Devers. His kiln was situated just north of Lewis. He commenced operations in the spring of 1858, and discontinued the business the following year.

The first postoffice was at Indiantown, and called "Cold Spring" and was established in 1847, with John Pettengill, a Mormon as postmaster.

The first term of the District Court in Cass county was held in Myers' Hotel, May 22d, 1865, as detailed in the Judicial chapter.

The first camp meeting ever held in the county, was conducted by the Methodists, in the fall of 1855, in the grove near the "Botna river, north of the present town of Lewis, on what was known as the John Mills place. Elder Shinn was the main preacher and he made a grand success of the meeting. People were there from far and near, some coming as far as eighty miles. A large number of tents were spread and the provisions were ample for all. The meeting lasted for seven days. Those in attendance are said to have been well behaved people, and no disturbance of the peace occurred. A number of the pioneer young gentlemen were there with pioneer young ladies, and one of the former believes to this day that he took one of the handsomest girls home from that meeting, that the world ever produced, and before he get her home he made her promise to be his wife. She kept her promise.

The first person hanged in Cass county, was in 1868, and was a victim of a judicious Lynch law. His name was, or at least he said it was, Michael Kelly, an Irishman, who was one of the hardest characters that ever lived in this county. He kept a saloon of the lowest type-a vile doggery, on the edge of Grove City, and for some trifling offense, he shot and killed a man by the name Thomas Curran, a civil, industrious Irishman, in the door yard in front of the saloon. This without a word of warning. On the commission of the deed, he immediately ran for the corn field and hid. The citizens turned out en masse, and hunted for him two or three days, and finally caught him in Bear Grove township, where he was lying in the tall grass, in a slough. They brought him back and he had a preliminary trial before 'Squire Smith, and was bound over to appear at the next term of the District Court. This hearing was finished about midnight, and the prisoner left in the barroom of the hotel at Bear Grove, in charge of Lewis Bigelow, and Thomas Jordan, for safe keeping until morning. In less than half an hour, about a dozen disguised and masked men appeared on the scene, and with revolvers covering the guards, made them keep perfectly quiet while others gagged Kelly, put a rope around his neck and lead him out about fifty rods west of the hotel and drew him up to the limb of a locust tree, where they let him hang. From the best information obtainable, it is believed that Mike Kelly was but an assumed name, and that Curran was not the first victim to his murderous instincts. As to who did the lynching, nothing certain is known to this day, but there is no doubt in the minds of the best informed people in the county, but that some of the best and most highly respected citizens of that part of the county, were concerned n it, or had knowledge of who did.

Transcribed by Deb Lightcap-Wagner, January, 2014 from: "History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 255-258.