CHAPTER I.

The chief object of history is to trace the development of civilization from nature, through the efforts of man. In the prosecution of this plan the subject becomes so involved and interwoven with details that the average historian is content to select for the field of his labors a modest geographical division of the earlth's surface. Even then his talents and patience are taxed to the utmost; as a workman in the literary field he is like the microscopist in the scientific, whose labors are concerned with the minutae of nature but are nevertheless as important and fascinating as those of the astronomer. Without the details, which come forth in all their wonder and beauty under the microscope, nature could present neither grandeur nor sublimity to the eye of man; so without the individual lives of men and women, filled with the homely details of every-day existence, there could be no grand march of events, which is called the progress of civilization. It is the province of the local historian to show how the development of a special section rests upon the solid earth, and upon the honest, faithful acts of its settlers.

NAMING OF THE COUNTY.

The subject to which the present investigation is confined is Cass county, Iowa, one of the southwestern sub-divisions of the State, being in the third tier of counties north of the Missouri line and the second east of the Missouri river. The county received its present name in 1851, when its boundaries as now constituted were also established, its godfather being Lewis Cass, then United States Senator from Michigan and one of the most gigantic of figures identified with the great Northwest. Not only Iowa, but Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota have counties named after him, and therefore the name is as firmly perpetuated in the geography, as the history of the United States.

EXTENT AND LOCATION.

Cass county embraces sixteen Congressional townships, is twenty-four miles square and contains about 368,640 acres. It is situated on the Missouri slope and its fertile surface is drained by the tributaries of the Big Muddy, the streams themselves being clear and active, not only diversifying and beautifying the landscape, but making the county an ideal section for the raising of live-stock. There is no locality of any extent without its stream of living water. The surface may be said to be generally undulating prairie, but there are considerable groves of timber along the streams.

STREAMS.

The principal streams of Cass county are the Nishnabotna and the Nodaway rivers, and the Indian, Turkey, Troublesome and Seven-Mile creeks which are tributaries of the former -- the general course of the water-shed being, as stated, southwardly into the Missouri river. The Nishnabotna, or as it is generally spoken of by the old settlers, the 'Botna, enters the county on the north line of section 1, Pymosa township, and flows in a southwesterly direction through that township, as well as Atlantic, Washington and Cass, and makes its exit near the southwest corner named. Indian creek has its headwaters just over the line in Shelby county, and flows in almost a direct line south through the townships of Brighton, Washington and Cass, and joins the 'Botna in section 17, Cass township. Turkey creek rises in the northwest corner of Adair county and enters Cass on the northeast line of Grant township, meanders through the township and Franklin, Atlantic and Cass, forming a junction with the Nishnabotna in section 2, of the last named. Troublesome creek is in the northeastern part of the county and flows into the "Botna. The west branch of the Nodaway river has its head in the southeastern part of Lincoln township, and flows in a generally southwesterly course to join the parent stream. As to the general altitude of Cass county, it may be said that it is about the same as Omaha and Council Bluffs, Atlantic, the county seat, lying almost directly east of those cities. The northeastern corner of the county is about 920 feet above low water mark in the Mississippi river at Davenport, or 1,450 above sea level.

SOIL.

The streams mentioned above run nearly their entire courses upon that rich, productive soil known as bluff deposit. It is of a slightly yellowish ash color, except when darkened by decaying vegetation, very fine and silicious, but not sandy, not very cohesive and not all plastic. It does not bake or crack in drying, except in scattered limy secretions in the form of pebbles. Real stones or pebbles are not found in the deposit. One of its peculiar properties is that it will stand securely with a precipitous front 200 feet high, and yet is easily excavated with a spade. Wells dug in it require to be waled to a point just above the water line. Yet compact as it is, it is very porous, so through it; neither does it accumulate within it at any one point, as it does upon and within the drift and stratified formations.

This rich, invaluable deposit for agricultural purposes is found throughout a region more than two hundred miles in length and nearly one hundred in width, through which the Missouri river runs almost centrally. The result is that its inlets are tillable almost to their very banks. The streams of Cass county, especially the Nodaway, present fine examples of the small rivers and valleys of southern Iowa. The Nodaway drains one of the finest agricultural regions of the State, its banks and the adjacent narrow flood plains being almost everywhere composed of rich, deep, dark loam.

NATURAL PRODUCTS.

From the peculiar character of the soil watered by the Nodaway and Nishnabotna, with their branches, it is expecially adapted to the growth of cereals and grasses, which in the hottest of the weather find moisture -- not in pockets or wells, but generally distibuted. Cass county lies in the great corn belt of the State, because it furnishes the soil necessary for the growth of the cereal in which Iowa leads the world. It is said that forty crops of corn have been grown consecutively upon the same piece of land, and that the last was the best of the series.

But the soil, the country and the climate are admirably adapted to all the cereals, fruits and vegetables common to the latitude. The succulent grasses of her beautiful fields and valleys have made the live-stock industry one of the most important in the county, and enabled Cass to do her part in making Iowa the leader as to the actual value of products in this line. As a dairy county she also stands high in the list.

GEOLOGY.

Speaking in geological terms, the entire county lies in what is known as the pper Coal Measures. Although thus known, the strata contain but a single bed of coal, and that only about twenty inches in maxiumum thickness, most of the mining being done in the southeastern portion of the county. The limestone found in this geological group has been used chiefly in the manufacture of lime, while the chocolate colored sandstone, quarried first on the Nishnabotna, near Lewis, has been used quite extensively for building purposes in Cass and adjoining counties.

If one is scientifically inclined, the limestones of the Upper Coal Measures furnish an abundance of fossils. The vertebrates are represented by the fishes of the orders Selachians and Ganoids; the mollusks by the classes Cephalapoda, Gasterapoda, Lamellibranchiata, Brachiopoda and Polyzoa; and radiates and protozoas are found in great abundance, some layers of limestone being composed almost entirely of the small fusiform shells of the latter.

CIVIL FEATURES.

Cass county is a collection of some of the richest agricultural communities in the West, as is shown by its numerous and prosperous banks -- institutions necessary for the handling of its crops and live-stock, and the local trade founded chiefly upon its abundant products of the soil It is estimated that the average value of land is now about $100 per acre, and there are few sections in the West where a more substantial class of homesteads, combining both comfort and good taste, can be found than in the county of Cass. Its settlers are industrious, intelligent, economical, and, consequently prosperous.

The main centers of population have now good railroad connections, and as the county is everywhere intersected with well built roads, and the homesteads are brought into communication by telephone lines, which also connect with neighboring towns, the farmer is everywhere brought into contact with busy, stirring life. School houses are two miles apart, and are provided with a corps of excellent teachers, so that at the present time even a district-school education is all that is required to pass creditably and successfully through life. Churches are everywhere, and well supported. To add to the other advantages of being a resident of Cass county, the tax rate is so reasonable that delinquents are few indeed.

RAILROADS.

The most thickly settled portions of the county, lying substantially along a line drawn diagonally from the northeast to the southwest, are connected by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy roads. With Atlantic City, the flourishing county seat, as the center, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific runs southwest to Lewis and Griswold, beyond which is extended the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. To the east Atlantic is connected with Grove City, Wiota andAnita, and to the west wit Marne, while a branch just beyond the Nishnabotna river runs northeast to the old town of Lorah and into Audubon county. The once brisk village of Iranistan lies a few miles west of Lewis, away from the lines of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and its site is now covered with productive farm lands. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy road is extending into the southeastern portions of the county, with the intention of building the line through the rich farming country of the south and southwest to the growing town of Griswold; the present stations on this line are Cumberland and Massena.

The decided increase in population and wealth of the county, and the founding or development of such flourishing places as Atlantic, Griswold, Lewis, Anita and Cumberland, commences with the building of the railroads. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific was the pioneer railroad of the county, being constructed to Atlantic in 1868, soon after the platting of the town; it was extended to Lewis in 1879, the first train running into that city in January, 1880, and soon afterward Griswold secured the same privileges. In 1884 Massena and Cumberland were favored by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.

INCREASE IN POPULATION.

According to the census of 1900 the population of Cass county was 21, 274, and since that year has been increased to at least 23,000. Fifty years ago, in 1856, the first enumeration was made by the State, the reports of the census taker showing that the four townships then composing Cass county had the following population: Cass, 415; Edna, 56; Pymosa, 175, and Turkey Grove, 179 -- making a total of 815 inhabitants. The figures further indicated that there were 81 more males than females; 156 dwelling houses; 10 naturalized voters and 9 aliens; 171 members of the militia and 2 idiots; 175 owners of land; 179 farmers; 14 carpenters; 7 blacksmiths; 3 physicians; 1 lawyer; 1 clergyman; 2 millers; 2 milliners; 2 merchants, and a scattering of wagon makers, stone masons, harness makers, coopers and common laborers. Of the 3,265 acres of improved land, there were 442 acres of spring wheat, 43 of winter wheat, 322 of oats, 1,417 of corn, and 40 of potatoes, and during the year (1856) the live-stock sold was valued as follows: Hogs, $1,684; cattle, $10,340.

In 1860, just previous to the Civil War, the national census indicated a population of 1,612; in 1865 it was only 1,895, showing the generally retarding effects of the Rebellion, but in 1870 it had grown to 5,464 -- an increase of about 300 per cent in five years. This period of decided advance covered the inauguration of railroad building in Cass county. By 1880, by which year had been made the extensions already noted, the population had taken a bound to 16,943, and since then the increase in population, as well as in all other manifestations of material advancement, has been steady, and of the greatest encouragement to those who have had a steadfast faith in the splendid destiny of Cass county as an integral part of a great State and nation.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 33-38.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, November, 2013.