CHAPTER III.
SETTLERS PRIOR TO COUNTY ORGANIZATION (CONT'D).

FIRST THINGS AND EVENTS.

The first marriage in the county united Alvin Jessup and Harriet Driscoll, on the 8th of June, 1853; the second was that of George Shannon and Melissa Hedges, in the early part of 1854, and the third that of G. I. Chizum, then county treasurer, and Hannah Bradshaw, on August 23, 1854.

The first deed filed for record bears date of June 17, 1853, and was executed by Francis E. Ball (county sheriff) and Harriet Ball, and conveyed the northeast 1/4 of the southeast 1/4 of Section 8, Township 75, Range 37, to Stephen Carey.

A son of Victor M. Bradshaw, born at Indiantown, September 6, 1852, was the first white child of gentile parentage born in Cass county.

In the fall of 1852 a man named Pettit accidentally shot himself near Indian creek, and his was the first death. He was buried at Rock Ford.

A Mr. Hazen taught the first school at Indiantown, in the winter of 1852-3.

The first election in which gentiles participated was held in the fall of 1851, at Jeremiah Bradshaw's house.

The first brick made in Cass county were made by James F. Devers, at his kiln just north of Lewis, in the spring of 1858.

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

The first term of the District Court was held in Myer's Hotel, Lewis, May 22, 1854.

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.

The first person hung in Cass county was a disreputable saloonkeeper named Michael Kelley, whose place was near Grove City and who shot an inoffensive Irishman to death. Kelley was lynched in 1868.

Ira B. Clark was the first political speaker who came to the county. He was running for congress on the Whig ticket, and spoke to the people of Indiantown in 1854.

Jeremiah Bradshaw, the first county judge, was elected at the time of the organization of the county in April, 1853, and held the office for one year. S. M. Tucker, who built the first house in Lewis, was also the pioneer lawyer of the county, locating there in 1853.

The Methodists were the first to regularly organize in Cass county. In 1854, the year after the election of the first county officers, a class was formed at the house of William S. Townsend, at Edna Grove, by Rev. James Rand. The members were Mr. Townsend and his wife (from whom Edna township was named), Andrew Ames and wife, John Edwin and wife, and M. Erwin--the last named being class leader.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 56-57.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, August, 2018.