Originally, Jasper was included in Keokuk County. It was established January 13, 1846, and organized March 1, 1846, up to which time it had been attached to Mahaska County for election and judicial purposes. It was named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper, who won fame as a Revolutionary soldier. The following were named as the committee to locate a county seat for the new County of Jasper: Richard Fisher, E. W. Kirkman and Thomas Anderson, respectively from Wapello, Davis and Keokuk Counties. The first district court was appointed to be held at the house of Matthew D. Springer.

The boundary lines, as first defined, were not correctly specified by the act of the Legislature, in that it caused the county being set apart to cover parts of adjoining counties, as now understood. The first act of the Legislature was dated January 13, 1846, but four days later, January 17th, the Legislature saw its error and so amended the act as to read as follows:

"Beginning at the northeast corner of township No 81 north, of range No. 17 west; thence west to the northwest corner of township No. 81 north, of range 21 west; thence south to the southeast corner of township No. 78 north, of range No. 21 west; thence east to the southeast corner of township No. 78 north, of range 17 west; thence to the place of beginning."

THE ORGANIZING ACT

The following is substantially the wording of the record of the act organizing Jasper County approved January 17, 1846:

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Iowa: That the counties of Jasper and Polk be and they are hereby organized, from and after the date of March next, and the inhabitants of said counties shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges to which by law the inhabitants of other organized counties of the territory are entitled, and the said counties shall constitute a part of the second judicial district of the territory

"Sec. 2. That there shall be a special election held on the first Monday of the month of April, at which time the county officers for said counties shall be elected; and also such number of justices of the peace and constables, for each of said counties as may be ordered by the clerks of the court for their respective counties

"Sec. 3. That it shall be the duties of the several clerks of the district court, in and for said counties, to give at least ten days previous notice of the time and place of holding such special election, in each of said counties, grant certificates of election, and in all respects discharge the duties required by law to be performed by the clerks of the boards of county commissioners in relation to elections, until a clerk of the board of county commissioners for their respective counties may be elected and qualified

"Sec. 4. That it shall be the duty of the clerk of the district court, in each of said counties, to discharge all the duties required by law to be performed by sheriffs, in relation to elections, until a sheriff for their respective counties may be elected and qualified

"Sec. 5. That the county officers, justices of the peace and constables elected under the provisions of this act shall hold their offices until the first Monday in the month of August 1846, and until their successors are elected and qualified

"Sec. 6. That the clerks of the district court, in and for said Counties of Jasper and Polk, may be appointed and qualified at any time after the passage of this act

"Sec. 7. That all actions at law and equity in the district court of the County of Mahaska commenced prior to the organization of said Counties of Jasper and Polk, where the parties, or either of them reside in either of the counties aforesaid, shall be prosecuted to final judgment, order or decree as fully and effectually as if this act had not been passed

"Sec. 8. That it shall be the duty of all justices of the peace, resident within said Counties of Jasper and Polk, to return all books and papers in their hands, pertaining to said offices, to the next nearest justice of the peace, who may be elected and qualified for their respective counties under the provisions of this act; and all suits at law, or other official business, which may be in the hands of such justices of the peace and unfinished, shall be prosecuted or completed by the justices of the peace to whom such business or papers may have been returned as aforesaid

"Sec. 9. That the judicial authorities of Mahaska County shall have cognizance of all crimes or violations of the criminal laws of this territory committed within the limits of said Counties of Jasper and Polk prior to the first day of March next; Provided, prosecutions be commenced under the judicial authorities of said Mahaska County prior to the first day of March next

"Sec. 10. That the said Counties of Jasper and Polk shall have cognizance and jurisdiction of all crimes or violations of the criminal laws of this territory committed prior to the first day of March next, in cases where prosecutions shall not have been commenced under the judicial authorities of Mahaska County

"Sec. 11. That the County of Marshall be and the same is hereby attached to the County of Jasper for elections, revenue and judicial purposes

"Sec. 12. (Attached counties of Story, Boone and Dallas to Polk.)

"Sec. 13. That the several clerks of the district courts in and for the said Counties of Jasper and Polk, may keep their respective offices at any place within their respective counties until the county seats thereof may be located

"Sec. 14. That Richard Fisher, of the County of Wapello; E. M. Kirkham, of the County of Davis, and Thomas Henderson, of the county of Keokuk, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to locate and establish the seat of justice of the County of Jasper

"Sec. 15. (Appointed commissioners for Polk.)

"Sec. 16. That said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at the office of the clerk of the district court in and for the county for which seat of justice they have been appointed to locate, on the first Monday in the month of May next, or at such other time, not exceeding thirty days thereafter, as a majority of said commissioners may agree

"Sec. 17. (Prescribed the oath to be administered to the commissioners.)

"Sec. 18. Said commissioners, when met and qualified, shall proceed to locate the seat of justice of the respective counties for which they have been appointed, and as soon as they shall have come to a determination, the same shall be committed to writing, signed by the said commissioners and filed with the clerk of the district court of the county in which such seat of justice is situated, whose duty it shall be to record the same and forever keep it on file in his office, and the place thus designated shall be the seat of justice of said county

"Sec. 19. (Provided that the commissioners should receive two dollars per day and two dollars for every twenty miles traveled while discharging their duties.)

"Sec. 20. That the district court for the County of Jasper shall be held at the house of Mathew D. Springer, in said county, or at such other place as may be designated by the board of county commissioners of said county, until the seat of justice may be located."

ORGANIZING ELECTION

The duties of setting off precincts, appointing judges, setting up notices, etc., were performed by a citizen of Iowa County.

At the election held in April 1846, there were thirty-five votes cast for the office of sheriff, of which D. Edmundson received eighteen votes and his opponent seventeen. Moses Lacy was one of the judges at Elk Creek Precinct. The other polling places were at Tool's Point and Lynn Grove. A return of the vote was made at Iowa City, in order to show the territorial authorities that the county was organized to assume its rights and duties, and also to Knoxville, where the vote was canvassed and declared. John H. Franklin was the messenger sent to Iowa City and Washington Fleenor to Knoxville.

The officers chosen were: Joab Bennett, John R. Sparks and Manly Gifford, commissioners; John H. Franklin, clerk; J. W. Awann, treasurer; Davidson Edmundson, sheriff; Seth Hemmer, recorder; Washington Fleenor, probate judge.

It will be understood by the reader that the county was at first, and until 1851, governed solely by the officers known as the board of commissioners; then came the county judge system, that obtained until the county supervisor system went into effect, under the code of that year, when the judge's powers were limited to a sort of probate business and finally in 1868 was abolished entirely and the office of county auditor established, and he serves as exofficio clerk of the board of supervisors.

FIRST MEETING OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

"Territory of Iowa, Jasper County:
"At a special term of the board of county commissioners, in and for the County of Jasper, in the territory of Iowa, begun and holden on the 14th day of April, A. D. 1846, present John R. Sparks, Joab Bennett and Manly Gifford, commissioners of said court; John H. Franklin, clerk of the board of commissioners, and David Edmundson, sheriff of said county

"Ordered, that the eagle side of a ten-cent piece, or dime, of the coin of the United States, be and the same is hereby adopted as the temporary seal of the board of county commissioners of the County of Jasper, aforesaid, until a proper seal may be provided for the use of said board."

By a joint resolution, passed January 17, 1846, William Edmundson was authorized to contract a full set of seals for the counties of Marion, Jasper and Polk, and that the same be paid for out of the territorial treasury. By this it would seem that the seal of Jasper County had not yet been obtained.

The clerk was authorized to procure suitable books and stationery for the county, after which the board adjourned to the second Monday of May following. The book provided for the clerk and commissioners' use was a thick account book, of about three hundred pages, which contains all of the proceedings of that pioneer body, as well as the doings of the county judge, up to January 30, 1855.

LOCATING THE COUNTY SEAT

Before Ballinger Aydellotte, a justice of the peace, appeared Messrs. Henderson and Fisher, two of the three commissioners named as locating commissioners in the county-seat matter, on the 11th of May 1846, and took an oath to faithfully and well perform their duties in impartially locating the seat of justice for Jasper County. They swore to take into account the "future as well as the present population of the county." Their report is carefully preserved in the archives of the county, as required by law, and as the document is somewhat of a curiosity, unique in its spelling and general make-up, it is here given in full as follows: "Territory of Iowa, Jasper County:

"We, the undersigned Commissioners, appointed by an Act of the Legislature of the Territory of Iowa, passed at the session of 1845-6, providing for the organization of the Counties of Jasper and Polk Counties, after having been duly qualified agreeably to the provisions of Said Act, faithfully and Impartially to Locate the seat of justice of said Jasper County, and having Examined the Situation of said County, have Agreed, and doe hereby Locate and Establish the County Seat of said Jasper County on the Northwest Quarter of Section (34) Thirty-four, Township Eighty (80) of Range Nineteen (19). Witness our hands this 14th day of May, A. D., 1846-and further Doe Give the Seat of Justice of said County the name of Newton City.

"THOMAS HENDERSON,
"RICHARD FISHER,
"Commissioners to locate the Seat of Justice of Jasper County, Iowa Territory."
[Transcriber's note: spelling and capitalization is as it appears in the document.]

The above instrument was filed as the commissioners' report, with J. N. Kinsman, clerk of the district court, May 25, 1846.

The record of the affair shows that the commissioners examined two other sites besides the one at Newton. One was at a point two miles south of the one chosen, situated in section 3, Palo Alto Township, and the other was near the residence which later belonged to William Hixon, in Kellogg Township, about three miles to the east of Newton. The general belief is that the site near Mr. Hixon's would have been selected as the point at which to locate Jasper's County seat, had it not been for the "log rolling" carried on by the people of "Fort Des Moines" to prevent the four western congressional townships of Jasper from being annexed to Polk County, which would have endangered the prospects of the fort itself of being made the permanent county seat of Polk County. In that event, it will readily be seen that Des Moines would have been too far west in Polk to have won the coveted prize, the county seat. While the final result gave Des Moines what it wanted, the latter-day population of Jasper County have never regretted the turn which things took through this sharp practice on the part of Des Moines' early-day political factors. It has given this county a very desirable and highly valuable strip of land six miles wide on the western border of her fertile domain, including the civil townships of Clear Creek, Poweshiek, Washington and Des Moines.

Before the commissioners had settled on Newton as the seat of justice, it is related in a former historical compilation, that B. Aydellotte and William M. Springer erected a hickory log building at Adamson's Grove, which they proposed to donate the county for office building purposes, but the offer was ignored by the locating commissioners, which greatly angered the would-be donors of a primitive court house. However, they were manly enough not to rush into either injunction or mandamus proceedings, as has been the case in many another Iowa County before the county seat question has finally been settled.

Thomas Adamson had a high pole erected on the site selected by the commissioners. To this pole he had attached a composition of his own making, setting forth the beautiful location, that it was central, and that here it should be located, because by so doing would be effected the greatest good to the greatest number. Mr. Adamson was a rock-rooted Democrat, and so were the locating commissioners, and some were of the belief that the stand he took had much to do with the final locating of the seat of justice at Newton. Be that as it may, "all is well that ends well," and but few have ever had reason to regret that Newton was chosen. With the crowning glory of the present new temple of justice, costing more than two hundred thousand dollars, it is quite certain that the time will never come in the county's history when a movement will be for once thought of for moving the county seat.

DIVIDING THE COUNTY INTO TOWNSHIPS

On May 14, 1846, the county commissioners proceeded to layoff civil sub-divisions, or townships, as follows:

"Ordered, that there be a precinct laid off in the southwest corner of the county, to be called Des Moines Precinct. Said precinct to contain all the territory west of the Indian Boundary Line, and all south of the territorial road leading from Oskaloosa to Fort Des Moines, within said Jasper County.

"Fairview Township - Ordered that Fairview Precinct be bounded on the northeast by Skunk River, on the south by the county line, and on the southwest by Des Moines Precinct, and on the west by said county line to said Skunk River.

Elk Creek Township - Ordered that Elk Creek Precinct be bounded as follows: Beginning at the northwest corner of said county, thence south to Skunk River, and down said Skunk River to the south line of the county, thence east to range line dividing 17 and 18, thence north to north boundary of said county, thence west to place of beginning,"

Lynn Grove township was created by the following order: "That Lynn Grove Precinct be bounded as follows: That said precinct shall contain all that portion of territory in said county east of range line between 17 and 18."

The above were Jasper County's original townships, or precincts, as sometimes still termed, but "township" is the real name of the subdivisions in the entire state of Iowa.

The judges of election in these newly created primaries were appointed by the board of commissioners as follows: In Fairview Precinct, Adam Tool, Newton Wright and John Frost; in Elk Creek Precinct, Moses Lacy, Thomas J. Adamson and Nathan Williams; in Lynn Grove Precinct, Rufus Williams, M. L. Matthew and Blakely Shoemake; in Des Moines Precinct, Moses Ray, James Guthrie and Adam Michael.

The first official act of County Judge Jesse Rickman (who was elected in August 1851, and immediately took his seat) was that of rearranging the township lines, which was accomplished as follows:

"The following are the boundaries of Lynn Grove Township: Commencing at the northeast corner of township 81, range 17 west, and run west six miles to the southwest corner of said township and range; thence south to the southwest corner of township 78, range 17; thence east six miles to the southwest corner of said township and range; thence to the place of beginning."

"The following are the boundaries of Newton Township: Commencing at the northeast corner of township 81, range 18 west, and run west twelve miles to the northeast corner of township 81, range 19; thence south six miles to the southwest corner of said township and range; thence west two miles to the northwest corner of section 2,township 80, range 20; thence south to Skunk River; thence with the meanders of the river to the section line four miles south of township line No. 79; thence east to range line 18; thence north to place of beginning

"The following are the boundaries of Elk Creek Township: Commencing at the northeast corner of section 25, township 79, range 18 west, and run west to Skunk River; thence with the meanders of the river to the county line; thence east to range 18, thence north to place of beginning

"Fairview Township - The boundaries of Fairview Township are: Commencing on the county line at the southeast corner of section 34, township 78, range 20 west, and run north to the northwest corner of section 22, township. 79, range 20; thence east to Skunk River; thence with the meanderings of the river to the county line; thence west to place of beginning

"Des Moines Township - Commencing at the southwest corner of the county and run north to the southwest corner of section 18, township 79, range 21 west; thence east to the northeast corner of section 21, township 79, range 20; thence south to the county line; thence west to the place of beginning

"Poweshiek Township - Commencing at the southwest corner of section 18, township 79, range 21, and run east to Skunk River; thence up the river with the meanders to the section line two miles west of range 20; thence north to the township line 81; thence west to the county line; thence south to the place of beginning

"Clear Creek Township - Commencing at the northwest corner of the county, and run south to township line 81; thence east to range line 20; thence north to the county line; thence west to the place of beginning."

ANOTHER CHANGE IN TOWNSHIP LINES

In February 1857, the county judge saw fit to make other changes in the territory and boundaries of the several townships within Jasper County. After that task had been completed the townships of the county were as follows: Rock Creek, Mariposa, Malaka, Clear Creek, Poweshiek Newton, Buena Vista, Palo Alto, Mound Prairie, Des Moines, Fairview, Elk Creek, Lynn Grove. This made twelve townships in all up to the date this change was brought about.

On March 4, 1858, Independence Township was formed. By election time, 1860, the townships had been changed around to assume somewhat their present standing, Washington Township, however, not having been set off until June 1861, at request of Petitioners from Mound Prairie Township. Sherman and Hickory Grove were formed at a later date.

WASHINGTON PRECINCT

In Marion County, to the south of what is now Jasper County, the settlement had increased to such an extent that the commissioners of Mahaska County, in March 1845, erected the territory now comprised within the bounds of Jasper County into what they were pleased to term "Washington Precinct," with the polling place at the house of Mr. Tool. As there were only about a dozen voters within the precinct at that date, it is possible that the vote was smaller than at the election the year before and the officers elected were doubtless the same as those of the previous year.

THE GOVERNMENT SURVEYS

All of the township and range lines north of the correction line and east of the Indian Reserve line were run by Orson Lyon, who also ran the southern and western line of township 78, range 19. The correction line was laid by J. E. Whitcher to the northwest corner of township 78, range 19, and was afterwards prolonged westward by Isaac N. Higbee. The township and range lines south of the correction line, and east of the reservation, were run by William A. Burt of Michigan, son of the inventor of Burt's solar compass. Both Lyon and Burt were employed for several years in the surveys of Iowa. Township 78, range 21, was bounded by John Ball, and the lines of the remaining townships in range 21 were laid by Isaac N. Higbee. Other parts of the survey in Jasper County were surveyed out by Messrs John D; Evans, Samuel Whitmore, Samuel Jacobs, James Grant and possibly one other surveyor.

DATES OF TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATIONS

These dates refer to original formation of the several townships of Jasper County, as known today, and not to certain changes in their territory and lines:

Buena Vista Township was organized in February 1857.
Clear Creek Township was organized in the summer of 1849.
Elk Creek Township was organized in May 1846, one of the original townships.
Fairview township was organized in May 1846, one of the original townships.
Des Moines Township was organized in May 1846, one of the original townships.
Hickory Grove Township was organized in 1864, among the last.
Independence Township was organized in March 1858.
Kellogg Township was organized in 1868.
Lynn Grove Township was organized in 1846, one of the first subdivisions.
Mariposa Township was organized in February 1857.
Mound Prairie Township was organized in February 1857.
Malaka Township was organized in February 1857.
Newton Township was organized in August 1851.
Palo Alto Township was organized in February 1857.
Poweshiek Township was organized in 1847.
Rock Creek Township was organized September 4, 1854.
Richland Township was organized in 1860.
Washington Township was organized in 1861.