History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Willard Barrows
WILLARD BARROWS was one of the first Government surveyors of the public lands of Iowa. He was born at Munson, Massachusetts, in 1806 and received a good education. In 1832 he was employed in surveying the lands of the Choctaw Purchase and later the swamp lands of the Yazoo River. In 1837 he came to Iowa and was employed in the first surveys of the “Black Hawk Purchase,” along the Wapsipinicon River. In 1838 he located with his family at the new town of Rockingham on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, five miles below Rock Island. In 1840 he surveyed the islands in the Mississippi between the Rock River and Quincy. In 1853 he made a careful examination of northern Iowa and published an excellent map of the State, with descriptive notes. It was by far the best map of Iowa that had been made and was adopted as the official map of the State, when published in 1854. Mr. Barrows was an extensive traveler over the American continent and an accomplished writer. He was the author of the first history of Scott County, which was published in the old Annals of Iowa.