History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Cedar
CEDAR COUNTY was established from territory embraced in the original county of Dubuque and lies in the second tier west of the Mississippi River and in the fifth north of the Missouri boundary line. It contains sixteen townships, making an area of five hundred and seventy-six square miles, and was named for the Cedar River which flows through the county in a southeasterly direction.
The first white man known to have traveled through this county was Colonel George Davenport who, in 1831, established a trading post on the west side of the Cedar River just above the mouth of Rock Creek. Poweshiek, a chief of the Fox Indians, had a village in that vicinity where he made his headquarters and here Colonel Davenport, through his agents, carried on a profitable trade with the Fox Indians. The first claims made in the county were taken by Colonel Davenport, Antoine Le Claire, Major William Gordon and Alexander McGregor. These men went about twenty-five miles west of Davenport to a fine body of timber which was afterward named “Posten’s Grove” and staked out claims embracing all of the timber land. From there they passed on to Onion Grove and took possession of that timber land by the same process, all for purposes of speculation. Neglecting to comply with the claim laws, however, by making actual settlement, they were unable to hold these valuable lands. A few months later David W. Walton of Indiana made a claim on Sugar Creek, a name he gave to the stream owing to the sugar maples growing along its banks. He built a cabin and early the following spring moved his family to the new home. They were probably the first permanent settlers in the county. In May, 1836, Enos Nye of Ohio took a claim on the bank of Cedar River four miles west of Walton’s. In June, 1836, Andrew Crawford and Robert G. Roberts made claims in the central part of the county. In July of the same year James Posten made a claim in the eastern part of the county in the grove which bears his name. George McCoy and Stephen Toney settled on the east bank of the Cedar River in 1836 where McCoy established a ferry. In August McCoy and Toney laid out a town which they named Rochester, for the city of that name in New York. Benjamin Nye opened the first store and built a mill near the mouth of Rock Creek. Rev. Martin Baker, a Christian minister, was the pioneer preacher in the county, beginning services in 1836. Moses B. Church taught the first school in 1837 at the house of Colonel Henry Hardman.
In 1837 Rochester was made the county-seat and there the first election was held in March, 1838, at which the following officers were elected: Christian Holderman, treasurer; Robert G. Roberts, register, and Richard Ransford, J. M. Oaks and Joseph Wilford, commissioners. The first court was held in May, 1838, at Rochester, Judge David Irwin presiding. In 1839 commissioners were chosen by the Legislature to select a location for permanent county-seat. The site was located near the geographical center of the county and named Tipton for General John Tipton, United States Senator from Indiana. A town was platted in 1840 by John G. Tolman, the county surveyor, on a claim made in 1836 by William M. Knott, and the first sale of lots took place on the 15th
CLEAR LAKE, CERRO GORDO COUNTY
of June. A fierce contest was waged for several years between Rochester and Tipton for the county-seat which was finally settled by a vote of the people in 1852 in favor of Tipton.
On the 6th of April, 1850, the first newspaper was established in Tipton named the Tipton Times and Cedar County Conservative which was succeeded in 1853 by the Cedar County Advertiser. In 1855 the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad was built from Davenport through the southern part of the county. Previous to 1853 the county had voted aid to the Lyons and Iowa Central Railroad Company which proposed to build from Lyons by way of Tipton to Iowa City. This company caused grading to be done near Tipton and secured bonds of the county for $20,000 to aid the work but never built the road.