History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/William H. Ingham
WILLIAM H. INGHAM was one of the pioneer settlers in northwestern Iowa, having lived in Kossuth County nearaly fifty years. He was born at Ingham's Mills in the State of New York, November 27, 1827. He received a liberal education in the schools of that section. In 1849 he made a trip through the eastern part of Iowa, and was so charmed with the new country that in 1851 he located at Cedar Rapids where he engaged in surveying and locating lands for incoming settlers. In 1854 he traveled through a portion of northwestern Iowa, which was then almost entirely unsettled. He determined to make his home in Kossuth County and in January, 1855, selected a claim near where Algona stands. Aa soon as the business of the new town would support a banking house he began to do business in that line. In 1870, in company with Lewis H. Smith (another pioneer), a bank was organized which three years later became the Kossuth County Bank. In 1862, after the Minnesota massacre by the Sioux Indians had begun, Governor Kirkwood authorized Mr. Ingham to organize a military company for the protection of that part of the State, and sent him a commission as captain. Other companies were raised and all were united in the Northern Border Brigade, which effectually checked the incursion of the Sioux into northern Iowa. Captain Ingham has been an active force in the development of northwest Iowa for nearly half a century.