51 R. W. Babb, William Crumley, Josiah Bluncett, Thomas Greenup, John Barr and others settled along the Raccoon River.
The county was organized in 1854 by the election of the following officers: William Phillips, judge; S. G. Crumley, clerk; James H. Phillips, recorder and treasurer; Isaac D. Crumley, sheriff, and N. S. Daniels, prosecuting attorney.
The town of Jefferson was laid out on the banks of the Raccoon River in 1854 and named for the author of the Declaration of Independence. It was made the county-seat and the first house was built by G. S. Walton in June, 1855. The first term of court was held by Judge C. J. McFarland in May, 1856. It was ten years before a newspaper was started. In 1866 M. L. and H. Money established the Jefferson Bee. The Chicago Northwestern Railroad was built through the county from east to west in 1868. The town of Grand Junction was laid out at the point where the Des Moines Valley Railroad crosses the line of the Northwestern.
GRIMES COUNTY was created by act of the Sixteenth General Assembly in 1876, embracing twelve townships lying in ranges thirty-eight, thirty-nine and forty in Pottawattamie County. The act provided in compliance with a provision of the Constitution, that the proposition should be submitted to a vote of the electors in Pottawattamie County at the general election of 1876. The division of the county was defeated at that election and the new county was never organized. It was named for Ex-Governor James W. Grimes, for many years a distinguished member of the United States Senate.
GRUNDY COUNTY lies in the fourth tier south of the Minnesota line in the fifth west of the Mississippi River and contains five hundred four square miles. It was created in 1851 from territory formerly belonging to Benton and
