stolen documents were recovered, placed in the Lansing wagons, and returned to their respective offices in the court house at Lansing. "Cheer after cheer rent the air when the boys returned. They were enthusiastically received by the citizens Hats were thrown skyward, handkerchiefs were waved, and lager quaffed. Quiet is again restored and the county seat remains at Lansing."

In August, 1868, S. V. Shaw, Israel Bequette, and J. M. Rose published a notice that at the next September session of the Board of Supervisors, a petition would be presented asking that another election be ordered between Lansing and Waukon. The Board met on the first Monday in September, and it was concluded that all the business necessary to be done might be transacted in a short session, as owing to the pressure of "fall work," etc., it was the wish of some of the members to be at home. Accordingly a committee on school tax levy labored a good share of that night to prepare their report, and Tuesday forenoon the remaining business was transacted and the Board adjourned sine die, by a vote of 12 to 3, three members being absent. Later in the day the Lansing petitioners put in an appearance, but the Board having adjourned no election could be ordered that year.

Early in the spring of 1869 the contest was reopened and waxed warm from the start. A petition for an election was widely circulated, as was a remonstrance to the same, and each party charged the other with obtaining many illegal signatures. At the June session of the Board, on the first day, the petition was presented and referred to a committee, and on the following day the remonstrance appeared and was also referred, and was found to outnumber the petition by 86 names-2122 on the remonstrance and 2036 on the petition. A majority report of the committee was made by D. Dickerson, J. S. Deremo, Jeremiah Leas, and S. F. Goodykoontz, stating their belief that a large number of signers to the petition had also signed the remonstrance, which would swell the majority of the latter over the petition by 150 to 200 names, and therefore recommended that no election be ordered. A minority report by G. Kerndt, S. H. Haines and William Yeoman, was also submitted, representing it as their belief that the petition contained a majority of the names of the legal voters of the county, and that they were in favor of allowing the people to express themselves at the polls. After some close work the minority report was adopted and an election ordered by a vote of ten to eight.

One recourse was left to the Waukon managers, and proceeding to Decorah they laid the matter before Judge M. V. Burdick, who granted an injunction restraining the Board from taking any further steps towards holding such election, until permission should be granted. In the District Court a petition was filed asking for a writ of certiorari, commanding the Board to certify to said

Court a record of its proceedings relating to the county seat, which was granted, and a special term appointed for July 7th for a hearing in said case. At the time appointed the case was heard and judgment rendered annulling and setting aside the order of the Board for an election. The defendant appealed, but after the election the previous decision was affirmed, at McGregor. Meanwhile, when the Circuit Court sat, in July, the injunction was dissolved and the election was held as ordered, October 5th, resulting in a majority of 254 for Waukon-1,544 to 1,290.

After this decisive quietus, there was a lull in the county seat war for six years, when, at the June session of the Board, 1875, a petition was presented containing 1,906 names, and another election was duly ordered to be held at the general election in October. During this summer was begun the construction of the Waukon and Mississippi Railroad. Realizing that it was "now or never" with her, Lansing massed her forces for the final conflict, and the campaign was pushed vigorously on both sides, resulting in the largest vote ever cast in the county, and a majority of 340 in favor of Waukon, she receiving 2,145 against 1,805 for Lansing. It is said that the reason for this large vote was the importation of Winneshiek county voters on the west, and Wisconsin voters and river men on the east.

CHAPTER X.

County Buildings; Educational: County School Statistics; Normal Institutes; Religious Organizations; Gospel Pioneers; Statistics of Population, etc.; Assessed Valuations; Political Statistics.

We regret that limited space will prevent our presenting a chapter descriptive of the bridges, dykes and roads of the county. Their history would make an interesting volume of itself, and is necessarily debarred from this work.

Of the buildings, the court house at Waukon was erected during 1859 and 1860, and completed in 1861, by Chas. W. Jenkins and John W. Pratt, to whom the contract was let, in 1859, by the County Judge, George M. Dean. Its cost was $13,655, of which $5,000 was contributed by citizens of Waukon. As originally built, the rear portion of the first floor was occupied by a jail, with six cells; but this proved so inadequate for the secure retention of prisoners, and the county officers requiring additional room, it was finally removed altogether, and for the past few years criminals awaiting trial have been sent to the Decorah jail. Previous to the building of the Court House they were confined in the Clayton County jail at Garnavillo. In 1870 two large

fire-proof vaults were built in the Court House, at an expense of $2,000 or more, for the use of the Treasurer's and Recorders offices-that of the former being also supplied with a burglar-proof safe, with a Yale time lock. In 1881, similar vaults were put in for the safe keeping of the records in the Auditor's and Clerk's offices. In 1882 the building was repaired throughout, repainted, and is about to be arranged for heating by Ruttan furnaces in the basement.

After the county seat was removed to The Point, in 1861, a Court House was erected there-in the same year-of stone, somewhat smaller than the one at Waukon, and without a jail. It was built by the citizens of Lansing without expense to the county, in accordance with their bond to so do in case the county seat should be located there; but it has not been used for county purposes since 1867. The land was donated by Haney & Houghton and J. M. Rose. Col. Guilbert and Geo. W. Hays were the building committee who prosecuted the work, the total cost of which was not far from $5,000.

The County Poor Farm comprises the southeast quarter of section 8, Makee township, four miles north by east of Waukon, and was purchased of Joseph Burton, October 22, 1866, for $4,000. There was a large and substantial frame building on the place, which was built by Mr. Burton in 1856, with hard wood timber and matched siding. It was 29x37 feet, with one L 14x16 and another about 15 feet square. After its purchase by the county it was raised from a story and a half to two full stories in height, and the upper portion finished off.

On the evening of January 23, 1880, this house was destroyed by fire, involving a loss of some $2,000, as there was no insurance. A temporary building was immediately erected for the accomodation of the inmates until the present substantial brick structure was erected in 1881. It is 38x40 feet, two stories, each ten feet in the clear, with cellars under all, and is heated by furnace in the basement. Its total cost was about $5,000. Contractors: John Griffin for the wood-work, Samuel Peck for stone and brickwork. It was built from the proceeds of a special tax of one mill on a dollar, voted by the people of the county at the general election of 1880.

In 1874 the question of a special tax, for the purpose of building a county jail, was submitted to the voters of the county, and defeated by an overwhelming vote. In 1880 a similar question was voted down by a majority of 735. In 1881 the question was again submitted, as follows:

"Shall the coupon bonds of the county, in the sum of $10,000, be issued, upon which to borrow money to be used in erecting a jail in and for said county at the county seat? Said bonds to be issued in denominations of not less than $100 or more than $500 each, and to bear interest at the rate of not more than 7 per cent.

per annum, payable annually on the 1st of May of each year; the bonds to be issued of the date of May 1st, 1882. Said bonds to be made to become due: $2,000 on May 1st, 1883; $2,000 on May 1st, 1884; $3,000 on May 1st, 1885, and $3,000 on May 1st, 1886, and to be payable, principal and interest, at the office of the County Treasurer; and none of said bonds to be sold or exchanged by the county for less than their face value, with all interest accrued on them at the date of sale or exchange. And shall a special tax of one mill on the dollar be levied on the taxable property of the county for the year 1882, and for each succeeding year thereafter until a sufficient sum is raised from said levies to pay said bonds with all accruing interest?"

This proposition was adopted by a majority of 129 votes, and in the spring of 1882 contracts were awarded as follows: Stone-work, brick-work and excavations, to Samuel Peck & Son, for $3,000; carpenter's work, tinner's work and painting, to A. J. Rodgers, for $3,000; cell-work, window guards, iron doors, etc., to Diebold Safe and Lock Company, for $3,400. Afterwards a contract for heating furnace was let to the Ruttan Furnace Company, through A. J. Rodgers, for about $600. The building is now in course of erection, and promises to be one of the best of its class in Northern Iowa. It is of brick, stone and iron, 74x33 feet in extreme; the jail part will be one-story of 17 feet, with iron roof entirely fire-proof; the part for the sheriff's residence two stories of 10 feet each. The location is on the county square in Waukon, a short distance south of the court house.

EDUCATIONAL.

The early comers into this county were largely from New England and other portions of the east, where good school facilities were enjoyed; and bringing with them their love for and belief in the absolute [necessity of education, the establishment of free public schools was one of the first things they looked to after getting comfortably housed in their new home. To Postville we believe belongs the honor of possessing the first public school in the county, established there in the summer of 1848. The first school house was built near Hardin in 1849. In the central portion of the county the first school was undoubtedly that taught by L. W. Hersey, in the winter of 1852 and 1853, in a log cabin built by Deacon Azel Pratt for a dwelling in the fall of 1850. The first public school in Lansing was begun in February, 1853. The first in Waukon in the early winter next following, taught by L. O. Hatch. Previous to this D. D. Doe taught in Makee Township just east of Waukon. Quite early in the fifties, Reuben Smith built a small school house on his place in Yellow River, and employed a teacher to instruct his children, probably admitting those of his neighbors to the benefit of the school also. The first public school in Smith's district was taught by C. T. Granger (now Circuit Judge) in the winter of 1854-5.

An examination of the following figures, compiled from reports of the County Superintendents for various years, will give a better idea of the condition of educational matters in our county than anything else we could here lay before the reader.

In 1867 there were 6,083 persons between the ages or five and twenty-one years. In 1873, 7,511; in 1875; 7,705; in 1877, 8,450; in 1880, 7,927; in 1881, 7,520, distributed among the various school districts as follows: