Lafayette township was bounded and commission issued L. W. Low, to call an organizing election at the house of Thos. B. Twiford on the first Monday in April.

At the April term, 1852, a petition for the organization of township 96, range 4, was rejected "for reasons too numerous to mention.

The course of Paint Creek was officially recognized as the division line between Linton and Taylor. A petition for the division of Linton township was rejected.

In the record of the July term there appears a beginning of an entry as follows: "Bunker Hill Township." No township of that name was ever organized, but the uncompleted entry suggests that an attempt was made to organize Linton under that name. At the December term, 1853, we find that boundaries were established for the following townships: Linton, Taylor, Paint Creek, Jefferson, Franklin and Post. All these townships had held elections previous to this date however, as we have returns from each of the twelve so far mentioned, at the county election of Aug. 1st, 1853, but no account of election of township offi

cers.

At the March term, 1855, the boundaries of Hanover township were defined, and a warrant issued to Marshall Cass to organize. Fairview bounded and ordered to be organized, same term. Iowa township the same, and warrant issued.

May 7, 1855, the name of Paint Creek township was changed to Waterville; but two years later, March 2, 1857, it was again changed to Paint Creek, upon petition of its citizens.

At the March, 1856, term of county court an order was issued for the organization of what is now Center township, under the name of Village Creek. O. Deremo was the organizing officer, and "the first election was held at the house of Eric Sund, 8th of April, 1856. Officers chosen as follows: Trustees, E. Sund, C. J. Drake, Thomas Gordan; Clerk, A. Drake; Assessor, O. Deremo. Justices of the Peace, Thomas Smith, A. Drake."

According to Mr. Deremo, who has taken pains to investigate and look up these matters, the following are some of the "first things" of Center township:

"The first funeral was that of Jos. Reynolds, a soldier of the war of 1812. The sermon was preached by Mr. Howard. He entered the N. W. and S. W. sec. 33, and was buried thereon.

"The first church was built by the Lutherans; it was commenced in 1857 and finished some years later, and stood where the east church now stands.

"The first school meeting was held at the house of E. Howard. May 14th, 1855, J. Reed, was secretary.

"The first school was taught in the winter of 1855-56 by Miss L. Stillman. The school-house was a log building situated in what is now sub-district No. 4.

The first frame house was built by a man named Streeter, on the farm now owned by P. Swenson, in 1850 or 1851."

French Creek and Waterloo townships were also ordered to be organized during the March term of 1856; and these make up the list of the eighteen townships in Allamakee county.

HISTORY OF PAINT CREEK TOWNSHIP.

The following history of Paint Creek township, prepared by John S. Bryson, will be of interest in this connection, and it is to be regretted that no similar sketches of the other townships have ever been written.

"On the morning of the 8th of May, 1850, James Bryson and family arrived at what was then called McGregor's landing, now the city of McGregor, with teams and baggage, and at once started for Garnavillo, the county seat of Clayton county, seeking a home. After resting here two days they, in company with part of Robert Moore's family, who had made a claim on Paint Creek, started for Allamakee county, following the trail via what is now Monona, then called Sodom in consequence of its whisky trade with the Indians, then down Hickory creek to Clark's ford, on the Yellow river, then north to the "old stake" in Jefferson township, now the farm owned by Elias Pettit and a short distance east of his house, and down on to Paint creek, where they camped May 11th, 1850.

"Mr. Bryson located on Sections 17 and 18 where Thomas and Robert Moore and John Ghraim had made claims about nine months previous, while the Indians were yet camped there for their winter's hunt, this being a favorite hunting and camping place for them. They were gone when the Bryson family came in, but the skeletons of their wigwams remained, and the brands and ashes of their camp fires showed that the new settlers occupied as they departed.

"Five of the wigwams or teepees stood close by the finest spring on Paint Creek. This spring was covered with a blanket of moss from two to six inches thick, showing that it had been a camping spot for a long time, and the wild deer dare not come to eat the moss, but they did the winter following. We cleared the most of this off the head of the springs and the water boiled up from ten to twelve inches, flowing over the beautiful green moss as clear as crystal and as cold as if it came through a mountain of ice.

"We found here many flint arrow heads, two tomahawks or hatchets, one dead Indian pony and many buffalo and elk horns. "The Indians had for years dug up the wild sod in the valley in patches and raised a crop of what might be called 'squaw corn', but we broke the first sod on what is now Paint Creek, on the 15th of May, 1850.

"The Government put the land into market at one dollar and a quarter per acre about the first of October following, and found us with more claimed than we had money to pay for, but Mr. Wm. H. Morrison, who lived near the mouth of the creek, having been appointed as agent to select a portion of the 500,000 acres granted by the General Government to Iowa for school purposes, came around and we entered our claim as school land; this helped us as well as many more poor settlers by giving us time to get the money and make our payments without submitting to the extortions of the land sharks as the settlers called those who speculated in land and reaped a rich harvest, at the expense of the hard working pioneer.

"In the summer of 1850, a large number of Norwegians came in from Wisconsin and settled on the prairie north of the creek among whom were Swen Enderson Hesla, Ole O. Storla, Ole Grimsgaart, Thomas Anderson, Lars Knudtson, Nels Tolfson, Ole Severson, Bennett Harmonson, who lived in their canvas covered wagons until they could build something to get into, and the most of these families are well-to-do farmers in Paint Creek to-day.

Theodore and William Moose and Wm. McCoy came in about the same time. James R. Conway, Reuben Sencebaugh, and others came in very soon after and settled on the south side of the creek. In the summer of 1850 a family named Ellis, from Linn County, Iowa, came in and selected mill sites on the creek at what is now Beumer's mill, and one of them, Riley Ellis, located a mile site just around the bend below Waterville, known as Peter Iverson's mill, when he put a pair of two foot French buhr millstone on a few logs built over the creek, which were kept running all winter cracking corn for all who came. The buhrs stood out of doors all winter and the next spring-1852-they were inclosed and a small bolt made of book muslin was attached for making buckwheat flour. Then we lived sumptuously, substituting buckwheat cakes and wild honey for our former diet of pork and corn dodger, and people came from all quarters with their little grists, and in all sorts of conveyances, some from what is now Waukon, some from the Iowa River. It was here I first saw Scott Shattuck, late from California, and when I first saw him he held in one hand a piece of raw pickled pork and corn dodger, and in the other hand a large knife with which he was cutting alternate slices of each for his luncheon. This was the first grist mill ever built in the county, if it had capacity enough to be called a mill. I run this mill the most of the time the first eight months. Not long after this Nathaniel Beebe commenced getting out timber for what is now known as the Waterville mill, and later Colonel Spooner and Mr. Carpenter came in and joined him, and the mill was built and started in the winter of 1854 and 1855. They also opened a store in the spring of 1855 near the mill. In