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Kossuth County History and Information

VEIW FULL SIZED D.O.T. COUNTY MAP

Kossuth was created on January 15, 1851 (Organized in 1856) from Unorganized Territory. The County was named for Lajos Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot. The County Seat is Algona.

Counties adjacent to Kossuth County are Martin County, Minnesota (north), Faribault County, Minnesota (north), Winnebago County (northeast), Hancock County (southeast), Humboldt County (south), Palo Alto County (southwest), Emmet County (northwest). Cities and Towns Include Algona, Bancroft, Burt, Fenton, Lakota, Ledyard, Lone Rock, Lu Verne, Swea City, Titonka, Wesley, West Bend, Whittemore.

Kossuth is the largest county in Iowa in area and was named for the Hungarian patriot, Lajos Kossuth. The first supervisors took office in 1861. There were three supervisors, one for each township in county at the time. In 1872, the county voted in favor of having a board of five supervisors, two to be elected at large. The present districting system was set up in 1900.

The present boundaries of the county were fixed by the legislature in 1857 by blotting Bancroft County out of existence and adding it to Kossuth County. In 1870, Crocker County was created on the ruins of old Bancroft County, but the Act was declared unconstitutional because the county did not contain 432 miles. Thus Crocker County passed out of existence, and its 12 townships were added to Kossuth County, reducing from 100 to 99 the number of counties in Iowa.

Until 1866, officials had only temporary quarters. The supervisors met in the county judge’s office, and the treasurer and recorder were housed in a log addition to the old St. Nicholas hotel. Records were kept at home, or anywhere that was convenient.

The original courthouse was built in 1867 where the old jail is now located. A vote in 1871 approved construction of a new courthouse, which was built the next year. This courthouse served the county until 1953.

After getting approval for a new courthouse in 1947, thrifty supervisors decided to wait until the cost of material decreased before building. The Board invested the bonds in interest-bearing U.S. war bonds and earned more than $43,000 by the time the new courthouse had been completed in 1955, for a total cost of $520,605.

All of Kossuth County was included in the Sioux Indian claim against the U.S. government in connection with about 29 million acres of land ceded by Sioux treaties from 1805 to 1858. Settlement of the claims was reached during the summer of 1967, after 160 years of litigation.

Kossuth County boards have been continually plagued by water problems. On the flat land left by the glaciers there was little runoff. In the spring, large areas of the county were flooded. In the early days, there were many elections on whether and where to build bridges. The votes usually carried, and the county ran heavily in debt. As the years passed, the county established drainage districts to solve the flooding problem.

There have been several attempts to divide the county, but none ever succeeded, and Kossuth is still the largest county in area in the state. See also County History for more details.

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Records at the Kossuth County Courthouse

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Kossuth County Tax Records

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County History

From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

Kossuth County comprises a section of the two most northern tier of counties, and is the seventh county west of the Mississippi River. In extent it is twenty-four miles east and west, by forty and one-third north and south, and therefore contains 968 square miles, or 619,520 acres.

The south two-thirds of the county is well watered and drained by the east fork of the Des Moines River and its tributaries.

Blue Earth River rises in the northern part of the county, and flows north into Minnesota, watering several of the northern townships.

There are some valuable groves of native timber on the Des Moines River and other streams, probably an aggregate of ten thousand acres in the county. The northern portion of the county has but a limited supply.

The general character of the surface is rolling. Along the Des Moines River are some exceedingly rich bottom lands. The soil is generally, both on the higher prairies and in the bottoms, slightly mixed with sand, but with a larger proportion of vegetable loam. In many places this soil is several feet deep, resting on a clay sub-soil, below which a stratum of gravel is usually found.There are no exposures of rock "in place," but in some localities the boulders of the glacial period are found upon the surface in sufficient quantities to supply the wants of the people in the way of ordinary masonry.

Wheat, oats, and potatoes are staple crops, but corn and most kinds of vegetables yield well. The county is well adapted to stock-raising and the dairy, as there is an abundance of excellent wild grass.

On the 9th day of July, 1854, Asa C. Call and Ambrose A. Call, two brothers, the former just then from California, and the latter from Illinois, located on the ground where the Town of Algona is now situated. At the time the land was in the possession of the Government, and only partially surveyed. In June of that year, Colonel Leach was engaged in surveying township ninety-five, of range twenty-nine, but he and his party were driven out by the Indians. Cyrus C. Carpenter (subsequently governor of the state), afterwards finished the work. At this time the two Call brothers were the only white settlers on the Des Moines River north of Fort Dodge, and there were none eastward within fifty miles, nor westward nearer than the Missouri River. For years "Call's Grove" was spoken of as away on the upper Des Moines, among the Indians. The Call brothers, however, soon had followers, for in the Fall of the same year came Malachi Clark, Levi Maxwell, William Hill and Solomon Hand, with their families. They took claims on the west side of the river, below Algona, January 25, 1855, William H. Ingham and Andrew L. Seely took claims about four miles above the present town of Algona. J. W. Moore came in May. In the Summer of 1855, the first settlement was made at Irvington, about five miles below Algona, by Jacob Wright. Thomas and John Robinson, William G. Clark, Benjamin Hensley, George Smith, L. L. Treat and Kendall Young. August Zahlten and Christian Hackman came in February; A. Brown, June; L. H. Smith and others in July. All the settlements mentioned, extending for ten miles up and down the river, were then known by the general name of "Call's Grove."

In the Fall of 1854, a minister of the Christian denomination by the name of Mahuren, went up with his family from Des Moines, and made their home at the cabin of Ambrose A. Call, on the west side of the river, one mile below Algona. Mr. Mahuren died in about two weeks after his arrival, and this was the first death among the white settlers in the county.

In the Fall of 1855, a county organization took place, the county at this time including the northern half of the present county of Humboldt. It was detached in 1857. The following were the first county officers elected; Asa C. Call, Judge; R. Cogley, Clerk; J. W. Moore, Treasurer and Recorder; H. F. Watson, Sheriff; and Washington Hand, School Fund Commissioner.

By an act of the Legislature passed at the session of 1854-5, the county seat had been located on the southwest quarter of section 2, township 95 north, range 29 west. In the Spring of 1856, a town was laid out here, the original proprietors being Asa C. Call, Ambrose A. Call, and J. W. Moore. Judge Call had built a cabin on the town plat before it was surveyed. The name of the new town—Algona--was suggested by Mrs. Asa C. Call, the first lady resident of the county. The first child born here, and the first in the county, was Ella Algona Blackford, daughter of Honorable J. E. Blackford.

The first goods that were sold in Algona, were sent up from Fort Dodge, by Major Williams, in 1856, and sold by H. F. Watson as Agent.The first marriage in the county took place April 22, 1857, being that of William Moore and Sarah Wright. The next, and the first in Algona, was that of Hurlbut W. Lake and Rachel N. Eggers, July 21, 1857.

The first newspaper in the county was the Algona Pioneer Press, started in September, 1861, by Ambrose A. Call. He continued it up to 1863, when after suspension, the press and material passed into the hands of Mrs. Lizzie B. Read, who started the paper called the Upper Des Moines.

INDIAN FIGHT - About six miles above Algona, on the west side of the river, in April, 1852, a conflict took place between the Musquaka band of the Sacs and Foxes and a bank of Sioux Indians. The incidents of the fight were given to the early white settlers by William Burgart, a trapper, who subsequently lived at Northwood, Worth County. The Musquakas were under the leadership of a subordinate chief named Ko-ko-wah who went up with his party by way of Clear Lake to what was then "neutral ground." At Clear Lake they received information that the Sioux were encamped on the west side of the East Fork of the Des Moines River, Ko-ko-wah, with sixty of his warriors, determined to attack them. They arrived in the night, and concealed themselves in the grove on the east side of the river about one mile above the Sioux encampment, where unperceived, they learned the exact position of the enemy. In the morning, after many of the Sioux warriors had gone away to hunt, Ko-ko-wah and his men crossed over the river and attacked the Sioux, before they were prepared to make a successful resistance. For a short time the conflict was desperate, but the advantage was all on the side of the attacking party, and the Sioux were completely vanquished. Sixteen of them were killed, including some of their women and children. A number of their horses were also killed, and a boy fourteen years of age taken prisoner. The Musquakas lost four braves among whom were Kear-kurk and Pa-tak-a-py, both distinguished warriors. As the Musquakas rushed into the camp of the Sioux, a squaw shot Pa-tak-a-py in the breast. He started to run away, and the same squaw, at a distance of twenty rods, shot him through the body with an arrow, when he fell and expired. But few of the Sioux made their escape, and all their dead were left on the ground unburied. The Musquakas hastily buried their own dead, and with their prisoner, returned as rapidly as possible to their home in Tama County, and when they arrived spent six or seven days and nights fortifying their village, and in the meantime burned the young Sioux prisoner. The scene of this conflict is on section 8, township 96, range 28.

ALGONA - This town is situated mainly on a high and well drained prairie, on the east side of the east fork of the Des Moines River. There are beautiful groves of timber immediately adjoining on the north, west and south. The river here affords good water power. The town has a beautiful and picturesque location, with a rich agricultural region tributary to it. It was originally platted in April, 1856. The Iowa and Dakota Division of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway was completed to Algona, in the Fall of 1870, and has assisted materially in the development of the town and county. A substantial and commodious court house was erected in 1872, being one of the finest in northern Iowa.

WESLEY – This is a station on the railroad, in the eastern part of the county. It is surrounded by a fertile prairie region. The post office here is called Wesley Station.

The other post offices in the county are; BUFFALO FORK, DARIEN, GREENWOOD CENTER, HALE, IRVINGTON, KOSSUTH CENTER, SENECA, and SIVEA.

Kossuth County Courthouse

In 1866, lumber was hauled from Boonesboro to Algona for the first courthouse in Kossuth County. The building cost $800 and was completed by January 1, 1867.

The cornerstone of a second courthouse was laid in 1872. The structure, which had a 72 foot high tower, cost approximately $40,000.

The present courthouse in Algona is a modern brick building which was dedicated in 1955. It cost approximately $500,000 to build. On old courthouse square is a semicircular stone which reads "Court House A.D. 1872". This marks the spot where the second Kossuth County courthouse used to stand.

Kossuth County History and Information

Records at the Kossuth County Courthouse

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Kossuth County Vital Records

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Kossuth County Census Records

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Kossuth County Maps & Atlases

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Kossuth County Military Records

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Kossuth County Tax Records

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Kossuth County Genealogical Addresses

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Kossuth County Church & Cemeteries

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Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits