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Monona County History and Information

VEIW FULL SIZED D.O.T. COUNTY MAP

Monona was created on January 15, 1851 (Organized in 1854) from Pottawattomie County & Unorganized Land. The County was named for a word of uncertain Native American meaning. The word may mean “Peaceful Valley” or “Beautiful Valley.” The County Seat is ?. See also County History for more details.

Counties adjacent to Monona County are Woodbury County (north), Crawford County (east), Harrison County (south), Burt County, Nebraska (southwest), Thurston County, Nebraska (west). Cities and Towns Include Blencoe, Castana, Mapleton, Moorhead, Onawa, Rodney, Soldier, Turin, Ute, Whiting.

The county’s business was first transacted at the Mormon village called Preparation, in Spring Valley Township, where some of the first settlements were made. When Ashton (originally called Bloomfield) was named the county seat in the fall of 1854, a log house served as the first courthouse. Ashton remained the county seat for only four years.

Following an election, county records were removed to Onawa, where a frame courthouse was built during the summer of 1858, at a cost of about $7,000. Attempts were made from 1861 until 1889 to remove the county seat to Belvidere, Arcola, and East Mapleton, but each contest in its turn ended in favor of Onawa.

A courthouse was built in 1891-1892 by S.E. Maxon and Company of Omaha. This brick Romanesque building, with gabled roof surmounted by a tower, is located on the same site as the previous courthouse. A one-story addition was built on the West side of the courthouse in 1967, and another on the East side in 1973. The old jail was condemned, and Monona County joined with the City of Onawa to construct a law enforcement center, including jail facilities, which was completed in September 1974.

An annex to the courthouse was built in 1980 and dedicated in 1981. This annex was built for court facilities. The original judge’s bench, furniture, and fixtures were restored and are being used in the new courtroom. Also an entire third floor of the building was built and now houses the Department of Human Services. And finally, the basement annex was remodeled to house the county health nurses and the magistrate court.

The Monona County Official Government Website
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Records at the Monona County Courthouse

Monona County Vital Records

Monona County Census Records

Monona County Maps & Atlases

Monona County Military Records

Monona County Tax Records

Monona County Genealogical Addresses

Monona County Church & Cemeteries

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County History

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

This county lies on the Missouri River, and is in the fifth tier from the northern and southern boundary of the state. In extent it is twenty-four miles north and south, by an average of nearly thirty east and west, containing sixteen full congressional townships, and some four or five that are fractional, and embraces an area of about six hundred and eighty square miles. The Missouri River, which forms the western boundary, here runs in a southeasterly direction, making the southern boundary line of the county some twelve miles shorter than the northern.

The first permanent settler in the county was Isaac Ashton, who, in 1852, located about two miles north of the present town of Onawa, where, in 1855, he laid out the town of Ashton. Other settlers came in the Summer of 1855, among whom were Josiah Sumner and Aaron Cook, the former locating in the vicinity of Onawa. Among others who came prior to 1855, were C. E. Whiting, Robert Lindley, Timothy Elliott, J. E. Morrison, J. B. P. Day, and B. D. Holbrook. Several of the early settlers came from the eastern part of Iowa, while others were from Illinois and the Eastern States.

Among the early settlers of the county, was one Charles B. Thompson, a Mormon leader, who, with a number of followers, located on Soldier River, in what is now called Spring Valley Township, about fifteen miles southeast of the present town of Onawa. They commenced their settlement in 1854. Thompson called the place Preparation, as he designed here to prepare his disciples for the "good time coming." As Charles B. Thompson was an important man in the early history of Monona County, some account of him, and of the enterprise in which he was the leader, will be interesting to the reader. He had been a follower and disciple of Joe Smith at Nauvoo, but went to St. Louis in 1852, and organized a church. In the Summer of 1853, he sent some of his followers as commissioners to look for and select a location for his people in Iowa. They finally made selection of the valley of the Soldier, in the south part of Monona County, all the land at that time being vacant. In 1854 he brought some fifty or sixty families, and pre-empted several thousand acres of the best land to be found in that region. Some of the land he subsequently entered. Thompson regulated and controlled all the affairs of the colony, both temporal and spiritual, pretending that he had authority to do so under the direction of a spirit which he called Baneemy. Among other assumptions, he pretended that he was the veritable Ephraim of the Scriptures, and taught his people to call him father Ephraim. A strict compliance with his teaching divested his followers of all worldly care, and prepared them for the further essential doctrine of his religion—that, in order to obtain the kingdom, they must sacrifice all their worldly possessions. They accordingly conveyed to him all their lands and other property, including even their wearing apparel and the right to their services.

Under this arrangement "Father Ephraim" and Baneemyism progressed swimmingly until the Fall of 1855, when a little rebellion appeared under the leadership of an Elder named Hugh Lytle. This man, and some twenty others of the disaffected, commenced a suit in the courts for the recovery of their property, but they failed, and the matter was subsequently adjusted by a compromise, whereby the Lytle party received a portion of their property and withdrew from the society. The remainder adhered to Thompson without further serious difficulty until the Fall of 1958. During the Summer of that year, most of the male adults of the society were absent in other states preaching the doctrines of Baneemyism to the Gentiles. Thompson, who arrogated to himself the title of "Chief Steward of the Lord," took advantage of the absence of his friends, and conveyed all the realty to his wife, Catherine Thompson, and to one Guy C. Barnum, reserving only forty acres as a homestead for himself. His disciples, hearing of this transaction, returned and immediately called on "Father Ephraim,""Chief Steward of the Lord" to render an account of his stewardship. Being unable to obtain a satisfactory adjustment of the matter, they notified him that on a stated day he would be expected to meet them in Preparation to make a settlement. In the meantime they sent word to the Lytelites, and all others who had from time to time withdrawn, to appear on the day of settlement and present their claims. But the "Chief Steward of the Lord," and Barnum whom he styled his "Assistant Chief Steward of the Lord," had not the courage to meet the gathering of the tribes on that occasion, and so they found it convenient to be absent at Onawa. On the next day, however, they started for Preparation, hoping that the people had dispersed. About a mile from the village they were met by a young woman, whose faith in "Father Ephraim" seems to have remained unshaken, who told them that they must not come in, as the people were all there and would surely hang them if they made their appearance. At that moment they saw the men coming from Preparation at full speed on horseback over the hill toward them. They sprang from the wagon in which they were riding, unhitched the horses, and mounting them bare-back, wheeled about for Onawa. After a lively race of fifteen miles, not excelled in thrilling interest by that of John Gilpin, across prairies and over creeks and ravines, the "Prophet" and his "Assistant" arrived about a half mile ahead of their followers.

Thompson remained at Onawa two or three days under the protection of the citizens, and then went to St. Louis. Barnum remained at Onawa until the next Spring, when he removed to Nebraska, where he became a prominent citizen. Thompson while at St. Louis again made conveyances of all the lands to his brother and other parties. He then attempted to found another religious society, but failed to obtain followers. He wrote and published a book on the Origin of the Black and Mixed Races, pretending to translate largely from the Hebrew and Greek, of which languages it is said he was utterly ignorant. This seems to have been the last heard of him by his old friends in Monona County until in 1867, when they learned that he was in Philadelphia, in destitute circumstances. After his flight from Preparation, his former followers sent his family with a feather bed and a few household effects after him to Onawa and then divided all the balance of the personal property among themselves, each taking what he could identify as his own. The same Fall they commenced an action in chancery to set aside the conveyances of the real estate. The suit was contested in all its stages by Thompson's grantees, and not finally settled until December, 1866 being eight years in litigation. At that time the Supreme Court of the State of Iowa declared all the conveyances fraudulent, and set them aside, the court holding that Thompson only held the property as trustee. The property was sold under the order of the court, and the proceeds divided among the original contributors in proportion to the amount contributed by each. Of the sixty families that Thompson brought to the settlement at Preparation in 1854, only three or four remain. Thus ended Baneemyism in Monona County.

The county was organized in 1854, by the County Judge of Harrison County, who appointed Charles B. Thompson the first County Judge. This was before the location of the county seat, so that the first county business was transacted at Preparation. In the Fall of 1854, the county seat was located by commissioners appointed by the Legislature. They gave the place selected the name of Bloomfield, but there being another town of that name in the state, it was changed to Ashton. The county seat remained there until the Spring of 1858, when it was removed to Onawa by a vote of the people. The following were the first county officers; Charles B. Thompson, County Judge; Guy C. Barnum, Treasurer; Hugh Lytle, Clerk; and Homer C. Hoyt, Sheriff. Monona County then embraced what is now the west range of townships of Crawford County, but the change was made in accordance with the vote of both counties in the Fall of 1865. In 1860, a vote was taken on the question of the removal of the county seat from Onawa to Belvidere, and another vote in 1862, on the removal to Arcola. Both attempts failed, and the question is doubtless finally settled by the location of the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad.

ONAWA - This is the County Seat, and is situated near the middle line of the county, north and south, and about eight miles east of the Missouri River, but only about four miles from the nearest point on the river south-west. It was laid out by the Monona Land Company in 1857, and embraces an area of about 600 acres, with about 600 acres additional of out-lots, each containing two acres or less. The principal streets run east and west, and are one hundred and fifty feet wide, while the others are eighty feet, and alleys sixteen feet wide cross the blocks north and south. Two blocks 396x264 feet have been reserved in the north part of town for public parks.

Monona County Courthouse

The county seat of Monona was originally Ashton, but changed to Onawa in 1858. At Onawa, county officials were housed in a small building known as Mechanics' Hall.

Onawa was constantly being challenged for the honor of being the county seat. The citizens of Onawa raised $12,500 to be used for a new courthouse if it were to retain the county seat. In an election against East Mapleton, Onawa won and a $7,000 courthouse was erected.

The present courthouse was built in 1892 in Onawa. It is of typically late Victorian architecture. The design is similar to that of the courthouse in Adair County.

Monona County History and Information

Records at the Monona County Courthouse

See Also Iowa Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Monona County Vital Records

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Monona County Census Records

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Monona County Maps & Atlases

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Monona County Military Records

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Monona County Tax Records

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Monona County Genealogical Addresses

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Monona County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Iowa

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits