One of the first school teachers in the township was Mrs. Keziah McDowell, who taught in a private house. The first school building was erected in 1855 on the place where the Elm Grove school now stands. The first teacher who taught in a school building was a Mr. Eckerman, who boarded around. The families who had children attending school at that time were the McKinnons, the Listebargers, and the Hodges.
The first reaping machine in this part of the county was purchased by William Ure at Chicago in the summer of 1847, and was a hand-raking machine. Mr. Ure drove with an ox team to Chicago and returned with a machine in time for cutting the grain that summer. After he got started all the neighbors helped and the machine was run night and day until the season was over and the grain harvested.
The Scotch families were United Presbyterians, and for many years attended church in Cedar Rapids. In May, 1858, the Presbyterian church was organized and established in Scotch Grove. The fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of this church was celebrated in 1908, and the paper read by Miss Jennie G. Mitchell, daughter of James Mitchell, now residing in Cedar Rapids, gives a full history of the church and of many of the old settlers of this county, and is herewith inserted in full:
"THE ORIGIN OF FAIRFAX U. P. CHURCH
"The first settlers in this part of Linn county, Iowa, were Robert and Jane Ure, who, with a family of grown children, came here in the spring or summer of 1841. The children were John, Margaret, James, William, Jane, Robert, Walter, and David. The family had emigrated from Scotland in 1838 and spent the intervening years near Springfield, Ohio. But land was high in the old settlements and they came 'west' where they could enter government land, settling, or at first camping, on the same ground where this church is built. Log houses were soon erected and some land entered and a few years later a brick house was built, the first in this part of the country. The brick was made by the boys and the entire house erected without the assistance of any expert, the lime being hauled all the way from Muscatine. The Ure family did not leave their religion in the Auld Kirk in the Homeland, but during all their travels, whether they tarried or camped for only the night, the morning and evening sacrifice of family prayer was offered; and on Sabbath at noon the family were gathered and God's word read, followed by praise and prayer. Thus they kept God's holy day and worshiped in their own home until preaching could be obtained, and by searching the records of the First United Presbyterian church of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we find that on the 9th day of September, 1850, a meeting was held and a petition forwarded to the Associate Presbytery of Iowa, asking for a supply of preaching, and in 1851 the congregation in Cedar Rapids was organized, the Ure family uniting with them.
THE "OLD SCHOOL" COGGON