COUNTY OFFICERS FOR 1911
- Supervisors—Allan McDuff, Wm. P. Secrist, J. C. Gritman.
- Auditor—F. A. Canfield.
- Treasurer—J. B. Travis.
- Clerk District Court—Wm. Dennis.
- Recorder—J. E. Cook.
- Sheriff—Wm. G. Loftus.
- County Attorney—G. P. Linville.
- Superintendent—A. B. Alderman.
- Coroner—W. S. King.
- Surveyor—Raymond Swem.
- Judges District Court—Milo P. Smith, W. N. Treichler, F. O. Ellison.
[CHAPTER XLIII]
History of Marion, the County Seat
BY HON. JAMES E. BROMWELL
Marion, most fittingly called the "City Beautiful," or the "Grove City," was laid out in 1839 on a semi-circular plateau of prairie that lay within a timbered crescent bordering and following the course of Indian creek on the west, and opening into a vast extent of prairie on the east, to which it lay joined like a protected harbor of the sea. Before it was laid out in the spring of 1839, it was located by a special board of commissioners appointed by the territorial legislature of Iowa in 1838, as the county seat of Linn county, and was named in honor of General Francis Marion.
David A. Woodbridge, who was appointed to superintend the work, and Ross McCloud, the first county surveyor, proceeded to lay out the town, and on December 2, 1839, assisted by Hosea W. Gray and A. J. McKean as chain carriers, Elisha Kemp stake driver, and Ira Wilson flagman, and under the direction of David A. Woodbridge, agent, the town of Marion was platted on the west half of the northwest quarter of section six, township eighty-three, range six, and the east half of the northeast quarter of section one, township eighty-three, range seven.
The town consisted of fifty-six blocks, 250 feet square. The lots were 60 by 120 feet, and the alleys ten feet wide. The four streets that enclose the public square were laid out eighty feet wide, all other streets sixty feet wide. The lots on which the court house and other county buildings now stand, were then reserved for public use, as was the park, consisting of the block directly north of that on which the county buildings now stand, and block fifty-six, the southwest block of the plat, was reserved for a public cemetery.
Isbell's Grove, now known as Irish Hill, lay to the southeast of the town plat like a beautiful emerald island cut off from the body of timber lying south of it by a strip of prairie, where, in 1838, William K. Farnsworth had entered a claim. He was the first actual town settler, although James Preston and Prior Scott had entered a large tract of land east of Isbell's Grove about the same time, and a part of which lay open until the eighties, and was known as Scott's Prairie.