In traveling over Pottawattamie county one naturally wonders why the great railroad lines crossing the state from east to west have avoided the best tier of counties in the whole state. This applies more particularly to the western part, where in going from Madison, Adair, Cass or eastern Pottawattamie county to Council Bluffs or Omaha, a person must pass through Shelby or Mills. However, Pottawattamie has managed to survive and grow in wealth and population and a person now passing where the roads were mere trails, following the divides over miles of treeless prairies and now finds excellent roads running on section lines and each farm with an artificial grove, he feels impressed with the amount of progress that one generation has made, and although Lincoln, like several of her sister townships, has no railroad or town of her own, it is but a short drive to one in any direction. In fact a person can't get ten miles from a railroad in Pottawattamie county. Farming, including stock raising and fruit growing, must always be the business of the people and as such, prosperity is certain to follow the active and prudent worker.
The present township officers are as follows: Trustees, Jacob Carbuhn, Carl Rothwisch and Geo. Hardenburg; clerk, M.E. Reimer; justices of the peace, Thos. Peterson and John Goetsch; assessor, H.P. Jacobson. No one qualified as constable. George Eichhorn, A.E. Young, B. Geiss and Fred Swengle are among its prominent citizens. According to state census of 1904, there were two hundred and thirty eight persons of school age of which one hundred and twenty were males and one hundred and eighteen were females. The first election in Lincoln was on the same day of the general election in November, 1876. W.A. Clapp was chosen township clerk, H.B. Jack, Samuel I. Pope and Andrew McCormick, trustees and Joseph Battersley, justice of the peace. This is a full congressional township of most excellent land, but destitute of native timber except along the streams. Among the first settlers were: Wm. H. Painter, Patrick Howard, H.B. Jack, W.A. Clapp, Samuel E. Pope, John A. Frank, Elias Yeoman, Christ Dramyer, John A. Chipman, Wm. Linkletter, Geo. Woods, Charles Mamfer, Geo. Roberts, and R.M. Allen. By the year 1882 great progress had been made. In the year 1872 when Mr. Painter came there were neither church, schoolhouse or store, nor bridge but so active were the people that by 1882 there were nine schoolhouses of uniform dimensions and costing $800 each. There were also six bridges, built at cost of the county and costing from $1,600 to $1,700 each. Three of these were over Big Walnut creek, two over Little Walnut and over Graybill creeks.