TELLS STORIES BEHIND NAMING OF TOWNS IN COUNTY

Only two of nine have kept original name

Compiled by Art and Hazle Draheim,  August 1964

Reprinted with permission by Judge Newt Draheim

Of the nine towns and villages now existing in Wright county, there are only two, Woolstock and Holmes, which have retained their names from the start.  All the other seven have had a change in name from a few months to a few years after they were organized

GOLDFIELD

Liberty was surveyed and platted in 1855 and the courthouse was located there until the fall of 1866. The original plat of Liberty included 16 blocks. Later on when the name was changed to "Goldfield" in 1858, 51 blocks were added to the first survey. Some of the early settlers in and around Liberty were Major Minter Brassfield, W. H. Montgomery, James Franks, Nelson Usher, John Melrose, C. N. Overbaugh, the Bjornsons, Amos Mclntyre, O. C. Mcintosh, John R. Griffin, Daniel Sullivan, and David Dean.

BELMOND

Belmond was first known as "Crown Point." It was platted in 1856 on the west side of the river by William E. Rogers, James M Elder, Archer Dumond and L. H. Cutler. This plat contained 3I blocks. Later Dr. Cutler platted 29 blocks on the east side of the river.  Dr. Cutler proposed to change the name of the place to Dumond, but Mr. Dumond wanted the name "Crown Point" to remain from which place in the East he had emigrated. Finally the name "Belmond" was chosen as a compromise to settle the dispute. Mr.  Dumond had a daughter named "Belle," and the first three letters of her first name were combined with the last four letters of her last name, and thus the name “Belmond" came into being. In our search through many maps and atlases to 1963, we found that Wright County's Belmond is the only "Belmond” listed in the United States, There are many "Belmonts" but only one Belmond. Other early settlers in and around Belmond were the Luick families, Overackers, Wilse, Oliver Whited, W. H. Rogers, Warren Rankin,  Amos and Albert Cummings, Joseph and Aaron Dukes,  Thomas and Charles Sheets, Washington and Andrew Dumond, F. O. Brooks, J. B. Jenison, J W. Elder,  B. Wright, and A. E. Howland.

CLARION

Clarion started out as Grant and was the new county seat, and its new courthouse was built as near the center of the county as possible. The first courthouse was located at Liberty, now Goldfield. The distance from the eastern part of the county along the Iowa River was too far to travel for court business in the early days. There were deep snowdrifts in winter and many sloughs and creeks in summer when most all of them were bank full from frequent rains.  An election was held in 1864 and the supervisors purchased a parcel of land described as the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 11. The original town of Grant was platted in April 1865 by George A McKay, county surveyor. At the October meeting of the board of supervisors, a contract was entered into between them and one, Gilbert Perry, and Wellington Nees to furnish material and erect a building according to plans and specifications, which was to be 30 x 40 feet and to contain four offices on first floor, and a court room on second floor. The price set out was $6,600.00. One thousand and six hundred dollars were to be paid when the contract was closed, $1,000.00 to be paid on June 1. 1866, and the balance upon completion of the building which should be not later than Nov 1, 1866.

At the November 1865 meeting, the county board donated by resolution to the first five individuals, one-half block of ground in the new town of Grant, who should build a dwelling 18 x 20 feet. Gilbert Perry took advantage of this offer and chose lots 4, 5. 6, 7 and 8 in block 15 of the original town plat of Grant. The contractors spent the winter of 1865 and 1866 in hauling material from Webster City and Alden. Also there was rough lumber sawed and hauled from the Boone River while the ground was frozen.  Gilbert Perry built his so called dwelling in the early spring of 1866 so that he and his helpers would have a place to live while they were erecting the new courthouse. The dwelling was built upon lot 6, block 15 which is just south of the present post office. Later, this building was moved to the block west of the courthouse. Then later it was moved two blocks south.

 The town of Grant was started from scratch as there wasn't any settlement of any kind when they decided to build the courthouse near the center of the county.  Nearly two years passed before a real house or home was erected in Clarion. That was when George F McKay erected his house where the present post office is now located. The first residents of Grant were R. K. Eastman and a son, Oliver and a daughter, Cornelia, and George McKay and wife. Mrs. McKay was also a daughter of R. K. Eastman.  All these people lived in the courthouse the winter of 1866. In 1870, the name of Grant was changed to Clarion as there already was a town of Grant in northeastern Montgomery County, about 60 miles east of Council Bluffs. Other early settlers in or near Grant or Clarion were W. W. Gates, W. F. Gibbs, Simon Overracker, Daniel Leonard, William McCormick, Dr. Thos. Garth,  O. T. Nichols, J. D. Oakley, John Pearl, A. R. Ladd, N. F. Weber, W. T. R. Humphrey, I. Q.  Milliken, Hiram Simmons, George Curry, Michael Goslin,  John Burns,  P. R. Henry,  Phillip Doctor, and Charles Johnson.

DOWS

Dows was platted in Sept 1880 when the railroad arrived. The first settlement was called Otisville. The first settler at Otisville was one A. S. Eskridge, who came at the close of the Civil War. William Tutin, another early settler, built a small building in the southwest of Sec 25 where he conducted a small trading post.  When the B C R & N railroad arrived in the summer of 1880, the name of this settlement was changed to Dows in honor of Colonel Dow, a famous promoter of early-day railroads and a heavy stockholder in different railroads. Other early settlers in and near Dows were H. W. Wilson, W. Weldon, A. I. Troth, R. L. Kent, I. C. Phifer, George Alexander, G. H Richardson, E. B. Willix, Mr. Graham, Mr. Jenkins, Silas Palmer, H. J. Miller, John Morgan, C. B. Flindt, H. E Shultz, and H. H. Oberton.

GALT

Norwich, now Galt, was platted in Jan 1881 by the Railroad Town Lot Co., after the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern built its line. A post office was established in Jan. 1882 which was known as Galtville. The name of Norwich was not carried for any length of time on any of the records available. On Apr. 18, 1888, the name was changed to Galt, which was born as a so-called prairie town, mostly for the convenience of the early settlers as a trading center. Some of the early settlers in and near Galt were R. B. and Frank Hanlin, the Pattersons, Ackermans, Axons, Burts, Ogdens, Tibbits, Parsons, Bishers, Boyingtons, Solomon Smiths, Woodleys, and Cundalls.

EAGLE GROVE

Eagle Grove was first platted as Eagle Grove junction in April 1881 on land owned by Phineas Cadwell and by Andrew Wright.  The Railroad Land Co. of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and S. B. Hewett, Jr. platted the town site after the Chicago & Northwestern arrived. The town was platted on the prairie about two miles east of the Boone River where there were quite a number of early settlers scattered up and down the river. Some of these settlers were among the earliest in Wright County namely the Hewetts, Paines, Strykers, Wilcoxs and C. H. Griffiths.

After the railroad arrived in 1881, there was a great influx of settlers to the new railroad junction. The main line of the Chicago & Northwestern continued north into Minnesota. A branch line was built west and north through Humboldt, Sioux Rapids, Hawarden, and on into South Dakota. Among the early business and professionaI men and others were Dr. Morse, Attorney D. C. Filkins, Homer Miller, John Wassem, E. M. Scott, C. A. Schaffter, S. Baker, H. C. Mahanna, J. J. Andrews, W. C. Chapman, G. Hutchings, John Bowes, A. L. Yearous, Packman Bros., Andrew Wright, Worthington Fitzmaurice and the Howells.

ROWAN

Rowan was platted in August 1884 by the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Falls & Western Town Lot Co., after the branch line of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern railroad arrived. However, before the town was platted there was quite a settlement about one and one-half miles southwest of the new plat. This settlement was known as Fryeburg and it was there that the first post office in Wright County was established. The first postmaster was W. D. Hurd. The house in which the post office was established also housed an early trading post. This well-built house is still standing just south of the Bingham park and is occupied by members of the Hiams family. Other early settlers in the Rowan and Fryeburg vicinity were the Rowens, Ballous, Rileys, Duffys, Hiams, Binghams, Eastmans, Emersons, McKinleys and McNeils. Another story about Rowan occurred when the name "Rowen" was sent to the U. S. Postal department for verification, the authorities changed the "E" to an "A" claiming that there was a post office called "Bowen" in Iowa and the spelling of Rowen being similar might be confusing.

WOOLSTOCK

The towns of Woolstock and Holmes are the only towns in Wright County which have kept their original name without any change down through the years. Woolstock Township was first settled in 1858 by Roll Brewer, John Boring and Gilbert Perry. Later came B. F. McDaniels, I. P. Metz, Edward Allen, B. F. Watterman and Louis Bernard. Woolstock was first platted in Jan. 1881 by the Chicago Northwestern Land Dept. and replatted in June of the same year. Some of the first people to engage in business were L. W. Tyrrell, Lewis and Sizey Olmstead and Tatham, Alexander Beshey and Jose Middleton. The first post office at Woolstock was established in 1868 and the mail was received by the stage between Webster City and Belmond. For many years Woolstock was known as "The French settlement." as many of the early settlers emigrated from France.

HOLMES

Holmes located halfway between Goldfield and Clarion came to life when a post office was established in Jan. 1885, just four years after the railroad came there. Isadore Gooder was its first postmaster. He conducted a small general store. Charles Councilman & Co. erected the first grain elevator. Later a lumber yard was established. The Holmes Lutheran church was organized in 1887 by Rev. H. C. Holm. The Baptist church was organized in 1900 by a group of Baptist evangelists who held meetings for two months in a gospel car which was parked on a side track. The town was finally platted by 1895 by Mr. and Mrs. J. Fraser.  Some of the early settlers in and around Holmes were Dave Mowers, I. E Spangler, I. A.  Stroup, Oscar Ulstead. Andrew McLeish. John Langseth, M. W. Jones, Marvin Fox, E. E. Wolf, H. H. Warren, Andrew Anderson and J. G. Johnson. Besides the Lutheran and Baptist churches and the grain elevator and lumber yard which loom up on the horizon, there are three other oldtime boosters for this town, namely The Marion Robinson Manufacturing Co., the Holmes depot, ably looked after for many years by Frank Champlin and the James Stroup Radio and Television repair shop. James, we understand, was born and grew up in Holmes.