Buena Vista County was surveyed in 1855, but not organized until 1858, although the first permanent settlers arrived two years earlier. In 1869, Sioux Rapids was designated as the county seat, a position it held until 1878, when it was transferred to Storm Lake, after a public vote: 908 in favor, 206 against. The arrival of the railroad at Storm Lake in 1870, with none in Sioux Rapids until 1882, and the cost of constructing a new courthouse after fire destroyed the old one were major factors in the decision to move.
Sioux Rapids was an easy first choice for the earliest pioneers coming to our county: the availability of water power for milling, a plentiful supply of timber for construction and heating and the abundance of game for both food and furs being major reasons. In fact, two early surveyors, Lane and Ray, found the area so attractive for settlement that in 1855 they illegally laid a claim and built a cabin in section 12 of Barnes Township and over-wintered there. Abner Bell (1824-1895), the first permanent settler in our county, his sister Catherine and her husband William R. Weaver came the next year. Bell owned some land, but was hardly a farmer. He lived by trapping, selling furs and everyday items from a tiny store, and working for the county, hauling lumber, repairing bridges and serving in a variety of county positions in the early years of our local government.
The 1870 census for Lee Township (which includes Sioux Rapids) shows a total of 302 individuals. The largest number of foreign born, 32, came from Norway, and nearly all the rest, 21, from England or Canada. The largest groups of U.S. born people came from New York state (50) and Wisconsin (34). None of the New Yorkers had older people in their group from elsewhere, whereas many in the Wisconsin group had older family members born either abroad or on the east coast. There were 137 children, of average age six. The oldest Iowa native was Mrs. Hester Mead, age 20.
Fifty-eight of the estimated 83 households were land-owning families, with a total of 30 sons designated as farm laborers. Five more households consisted of farm laborers with families, and eight farm laborers were single, and mostly in their twenties. Five more families were headed by single mothers, mostly widows. The few remaining families comprised a physician, Stephen Olney, three lawyers: Burns, Robinson and Thomas, and a manufacturer called Fletcher Blake (more on him later). A carpenter called Richard Ridgeway and a mill worker, Halvor Halverson, were also present.
The BV County Museum has long had a display dedicated to Abner Bell, with an old book from the Sioux Rapids Courthouse: one of the few documents escaping the 1877 fire. Entries in this book date from 1870 to 1880 and relate to road taxes and expenditures for Lee Township. Bell’s name appears many times, being compensated for days of work as a “hand” ($1.50/day) or as a “team and hand” ($3/day), hauling lumber and repairing bridges. At the back of the book are pencil notes in shaky handwriting (and some mysterious math), likely written by Bell, detailing numerous small expenses paid to individuals carrying out work on Lee Township roads.
Page from Lee Township book detailing road taxes and expenditures.
The book also has an 1870 list of 23 residents of Lee Township, their property tax, and how much was collected. Sixteen owed a total of 24 dollars and 62½ cents, with only nine paying more than $1. Each was assessed two days of road work, worth $3. If performed, the amount was added to the amount collected, for a total of $62.23. In 1871 Frank Suckow supervised Lee Road District 1 and he listed 81 people liable for road tax, with $248 collected out of $276 owed. Even with the great decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, an annual tax of $3.40 per taxpayer does not sound onerous!
The 1870 census lists real estate and personal property values for 53 farmers in Lee Township owning land, for a total of $76,555. At that time BV County land was assessed for tax at around $4 per acre. This makes the average land holding around 360 acres, much greater than the typical homestead plot of 160 acres (¼ section). Looking at the rough distribution of holding sizes, and assuming the $4 per acre valuation is correct, this means there are equal holdings of around ¾ section and ¼ section sizes, and twice as many of around ½ section size as either of the other two categories! Much of the land then was still uncultivated and likely in many cases held for speculation or used for pasture.
Following this background information relating to settlement and farming are now given some details about the lives of a few important individuals during this early period.
Sioux Rapids Press, 1881.
William S. Lee (1827-1908) after whom the township is named, was a wealthy New Yorker who came to Sioux Rapids in 1858, staked a very early claim, and soon controversially acquired around 60,000 acres of “swamp land” at 16¢ per acre. For this he was contracted to build a courthouse and construct a bridge over the Little Sioux River, but never did. He sold large amounts of this land, but after years of legal action, Lee and his purchasers lost all their claims in 1882 in a final case against them. Lee returned to New York in 1863 to educate his children, returning in 1868 to find his early claim had been “jumped” by a William Fuller. In 1870, after reversal of an earlier decision, Fuller was allowed to keep his land, in a protracted case finally decided by the US Secretary of the Interior. This case attracted much local attention: action by Fuller’s friends outweighing Mr. Lee’s greater wealth. Lee was an important economic and political figure early in county history, though lawyer Robinson writes of him in the Pilot newspaper in 1870 as a carpet-bagger who narrowly escaped lynching two years earlier.
Fletcher Americus Blake (1834-1907) was born in Fairfield PA and served with bravery in the Civil War from 1861 to 1863, rising in rank from second sergeant to Colonel. He homesteaded at Okoboji and married Julia Prescott there in 1864. In 1868 he built the first frame house in Sioux Rapids, and with T.W. Twiford the first flour mill in the county, using the Little Sioux River for water power. His mill also operated as a saw mill. In the 1870 census he is listed as a manufacturer with real estate worth $4,500. Blake was the first postmaster in Sioux Rapids and the first person from the county to be elected to the Iowa House, serving in the 1872 session. That year he sold his mill and moved to Denver for health reasons.
David Evans (1837-1906) and his brother Thomas were two of the earliest Welsh-born pioneers in Buena Vista County. David married Sarah Lewis, and Thomas her older sister, Martha. The girls were born on a farm in S. Wales and came to the US with their parents in an old sailing boat that took 36 days to cross the Atlantic. In 1869 David and lawyer D. C. Thomas bought out the Ridgeway homestead and the present town of Sioux Rapids was platted out. On the Lee 1870 census, David is a substantial landowner and also blacksmith (the first in our county). He was in this business with his son-in-law H. W. Mayne until 1881. In 1889 he sold his remaining town lots to buy a farm in Clay County near Linn Grove. During the 50th anniversary for Sioux Rapids, on July 4th 1905, Evans rode together in the “Historic Parade” with his 89 year old, long time buddy, Johnny Burr (1816-1913), another ex-soldier pioneer hunter-trapper and faithful attendant at Abner Bell’s deathbed in 1895. The Evans and their wives are buried at Linn Grove, with many other Welsh pioneers.
Johnny Burr (1816-1913), ex-soldier, pioneer, trapper and friend of Abner Bell.
The strong Norwegian heritage of Sioux Rapids and its surrounding area is well known. In 1866, Lars and Fred Suckow and Henry Steen and their families arrived there with others in “Prairie Schooners”. When William Lee returned in 1869, Knudt Stennerson, O.A. Reng, Christian Johnson and Henry and Ole Gullickson families came with him, brought, it is said, to add to his political support. Many of these names remain in 1885 and later censuses, indicating these people came to stay, mostly to farm, unlike some others who came as land speculators.
Lars J. Suckow (1825-1896) became a shoemaker in Sioux Rapids. His son Nelson Suckow (1854-1943) was born in Decorah, and came to BV County at age 11. He worked on a Missouri riverboat, the “Black Hills”, married a Norwegian lady, and became J. P. and mayor of Sioux Rapids. He was personally acquainted with Abner Bell, finding him not illiterate, as others claimed, but poor in writing and spelling (as evidenced in the museum’s book). Nelson’s “Brief History of Lee Township” (Storm Lake Register, Sept. 1923) has further interesting details of early BV County history.
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