The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1916-03-09
CHAP. IV.-COuNTY SEAT.

CHAP. IV.--COUNTY SEAT.
We have on file in our library in
disputable evidence of the fact that
Oliver Goldsmith, an English poet
from Ireland, is the author of the fol-
lowing lines. critics and muck-rakers
to the contrary Notwithstanding:
Sweet Auburn, loveliest village Of
the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the
laDoring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest
visits paid,
And parting summers lingering
bloom delayed
But with all the poets beautiful
words, and the untiring energies of
the early settlers of the neighbor-
hood, Sweet Auburn" of Mahaska
county history could not cut the mus
tard. That is to say, you know, the
heartless commissioners who came
upon the scene for that purpose, by
order of the Legislature, would not
let them have the county seat located
there.
= - =:
Our Sweet Auburn as recorded
in Horace Birdsall's history of Ma
haska county, Page 26S, Edition of
1878, line ten, not counting the
quotations, was located on six Mile
Prairie" with it's suburbs bathed in
the waters of the Des Moines river,
which ebbed and flowed once in ev-
cry so often after big rain up the
stream. The whistles of the great
cta no
heard in the distance three or four
times a year, and the towns dreamed
Of smoke-stacks, suspension bridges
and sky-scrapers, lowered to heaven,
I'D played hide and seek with the
drifting clouds. But alas! and
alack! Sweet Auburn followed its
namesake into innOcuous desuetude
Or some other seaport around the
golden horn that points to the land
of the sweet by and Nv. And the
deserted village once again reverted
into farm land, although we are told
it did not have far to gO,-ard the
Indian maize laughed itself into vel
low dent on the heart Of the virgin
prairie, and the lowing herd and the
lean sided razor back waXed fat and
rooted every fence post off the place
while trying to lift the mortgages of
the farms.
- - -
Mahaska Center, where fine
country church now graces the land
scape, and where the tallest nag
pole in the new world was once rails
ed, was also a candidate for the
county court house. But it, too
failed, and afterwards the flagstaff
vas taken down to prevent it from
falling asleep and in some unguarded
moment topping over and making
mince meat out of the meeting house
The commissioners, three in mum
Der, were paid two dollars per day
for their labors, and if the country
roads were no better in those days
than some of our side streets arc
now, Messrs. Jesse Williams of John
son county, Ebenezer Perkins OF
Washington county and Thomas Hen
uerson of Keokuk county, earned
their money. Mahaska county as
then constituted comprised all the
land to the northwest as far as any
one wished to venture away from
home, even taking in Fort Des
Moines and Fort Dodge. Soon tir
ing of this arrangement the people
sent Judge NJ. 7. Williams from Os
kaloosa up into the wilds along the
RaccoOn river and ordered him to
take a slice off of the outskirts OF
Mahaska county and make a new
commonwealth in order that some OF
the fellows in Des Moines might re
lieve their itch for office. In this
commission, as well as in the many
others in which he served in an ear,
ly day, the Judge did a fine job and
Polk county owes it's existence to his
aabors. Many settlers have since
rushed into the new territory, until
they now boast of over one hundred
thousand people, all but nine hun
dred of whom are still loking for an
Office. .la .,ai4a,.tg4s,
antrim: -i,,: -b9fIs
But getting back to- that beautiful
May day in 1874, ii was lucky strike
for Oskaloosa when the commission
ers stuck their spade in the ground
and said: Here shall rise the future
capital of Mahaska county" TIL
new site was on what was then
known as the narrows," high ridge
running along between the rivers
and i r. notable fact even unto the
present lay that the rain that falls
on the south side of the public square
finds ii way into the Des Moines riv
er, latter passing through the septic
tank and that which falls on the
north side of the square runs through
the, Gibbs pasture, (according to rec.
ords. several times made In the dis.
trict court) and empties into Skunk
river. via Spring Creek But we
who have come after should always
feel grateful to those good commit.
sioaers who afforded us such a pleas
ART place In which to fight out our