THE DREAM OF A TOWN The Town Name Many stories are told about the name of the town of Steamboat Rock. The only thing we can be certain of in these stories is that the town has had two names in it‘s history that of “Lithopolis,” and “Steamboat Rock.” No information […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN Growing Through Adversity Farmers anywhere and at anytime find weather to be a great leveler. Our pioneer forefathers were nearly all farmers. Even more than today these early farmers were at the absolute mercy of the weather and his life could be made miserable by […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN Sawmill And Grist Mill A mill was built in Steamboat Rock immediately before or right after the laying out of the town. Isaac Lesh, Charles Boyle and Samuel G. Higginbotham, formed a joint stock company and built a Sawmill and dam on the Iowa River very […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN A Dream Becomes Reality According to The History of Hardin County, 1883, Isaac Lesh, Charles Boyle and John Royal called on John Shepherd, the first county surveyor in Hardin county to lay out the town in the spring of 1855. John Shepherd, arrived in the county […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN Who Were These Men It is difficult to contemplate that from creation to just under 150 years ago the prairie lay unchanged by man ormachine. It is especially overwhelming when we realize that the red man had been here for an equal period of time […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN The town of Steamboat Rock, now, a small Midwestern town in central Iowa began as many towns small and large in the middle of the 19th century when men and women from all over the face of the earth were seeking opportunity in the new […]

AN UNBLEMISHED LAND A Vast Open Prairie The land of Iowa is predominately prairie, a name of French origin, that means grassland. Our midwest prairie was a mystery to those who first laid their eyes on it. The forest through which they had threaded and hewn their way for two hundred […]

AN UNBLEMISHED LAND The Settlers Life The first settlers that came to Iowa, chose a difficult lifestyle. They had to find a location with accessible fuel and water. Hardin county and Clay township offered the timber and river to fulfill both. They also wanted company and the security of numbers, so […]

AN UNBLEMISHED LAND Clay Township Clay township in which Steamboat Rock would lie, comprises Congressional township 88 north, of range 19 west, of the 5th principal meridian. Clay township was organized in October, 1855, and the first election was held in what would be Steamboat Rock. The first officers: Porter Estabrook, […]

AN UNBLEMISHED LAND Hardin County Hardin county was created by an act of the General Assembly approved January 15, 1851. At the time the entire northwestern portion of the state of Iowa was a wild open prairie. What is now Hardin county had less than a dozen families living within its […]