Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988
The definitive history of the community of Anamosa, Iowa, USA
The definitive history of the community of Anamosa, Iowa, USA
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office was located.<br />
This had to be done locally, and so it was, in 1848,<br />
after the city fathers discussed the changing of the<br />
name of the town of Lexington. I where the county seat<br />
had been located in June, 1847), they then consulted<br />
the three-man county Board of Commissioners. The<br />
members met in a small addition at the rear of the<br />
Wapsi House — G.H. Ford's "tavern" — before the<br />
courthouse was built. Rockwell also had his office<br />
there. After talking the matter over, the commissioners<br />
decided that it was not in their job description,<br />
whereupon 28 of the settlement's leaders petitioned the<br />
court.<br />
It was reported in the November 29, I877, issue of the<br />
<strong>Anamosa</strong> Eureka, that this petition had been found in<br />
the Jones County Auditor's office. Recently this writer<br />
requested that a diligent search be conducted, as time<br />
permitted, for this document.<br />
Alas, it was not found. Either an over-zealous officer<br />
saw fit to clean out ‘useless debris‘, in the intervening<br />
110 years; it was privately removed by an<br />
unscrupulous person, or persons: or it may have been<br />
lost by fire which partially burned a building where<br />
courthouse records were stored in the 1880s. In any<br />
case. the petition was included in the aforementioned<br />
newspaper article. It may not be out of place here to<br />
point out the errors of the Jones County Histories. of<br />
1879 and I910. which state that Judge T.S. Wilson<br />
allowed the changing of the name. Actually, it was<br />
Judge James Grant who signed the Order granting the<br />
request in the September 1848 term of court. Judge<br />
Wilson was the territorial judge. After Iowa became a<br />
State in 1846, Judge Grant was elected to serve as first<br />
district courtjudge.<br />
“Where is it? What's the name of this town, anyway?<br />
The petition, as given in the article, reads, "Whereas,<br />
it is well known that there is a town in one of the<br />
southern counties of this state of the same name of this<br />
our county seat (Lexington), and also one in the north<br />
part of Missouri, also in the western part of Illinois — to<br />
which places many of the letters and papers intended<br />
for this place are sent, through mistake, or carelessness<br />
of postmasters, thereby occasioning great delay and<br />
inconvenience and in some cases. no doubt, resulting<br />
in the ultimate loss of said letters and papers. And,<br />
whereas the name of the post-office at this county seat<br />
is <strong>Anamosa</strong> and we believe that there is no town in this<br />
state or the U.S. of that name; therefore we the<br />
undersigned land holders and citizens of said town and<br />
its vicinity humbly pray the court to order that the<br />
name of this town shall be no longer Lexington, but<br />
that it shall be known henceforth by the name of<br />
<strong>Anamosa</strong>, and your petitioners will ever pray, etc."<br />
Following is the list of signers of the petition: N.G.<br />
Sales, Linus Osbom, A.D. Murphy, G.H. Ford, Benj.<br />
Clough. Luther Reed, L.N. Perkins, D.J. Dunham, Wm.<br />
J. Beeks, C. Craft, Geo. W. Hall, Thos. Emmerson, J.B.<br />
Ryan, P.R. Skinner, E. Booth, J.A. Clarke, Marshall<br />
Turley. S.G. Matson. J .A. Secrest, Harry Mahan, Alfred<br />
Wright. Jacob Lamb, R. Fowler. J.D. Walworth. C.C.<br />
Rockwell, J.D.M. Crockwell and Henry Koffitz.<br />
Accompanying the petition was an affidavit of Pratt<br />
Skinner certifying that proper legal notice had been<br />
published in the Jackson County Democrat, the nearest<br />
paper, dated August l 1, 1848.<br />
Edmund Booth describes how the name.<br />
"<strong>Anamosa</strong>", was chosen. He wrote, "l came here in<br />
1839, when Indians were plenty enough to be often<br />
seen. In the summer of 1840, in partnership with Col.<br />
David Wood, who died the following winter, we errected<br />
a frame house on what is now Brown (Park) Avenue.<br />
east of its intersection with High Street.<br />
“The place had recently been laid out as a town and<br />
named Dartmouth, but the plat was never recorded<br />
and, therefore, the survey amounted to nothing. In<br />
1841. Col. Wood died and Gideon H. Ford, who came in<br />
<strong>1838</strong>, married Wood's widow and we sold him our<br />
ownership in the dwelling.<br />
“Ford moved it to the present site of the main<br />
building known as the Wapsi Hotel, at the lower end of<br />
Main Street and it was used as a hotel for travelers and<br />
boarders until 1849, when it was moved back and the<br />
main building of the Wapsi House was erected: the<br />
structure of 1840 forming the rear portion.<br />
It was about the year 1842, when the original<br />
dwelling stood as above, and before it was<br />
overshadowed by its front and later addition. that I<br />
happened to be in the house one day as three Indians<br />
came in.<br />
"It was evident these Indians were not of the common<br />
order, and this fact excited more interest in us and Mr.<br />
and Mrs. Ford (Hannah Ford was Booth’s sister) — no<br />
other being present.<br />
"We inquired their names. The father's name was<br />
Nasinus: the name of the mother escapes our memory.<br />
It is in one of our joumals somewhere, but we cannot<br />
lay hand on it just now.<br />
"The man and women were dressed mostly as white<br />
people. but the girl. who was about 12 years of age, was<br />
dressed as becomes the daughter of a chief. The name<br />
of the daughter was <strong>Anamosa</strong> and pronounced by her<br />
mother An-a-mo-sah."<br />
"After more than an hour spent in a pleasant way and<br />
having taken dinner, they departed on the Military<br />
Road westward, (the Military Road at that time was at<br />
the mouth of the Buffalo) leaving a pleasant impression<br />
behind".<br />
Booth later mentioned the incident to Dr. N.G. Sales<br />
and others. and when another name was talked about<br />
for the town, the Indian name, <strong>Anamosa</strong>, was recalled,<br />
and chosen.<br />
Sales. after moving to Colorado, sent back a letter<br />
concerning the naming of the post office. "In January.<br />
or February. 1847. we received the intelligence from<br />
the Post Office Department that our application for the<br />
establishment of a post office here had failed on<br />
account of there being another Lexington in the state<br />
and that we must send another name. In casting about<br />
for a name. we ran into Ed Booth who told us of a very<br />
pretty Indian, about 12 years old, who had passed<br />
through here with her parents. Her name was <strong>Anamosa</strong><br />
and her parents had told him that it signified White<br />
Fawn, and that in early times there was a white woman<br />
taken prisoner and brought on to Des Moines who was<br />
called <strong>Anamosa</strong>. She married a chief and had a<br />
daughter who was also named <strong>Anamosa</strong>.<br />
"When Mr. Booth proposed the name, I thought it a<br />
very pretty one. So myself, C.C. Rockwell, and others,<br />
jumped into a sled drawn by a yoke of bulls. and<br />
whacked along by John Thurber, went up near a mile<br />
on south of Fairview to Dumont, who was postmaster at<br />
that place, and posted our application, which was