Hamilton was surveyed and platted by J. F. and T. H. Glover, in
April, 1874, on the northwest quarter of Section 10, Township 10, Range 6.
During 1874-75 it was an active, lively place, but after the location of the
county seat to Aurora, the business houses were
moved from Hamilton into the limits of its more successful
rival. Hamilton
consists now of less than a dozen residences and a
schoolhouse.
St. Joe was surveyed and platted in 1881 by Joe Skelton, and for
a few years was an enterprising little burg. The post-offices of Bunker Hill and
Lincoln
Valley were discontinued,
and that of St. Joe established. In 1884 the Burlington & Missouri River
Railroad was built through the west part of the county, and the town of
Phillips
located. The post-office at St. Joe was then removed to Phillips, and most of
the buildings of St. Joe followed. Major Skelton purchased the lots which had
been sold, and July 7, 1886, the commissioners on petition of Mr. Skelton,
vacated the town, and it became a part of that gentleman’s
farm.
Farmers’
Valley was post-office point at this
time, and was the only one off the lines of railroad in the county. It is on
Section 24, Township 9, Range 5, on one of the first farms located in the
county. Lerton, Alvin, Leonard, Case, St. Joe,
Lincoln Valley, Bunker
Hill, Buckeye, Shilo and Otis were post-office points in the
county, but have been discontinued.
A number of country churches
were very early erected by the various religious societies throughout the
county, many of them having regular pastors and a large membership. Of these the
Russian Mennonite (Rev. Peter Regier, pastor) was one of the largest. It was
built in 1887 at a cost of $3,000, and was one of the strongest congregations,
numerically, in the county.
The Danish Lutheran also
had several large societies in the northeast part of the county, with an
aggregate membership of two hundred families. In 1890 there were also four
Swedish, four German Lutheran, one Baptist, one Catholic, one Presbyterian, on
Congregational, one Methodist, one Christian, one Evangelical, and one United
Brethren.
The county in 1890 was
in good financial condition, the bonded indebtedness being small, and a large
portion of that has been provided for by the accumulation of a sinking fund.
While a few “sod” houses still
remained, in those days relics of the early days, the farmers, as a rule, had
good, substantial frame houses and barns, which gave evidence of the thrifty
class of people by whom the county has been settled. Although but twenty-three
years had elapsed since the first homesteader camped on the Blue—the well fenced
farms, fine, thrifty orchards, elegant dwellings and large, substantial barns
compared favorably with those of the best agricultural counties in the older
states, and if the past is an indication of the future, “Little Hamilton” is to
take its place in the front ranks among the agricultural counties of the United
States.