Taylor County, Iowa part of Genealogy Trails

County History

TAYLOR COUNTY was created in 1847 and first attached to Pottawattamie. It lies on the Missouri State line in the third tier east of the Missouri River and contains five hundred forty-eight square miles. The surface is rolling and the principal streams are bordered by woods.
The Platte, East Nodaway and West One Hundred and Two rivers and many smaller streams flow through the county in a southwesterly direction.
The name " One Hundred and Two " was given to the river in early days by a party of surveyors who were running a line for a military road from some point in Missouri. The place where their line struck this branch of the Platte was one hundred and two miles from the starting point. The first white family known to have settled in the county was that of Jonah Reed who took a claim near the Page County line in 3844. Stephen H. Parker took a claim in the county in 1846. In 1851 the population had reached three hundred ninety-three and Elisha Parker was appointed to take steps to organize a county government.
At an election held in February the following officers were chosen: Jacob Ross, Levi L. Hayden and Daniel Smith, commissioners; John Hayden, clerk;
H. Bennington, probate judge; John Hayden, treasurer and recorder; and J. B. Campbell, sheriff.
Most of the early settlers lived in the southern part of the county in the disputed territory, supposing they were in Missouri. Although they owned no slaves, on account of their poverty, they were strong advocates of the system. They lived in the rudest log cabins and subsisted on pork, corn dodgers, whisky and coffee- and such small game as the country afforded.
The first term of court was held at the cabin of Jacob Ross by Judge Sloan in September, 1851. The first attorney in the county was Benjamin Rector who became a prominent lawyer. He raised a company for the Fourth Iowa Cavalry in the War of the Rebellion, was promoted to major, taken prisoner and died at Helena in January, 1863.
Commissioners were appointed to locate the county-seat in 1852 and selected a site on the west bank of East One
Hundred and Two River where, by order of the county judge, a town was laid out and named Bedford.
O. W. Tenno erected a double log cabin, the first in the town plot, which was used for a store and dwelling for many years.
The first newspaper in the county was established in February, 1858, by Joseph H. Turner at Bedford and named the Iowa South West.
The Burlington Railroad has a branch running from Creston through Bedford and Taylor County.
The county was named for General Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President of the United States.

Gue, Benjamin F., History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth, New York, 1903 [Transcribed by: Candi H. 2008]