Communities

The present site of the town of West Bend was first settled by Jeremiah Kelly of Ruthven and a young man named Jones. Mr. Kelly built the first frame house in the township on the east side of the river…

The town of Ruthven was started the year the Milwaukee Railroad was built through the county, 1878. Ruthven Brothers, Robert and Alex, owned the land where the present town site is located…

The B., C. R. & N. Ry. was graded and laid through Fern Valley township in 1881. Wm. Thompson had a post office at his farm on section 18 which was called Fern Valley. A man by the name of Rodman of Forest City, an old…

When the Des Moines & Fort Des Moines Railway was surveying through the county, Ellington township voted a tax, but Rush Lake did not. Geo. Inman, who owned the eighty on the west side of the township line and…

A well known physician of Milwaukee owned about 2,000 acres of land in Walnut township where the railroad was surveyed, and he offered the railroad company a half interest in the northwest quarter of section 9, through which…

A town created with authentic Irish roots in 1855 when a small group of immigrants settled along the Des Moines River. The town was named to honor Irish Patriot Robert Emmet, who was executed in 1803 by the English government in…

Cylinder started with a large hay barn built by Brown & Sons in 1885 and the railroad company then put in a siding in order to enable them to load hay. The Browns also built a house the same year and in 1889 John Goeders built a store…

The Des Moines & Fort Dodge Railway Company built through to Ayrshire in October, 1882. P.O’Grady was the foreman of the construction gang from Tara to Ruthven and January 1, 1883, dropped off at Ayrshire as station agent…