ANAMOSA is an incorporated town and the county seat of Jones county. It is located at the confluence of Buffalo Creek with the Wapsipinicon. The Buffalo is a stream of some forty miles in length, furnishes many good mill sites in its course, and is for many miles up well wooded. Its Indian name was Paw-cau-law-quickee, meaning Black Walnut River. The DuBuque Southwestern Railroad, opened for travel in 1859, passes through this place, and is the chief means of transportation. The chief shipping point is DuBuque, 50 miles distant.
In 1840 the first house was built in Anamosa, and probably the first frame house in the county. This was erected by E. Booth, the present, and for eight years past, the editor of the Anamosa Eureka, and Col. David Wood. The first named came in the summer of 1839, the second in the spring of 1840. They were brothers-in-law. In 1841 Mr. Booth sold to Mr. Ford his interest in the frame dwelling mentioned above. Mr. Ford removed the building a quarter of a mile, and occupied it as a public house; being on the military road leading from DuBuque to Iowa City, and this being the only point on the Wapsipinicon that was bridged, (the bridge being built by a Congressional appropriation,) it had a good run of custom.
Forty acres near Anamosa had been surveyed and laid out in 1839 for a town, and it was on this that Booth and Wood built the first house. The place was named Dartmouth, but when the only house was removed the place was totally neglected, and sunk into oblivion. About 1845, or '46, some twenty acres owned by Harry Mahin and John Crockwell, then a cornfield, and joining the plat termed Dartmouth, was laid off by the owners and christened Lexington. This Lexington was a small lot wedged in between Dartmouth and the forty acres, on which Ford's public house was built. On this new paper town of Lexington a Mr. Madeira, uncle of John Crockwell, constructed a frame building which still stands in good repair. This was the first store in the place, and was under the charge of John Crockwell, subsequently a physician, and now practising his profession at or somewhere near Sioux City. Iowa. In this year or the next, Crockwell and Harry Mahin, in partnership, bought out Madeira, the latter removing to California.
On the removal of the county seat to Lexington in 1847, the County Commissioners assembled and ordered a sale of lots donated to the county by Mr. Ford. These brought $800, and the amount was turned over to him on condition that he build a Court House. This was done, and he also added a two-story front to his own house, which was henceforth known as the Wapsipinicon House. From this time the town progressed slowly until the railway prospects of later years gave it a fresh impetus.
Lexington was so common a name that it caused delay and loss in the transmission of mail matter; a petition to the District Court effected a change to that of Anamosa, which signifies “white fawn.”
A few years subsequent to the removal of the county seat to this place, C. L. D. Crockwell, brother to John, removed here and built a new public house—the Anamosa House. In 1854, there were about a dozen stores beside mechanic shops, and for a new country the place was thriving. The first newspaper in the county was started here in 1852 by William Haddock, and called the Anamosa News. It was a little six column sheet published weekly on an old press with type nearly worn out. In politics it was neutral; the owner and editor a Democrat. When the bill for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise came up, the News took decidedly Republican ground. Some months later, the Democrats bought out Haddock and changed the name of the paper to the Anamosa Bulletin, afterward again altered to Anamosa Gazette. It has had several editors. The last was C. L. Hayes.
In 1856, a few Republicans started, the Anamosa Eureka, John E. Lovejoy, editor and proprietor; he was a brother of Owen and Elijah P. Lovejoy. He soon abandoned it however, and returned to his farm. C. L. D. Crockwell then became the proprietor, and E. Booth, editor. In 1858, E. Booth and Matthew Parrott, puchased the office for $2,000. In December, 1862, Parrott sold out to Booth. The Eureka still lives and flourishes.
Anamosa has and has had two flouring mills for some twenty years; each has three run of stone, and is three stories high. There are also a saw mill and similar mills within a few miles. An immense water power is awaiting the time when it will be turned to account in woolen factories, paper and other mills.
There are four church edifices in Anamosa, one Congregational, (brick,) one Methodist, one Episcopal, one Catholic, (brick.) There is also a graded school, having 200 scholars, with a Principal and three assistant teachers. The County Agricultural Society, some twenty years old, has grounds and buildings near town, and is in a flourishing and most satisfactory condition.
The town contains Anamosa Lodge A. F. & A.M., No. 46; Anamosa Lodge I. O. O. F., No. 46; two furniture manufactories, one broom factory, one fanning mill factory, one brewery, two photograph establishments, two hotels—the Fisher House, a three story brick of large size, kept by R.U. Fowler, and the Anamosa House, kept by B. Chaplin. At the depot are a grain elevator with a capacity of 15,000 bushels, and other warehouses. The other business of the place comprises one banking house, two drug stores, one jewelry store, one large clothing store, nine general dry goods and grocery stores, two tin and stove shops, two harness shops, five or six shoe shops, four blacksmith shops, two wagon and carriage factories, three cooper shops, one flour and meal store, two merchant tailors, and two milliners.
The town has a population of 1,000 inhabitants. (Hair's Iowa State Gazetteer..., 1865)