WASHINGTON, a thriving post-village, capital of Washington county, Iowa, is situated on a prairie, about 30 miles S. S. W. from Iowa City, and 7 miles N. from Skunk river. The Dubuque and Keokuk projected railroad passes through the place. It contains a court house, and several stores. (Baldwin's New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States..., 1854)
WASHINGTON is an incorporated town, containing about three thousand inhabitants, and is situated near the centre of Washington County, eighty miles by railroad from Davenport, at the present terminus of the Muscatine Branch of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, and forty miles from Muscatine, its port on the Mississippi River. Washington is the county seat of the county, and was located and laid out by Thomas Richey, Richard Moore, and S. P. Teeple, Commissioners, (appointed for that purpose by the Territorial Legislature of Iowa,) in June, 1839. Joseph Adams, shortly after its location, erected the first house in Washington, and moved his family there. He was soon followed by Henry Starry and brother, John Dougherty, Ansel Moore, H. A. and George H. Stone, and Thomas Baker. Margaret Adams, daughter of Joseph Adams, was the first white female child, and Henry Clay Adams was the first male child born in Washington. Mr. Connor was the first person who died. Washington did not improve much previous to 1852, since which time its growth has been steady and substantial. It is surrounded by a country distinguished for the quality of its soil and surface, and has always equalled the surrounding counties in the amount of its surplus products, compared with its population. The scarcity of fuel is the only hindrance to its full development in population and manufactures.
There are in Washington one Associate Presbyterian church, two United Presbyterian churches, one Methodist, one Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Congregational, one Catholic, and one United Brethren church. It has a Masonic Lodge, called Washington Lodge No. 26, which meets every Friday evening before the full moon. Cyrus Chapter No. 13, meets the Tuesday evening on or after full moon, and Council No. 4, meets the Friday evening after full moon. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows meets every Saturday evening. There are two manufactories of steam portable mills, all kinds of castings and machinery, and reapers and mowers; one manufactory of agricultural implements, and one woolen manufacturing establishment and carding machine. There are two banks, the First National, and Norman Everson's private bank, twelve dry goods stores, ten grocery and two hardware stores, three stove and tin shops, three boot and shoe, and various other stores and shops. The Washington Press is published every Wednesday morning by A. R. Wickersham. (Hair's Iowa State Gazetteer..., 1865)