Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

office was located.
This had to be done locally, and so it was, in 1848,
after the city fathers discussed the changing of the
name of the town of Lexington. I where the county seat
had been located in June, 1847), they then consulted
the three-man county Board of Commissioners. The
members met in a small addition at the rear of the
Wapsi House — G.H. Ford's "tavern" — before the
courthouse was built. Rockwell also had his office
there. After talking the matter over, the commissioners
decided that it was not in their job description,
whereupon 28 of the settlement's leaders petitioned the
court.
It was reported in the November 29, I877, issue of the
Anamosa Eureka, that this petition had been found in
the Jones County Auditor's office. Recently this writer
requested that a diligent search be conducted, as time
permitted, for this document.
Alas, it was not found. Either an over-zealous officer
saw fit to clean out ‘useless debris‘, in the intervening
110 years; it was privately removed by an
unscrupulous person, or persons: or it may have been
lost by fire which partially burned a building where
courthouse records were stored in the 1880s. In any
case. the petition was included in the aforementioned
newspaper article. It may not be out of place here to
point out the errors of the Jones County Histories. of
1879 and I910. which state that Judge T.S. Wilson
allowed the changing of the name. Actually, it was
Judge James Grant who signed the Order granting the
request in the September 1848 term of court. Judge
Wilson was the territorial judge. After Iowa became a
State in 1846, Judge Grant was elected to serve as first
district courtjudge.
“Where is it? What's the name of this town, anyway?
The petition, as given in the article, reads, "Whereas,
it is well known that there is a town in one of the
southern counties of this state of the same name of this
our county seat (Lexington), and also one in the north
part of Missouri, also in the western part of Illinois — to
which places many of the letters and papers intended
for this place are sent, through mistake, or carelessness
of postmasters, thereby occasioning great delay and
inconvenience and in some cases. no doubt, resulting
in the ultimate loss of said letters and papers. And,
whereas the name of the post-office at this county seat
is Anamosa and we believe that there is no town in this
state or the U.S. of that name; therefore we the
undersigned land holders and citizens of said town and
its vicinity humbly pray the court to order that the
name of this town shall be no longer Lexington, but
that it shall be known henceforth by the name of
Anamosa, and your petitioners will ever pray, etc."
Following is the list of signers of the petition: N.G.
Sales, Linus Osbom, A.D. Murphy, G.H. Ford, Benj.
Clough. Luther Reed, L.N. Perkins, D.J. Dunham, Wm.
J. Beeks, C. Craft, Geo. W. Hall, Thos. Emmerson, J.B.
Ryan, P.R. Skinner, E. Booth, J.A. Clarke, Marshall
Turley. S.G. Matson. J .A. Secrest, Harry Mahan, Alfred
Wright. Jacob Lamb, R. Fowler. J.D. Walworth. C.C.
Rockwell, J.D.M. Crockwell and Henry Koffitz.
Accompanying the petition was an affidavit of Pratt
Skinner certifying that proper legal notice had been
published in the Jackson County Democrat, the nearest
paper, dated August l 1, 1848.
Edmund Booth describes how the name.
"Anamosa", was chosen. He wrote, "l came here in
1839, when Indians were plenty enough to be often
seen. In the summer of 1840, in partnership with Col.
David Wood, who died the following winter, we errected
a frame house on what is now Brown (Park) Avenue.
east of its intersection with High Street.
“The place had recently been laid out as a town and
named Dartmouth, but the plat was never recorded
and, therefore, the survey amounted to nothing. In
1841. Col. Wood died and Gideon H. Ford, who came in
1838, married Wood's widow and we sold him our
ownership in the dwelling.
“Ford moved it to the present site of the main
building known as the Wapsi Hotel, at the lower end of
Main Street and it was used as a hotel for travelers and
boarders until 1849, when it was moved back and the
main building of the Wapsi House was erected: the
structure of 1840 forming the rear portion.
It was about the year 1842, when the original
dwelling stood as above, and before it was
overshadowed by its front and later addition. that I
happened to be in the house one day as three Indians
came in.
"It was evident these Indians were not of the common
order, and this fact excited more interest in us and Mr.
and Mrs. Ford (Hannah Ford was Booth’s sister) — no
other being present.
"We inquired their names. The father's name was
Nasinus: the name of the mother escapes our memory.
It is in one of our joumals somewhere, but we cannot
lay hand on it just now.
"The man and women were dressed mostly as white
people. but the girl. who was about 12 years of age, was
dressed as becomes the daughter of a chief. The name
of the daughter was Anamosa and pronounced by her
mother An-a-mo-sah."
"After more than an hour spent in a pleasant way and
having taken dinner, they departed on the Military
Road westward, (the Military Road at that time was at
the mouth of the Buffalo) leaving a pleasant impression
behind".
Booth later mentioned the incident to Dr. N.G. Sales
and others. and when another name was talked about
for the town, the Indian name, Anamosa, was recalled,
and chosen.
Sales. after moving to Colorado, sent back a letter
concerning the naming of the post office. "In January.
or February. 1847. we received the intelligence from
the Post Office Department that our application for the
establishment of a post office here had failed on
account of there being another Lexington in the state
and that we must send another name. In casting about
for a name. we ran into Ed Booth who told us of a very
pretty Indian, about 12 years old, who had passed
through here with her parents. Her name was Anamosa
and her parents had told him that it signified White
Fawn, and that in early times there was a white woman
taken prisoner and brought on to Des Moines who was
called Anamosa. She married a chief and had a
daughter who was also named Anamosa.
"When Mr. Booth proposed the name, I thought it a
very pretty one. So myself, C.C. Rockwell, and others,
jumped into a sled drawn by a yoke of bulls. and
whacked along by John Thurber, went up near a mile
on south of Fairview to Dumont, who was postmaster at
that place, and posted our application, which was