Ida County
IDA COUNTY

Ida county was created in 1853 by act of legislature, and organized in 1858. Ebenezer Comstock and family came to this county in May, 1856, from Lake City, Ia., and were the first permanent settlers in Ida county. Mr. Comstock brought with him $3,000 in gold, and bought a farm along the river. The village of Ida was laid out in 1871, and a court house built there in 1872. In 1877 the Northwestern road from Wall Lake to Mapleton was built, and the town of Ida Grove laid out. The county has now a population of 11,933, of whom some over 700 are of Swedish descent.

The Swedes in Ida county are nearly all farmers, and reside mainly in the southeastern part of the county where the Kiron settlement extends some distance into Ida county. The description of this settlement under Crawford county applies therefore also to a great extent to its overflow into Ida county. A considerable number of Swedish farmers are also located in the eastern part of Ida county near Arthur, a small town on the Northwestern line between Ida Grove and Odebolt. It was platted in 1885, and received its name from a country postoffice already established in the home of Alexander Jacobs, a mile west of the town site. John Hoaglund built the first store in Arthur, and a Mr. Larson established the first hardware store in town. Arthur has now a population of 250. Two of its business men, one of whom is also postmaster, are of Swedish origin, and a half dozen Swedish families reside in town. A Swedish Baptist Church is located four miles south of Arthur, about six miles northwest of Kiron. A Mission Church was organized in the southeastern part of Ida county in the early eighties and a church building was erected near the Sac county line, but the building was sold in 1908, the members uniting with the Mission Church at Odebolt.


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