Benton County Historical Society, Vinton, IA

06/18/2026

The Vinton Eagle; January 11, 1867

The committee to whom was referred the matter of locating the proposed bridge across the Cedar River at Vinton report in favor of building said bridge at or near where a line due North from the center of Beckett St in said town would cross said river.
Mr. Kirkpatrick presents a remonstrance of certain citizens of Taylor township, against the location of said bridge on Beckett St. On motion of Mr. Kirkpatrick, the matter relating to said bridge was made the special order at 3 1/2 o'clock this afternoon, and meantime the Board as a body should examine the several sites proposed.
The hour of two o'clock having arrived, the special order being Road Petition No. 70, the same was taken up, and on motion of Mr. McQuin the whole matter was referred to the Committee on Roads and Bridges, to take testimony and report to the Board.
On the motion of Mr. McQuin, and the hour of 3 1/2 o'clock having arrived, the special order, being relative to the location of the Vinton bridge, was postponed until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.
Mr. Treanor offered a resolution, which, being amended by Mr. McQuin, was adopted by the Board, as follows, viz: Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the Board, three of whom shall be members there of, and the other two citizens of Vinton, to superintend, plan, direct and let the job of building and completing a good and substantial bridge across the Cedar River, at Vinton, at a cost to Benton county not exceeding thirteen thousand five hundred dollars.
And the ayes and nays being called on said resolution, by Mr. Summers, the members of the Board voted thereon, as follows, to-wit: Ayes - Messrs. Mc Quin, Springer, Dean, Rice, Treanor, Trueblood, Johnson, Chenoweth, Bergen, Knapp, Lewis, Wallace, Ryan, Kirkpatrick, Burke, Hawley - 16.
Nays - Messrs. Summers, Pegue, McGranahan - 3. And the resolution was adopted by the Board.
Whereupon the Board adjourned to 9 o'clock tomorrow morning.
Jas. McQuin, Chairman

Now-to-wit: January 11, 1867, the Board met pursuant to adjournment. Same officers present as on preceding day, and a quorum of the members...... And now the hour of 10 o'clock having arrived, the special order being the report of the Committee locating the Vinton bridge, and that said bridge shall be built at or near where a line due north from the center of Becket St. Would cross the Cedar River, coming on to be heard, Mr. Rice submitted a motion to adopt said report, and the ayes and nays being called thereon, the members of the Board voted there-on as follows, viz: Ayes - Messrs. Treanor, Knapp, Wallace, Burke, Rice, Kirkpatrick, Johnson, Hawley, Lewis, Bergen, Chenoweth, Summers, Pogue, McGranahan, Ryan and Trueblood - 16.
Nays - Messrs. Dean and McQuin - 2. And the resolution locating said bridge on Becket St. was adopted.
Thereupon, the chairman, appointed Messrs. Treanor, Chenoweth and Bergen, as members of the Committee of five to superintend the er****on of said bridge, as provided for in the resolution adopted yesterday, requiring the appointment of three members of this Board, as a part of said committee.

The Vinton Eagle; January 23, 1867

The committee on roads and bridges reported in favor of granting a license for ferry across Cedar River one and 1/2 mile west of the line between Benton and Linn counties, as prayed for by William Fish et al. and recommending that the same rates of ferriage be established as now exist at the Vinton Ferry except that persons crossing and returning on the same day, shall be required to pay ferriage but one way, but such privilege shall be confined to crossing made on the same day. And that said ferry shall be subject to all the rights, privileges, and conditions as the law requires. And there upon the report and recommendations of the committee was adopted by the Board.

06/10/2026

We had a great program last night at the Depot! Dave Baker spoke about 5 people who lived in Revolutionary War time.
He has a page, "The 29th State", where he posts interesting items on Iowa's history.

06/09/2026

Tonight! Air Conditioed!

06/09/2026

Old Residenter Recalled Start of Belle Plaine
Story by Late Samuel Hart Tells of Beginning of Belle Plaine.

Editors Note: The following is a story appearing in the "Ashes to Elegance" edition of the Union published following the big fire of 1894. It was written by Samuel Hart, an early day resident of the city and the man who donated the money to build the public library in 1931, which bears his name. In this account of early day events many present day readers of the Union will undoubtedly find much to interest them.

Early Belle Plaine
Samuel Hart drove through what is now Belle Plaine, in 1857, on his way from Koszta to Irving. He found at Guinnville the saw mill erected there by John Guinn, in 1856, and Frank Greenlee, still of our city, was located nearby. On the original Belle Plaine site naught was visible but the cabin of Wm. Postlethwaite, who had taken a claim from the government, the next nearest being that of Benjamin Parris, father of W. A. Parris, who was then a boy on the Wentz farm. In 1858 Mr Hart and wife moved from New York City to West Irving. In 1859 he went into the general merchandise business with Levi Marsh, at Irving, and remained there until 1862.
Irving was then quite a place, having perhaps 300 inhabitants, and the farms up the county line were all well improved. On the Graham place, known as Redman, James Graham, father of Charles Graham, who still resides there, had located and was striving to hold the post office against Irving. Thos. Graham, brother of James, and afterward judge of the county with Levi Marsh, built the first frame house ever vacated in Tama county, at Irving. The house still stands in what is known as Hutton's grove. Samuel Hutton having bought the place afterwards. The lumber for this house was sawed at Muscatine, and Messrs. Graham and Marsh harled it with teams, all the way from that place. They slept in the house all one winter without a roof upon it. When the railroad came west of Cedar Rapids and failed to head to Irving, Presley Hutton, then a resident of Cedar Rapids, bought the quarter section which Wm. Postlewaite had entered from the government, which adjoined that of Benj. Parris, and is the territory now bounded by Oak street on the west, the Selden or Kletzing property on the north, the road east of the creamery on the east, and Sherman street on the south. Though entered by Postlewaite, the patent had never been secured, and it had fallen into the hands of a speculator, at Iowa City.
When Mr. Hutton bought it to ease the claim of Postlethwaite, he deeded him a strip of land 100 by 180 feet in size, which strip would now be bounded by Beech street on the east, the alley on the south, Dr. Worley's lot on the west, and Second street on the north. On this tract Mr. Postlethwaite, who was obliged to give up his comfortable log cabin, built himself a frame shack on almost the exact spot where the fire of 1894 originated. Mr. Hutton occupied the cabin. The railroad was graded here then and was pushing on in all haste to reach a point 40 miles west of Cedar Rapids by Jan. 1, 1862, which was essential to obtain a grant offered by the government. The grading across Salt Creek bottom was almost an impossibility, for about as fast as it was pulled up it sank away into the bog and had to be dug up again. The construction crew finally got it to stand after a fashion, and reached the coveted spot, at Plaquemine, where an old sawmill stood on the Parks farms.
It is said to reach the spot and hold the grant the rails were merely spiked at the ends and cars shoved over them by hand, as no engine dared to be put on to them. The perspective site for a town was then at Buckeye, where quite a collection of shanties for store supplies were located, and where the company attempted to secure land. The Mall brothers and Hyrcanus Guinn did not take kindly to the deal and would give nothing, so the representative of the company, a W. W. Walker, came across the big bluff and was met by Presley Hutton and Benj. Parris, who each gave the company 40 acres, for the promise of the depot, to keep it from going across the creek to Plaquemine. In the grant by Hutton, ten acres is what has caused a sight of trouble in our city, as it divides the original plat and Hutton's addition in the middle of the Turnbull block. Mr. Parris' grant was the ground where the round house stands.
The town was laid out and named by the Company, after the Indian fashion, and the sale of lot began. Mr. Hart having sold out his Irving business in the fall of 1862 came to Belle Plaine and bought from Mr. Hutton a lot 90 by 100 feet in size, on the corner of Beech and First streets, and fenced it in.

06/09/2026

Tomorrow at the Vinton Depot, 6:30!

06/09/2026

History of Benton County, Iowa; Vol. II

A. T. Edwards, now retired from active life and residing at Vinton, is a veteran of the Civil war. He was born in Brown county, Ohio, September 2, 1840, and is a son of James and Nancy (Richmond) Edwards. James Edwards was born January 6, 1800, near Maysville, Kentucky, and moved with his parents to Ohio when a boy. His father, George Edwards, had been a colonel of militia in Ohio, and owned some two thousand acres of land in Brown county. He was an extensive dealer in race horses. George Edwards was born in Virginia, and was a son of Jonathan Edwards, who was kidnapped and brought to this country from Scotland; he served twenty-one years, and on obtaining his freedom revisited his native country, but soon afterward returned to Virginia. George Edwards lived in Brown county, Ohio, until his death, at the age of a little over ninety-nine years and nine months. He served three terms in the Ohio legislature. James Edwards lived on his farm of two hundred and forty acres for some time, but later sold it and invested in a tanyard, which he conducted until his death, August 3, 1882. His wife was born, July 27, 1802, in Clermont county, Ohio, and her parents were farmers; she lived at the home farm until her death, February 24, 1848. James Edwards and his wife were both members of the Christian church.
James Edwards and his wife were parents of thirteen children, of whom three survive, namely; John D.; A. T., of Peoria, Illinois; and Maggie, a minister of the Christian church at Rockport, Missouri. The others resided in Ohio until their deaths, except one sister of A. T. Edwards, who recently passed away at his home.
A. T. Edwards was reared in Brown county, and there received his education. He enlisted in 1862, in Company D, Seventh Ohio Cavalry, attached first to Stoneman's Corps and later to the Twenty-third Cavalry Corps. He participated in the engagements at Summerset, Kentucky; Cynthiana, Kentucky; in Burnside's expedition in east Tennessee; Carter's Raid in West Virginia; battle of Bald Hill; battles of Franklin; Burnside's Siege at Knoxville, and Nashville; Dalton, Georgia; and in many other important engagements and helped drive Hood back from Atlanta to Nashville. The last engagement was near Andersonville. He received no serious injury except to his eyes, and was mustered out July 3, 1865, at Nashville and discharged there.
Mr. Edwards resumed farming at the close of the war, and in the fall of 1865 located in Benton county, Iowa, three miles southeast of Vinton, in Taylor township. He carried on this farm until the fall of 1908. He has sold his farm and has erected a home on Elm street in Vinton, just south of the depot.
Politically Mr. Edwards has always been a staunch supporter of the Republican party. He served as township clerk and as a justice of peace and then served twenty-four continuous years as township clerk. He is a prominent member of P. M. Coder Post, No. 98, Grand Army of the Republic, and Mrs. Edwards was for years a member of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his wife are members of the Christian church, in which he has been an elder the past five years.
Mr. Edwards married, in August 1865, Martha J. Brewer, born in 1847, in Johnson county, Indiana; her parents were from Kentucky, and early residents of Indiana. Mrs. Edwards lived in her native county until her marriage. Mr. Edwards and his wife became parents of eleven children, of whom nine survive, namely: Annie C., wife of S. T. Whipple, of Taylor township; Cora Ellen, wife of O. C. Spaulding, of Taylor township; Katie, wife of C. A. Johnson, a mail carrier of Vinton; Scott, a farmer of Eden township, married Lola Bell; Ethel, wife of John Tumelty, of Canton township; Josephine, wife of George Reichard, in the dry goods business at Marion, Iowa; Maggie, Mrs. McName, living in Tama county, Iowa; Jennie M., wife of Earl Race, of Dixon, Illinois; and Walter A., employed in Vinton and living at home. James Ernest died in infancy, and Everett, the oldest child, died at the age of seven years.

05/29/2026

Tomorrow!

Click here to view this article from .

05/21/2026

Cedar Valley Daily Times; June 5, 1950

Gavalas Trial in Continued - Vinton Man Accused of Parking Violations
The trial of Nick Gavalas Vinton businessman charged with repeated violations of the parking meter ordinance, was continued one week this morning by Justice Robert Harder at the request of Gavalas attorney, Don Boddicker.
Meanwhile, Vinton Police said that Gavalas has continued to violate the parking meter ordinance since his arrest some time ago and released after posting a bond of $200. Police said Gavalas continues to ignore tickets placed on his vehicle.
City attorney Karl Fischer said there were 26 violations charged against Gavalas. If convicted of all, he could be fined a maximum of $2,600. The ordinance permits a fine up to $100 for each violation.
The case will be tried before Justice Harder next Monday, June 12 at 1 p.m. City Attorney Fischer said Gavalas could not have a trial by jury because a jury cannot be impaneled to try a citizen for violation of a city ordinance.
Attorney Boddicker could not be reached for a statement, but it was understood that Gavalas defense is that he has not been given a loading zone to be used in connection with his appliance business.

Cedar Valley Daily Times; June 13, 1950

Nick Gavalas Fined for Parking Violation
Nick Gavalass, Vinton appliance dealer, yesterday pleaded guilty to a charge of violating the Vinton parking meter time limit and was fined $100 and costs. Justice R. M. Harder suspended $75 of the fine and 25 of the 26 charges brought against Gavalas were dismissed. However, costs of the dismissed charges were assessed, making a total cost of $90 to Gavalas.
Gavalas has charged that the parking meters are a handicap to him in the conduct of his business because he frequently has need for a free loading and unloading zone. He is one of a few Vinton businessmen so affected.
Sometime ago police began giving Gavalas tickets for over parking until a total of 26 charges had been given.