Scott County, Iowa history

Scott County's first prosecuting attorney was elected in 1847.

In December, 1849, Scott County was established by an act of the state legislature.

Scott County’s first election was held in 1850, with John Lewallen elected sheriff, Allen McDonald elected county clerk, John L. Smith elected Circuit Court Clerk, Isaac Reed elected Trustee and Riley Chambers elected registrar.

However, it wasn’t until a survey in 1859 — 10 years after Scott County was established — that the exact boundary became certain.

Today, a marker near the entrance to the Huntsville Mall reads, “United States Senator Andrew Johnson delivered a speech at the Courthouse at Huntsville on June 4, 1861, against separation.

The first courthouse in Scott County was erected in 1851. It would be used until 1874, when a new courthouse was constructed.

Chicago, Inter-state publishing co, 1882.

Workers discovered a deposit of clay used to mold bricks, and a brick-making plant was established by the Tennessee Paving Brick Company, which sold its operations in Robbins to the Southern Clay Manufacturing Company in 1902.

One of Scott County’s first elected trustees, Jehu Phillips, wrote in a 1904 edition of the Cumberland Chronicle, “There used to be just plenty of fish in the streams in this county.

A third courthouse was built in 1906 and still stands today.

In 1913, the town was incorporated.

By 1925, construction was nearing completion on the Tennessee Railroad, a 45-mile short line that ran from Oneida to the Anderson County coal community of Devonia.

Another important service, the Scott County Library, started up in 1950.

By the 1960's the Conservation Board had created the Scott County Park System for citizen use.

Huntsville was incorporated in 1965.

In 1979 an administrative form of government was adopted, and the Board of Supervisors hired a county administrator.

In 1994, 50,000 acres of the Koppers Coal Reserve falling partially into Scott County were purchased by the State of Tennessee and the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area was established.

Big South Fork NRRA archeologist Tom Des Jean wrote in the Summer 1996 edition of the FNB Chronicle that hurricanes in Florida spelled the end of a decade-long construction boom.

In 2003, the state purchased an adjoining tract of land, totaling more than 70,000 acres, and established the Sundquist Wildlife Management Area, named for former Tennessee Gov.

By 2006, coal production was again on the increase in the New River Basin and the line was reopened by National Coal Railroad Co., which purchased the line from Norfolk-Southern.

In 2008, a justice center was built to house Scott County’s courts, jail and county judicial offices.

In 2010, National Coal sold the rail line to Jim Justice, a West Virginia coal entrepreneur.