A few miles west of the Parkersville location, we enter Birmingham, Iowa. It was laid out in 1839. Moving on we cross into Jefferson County.
Shortly we pass the former location of the small hamlet of Collette. It was a station on the Peavine Railroad that ran from Fort Madison to nearby Batavia.
Colette was established in 1887. When train service was discontinued in 1939, the city was abandoned.
An unassuming spot southeast of Libertyville, Iowa has historical significance. After the 1832 conflict that has come to be called the Black Hawk War, this area became the boundary between land titled to the U.S. government and the domain of the Sauk and Meskwaki.
Shortly, we enter Libertyville, Iowa.
Libertyville was laid out in 1842.
In the center of town is a historical marker that reads: “Here passed the Dragoon Trails. Blazed in 1835 by the First U.S. Dragoons under Colonel Stephen W. Kearney.”
These soldiers played an important role in opening the Iowa frontier.
Another unassuming area is about a mile west of Libertyville. In 1838, the Sauk and Meskwaki ceded more land to the US government.
Along the portion of Agency Road west of Libertyville were several small towns: Absecum, County Line, and Cotton Grove.
When the stagecoach picked Absecum for a station in 1855, it was given a post office and the one in nearby Cotton Grove was closed.
The village of County Line was located west of Absecum.
When the Rock Island Railroad put a depot there in 1876, the government selected it for a post office and closed the one in Absecum.
That led to Absecum’s downfall. County Line had two houses, a church, an elevator, a depot, and a post office. The village disappeared after the railroad line closed in 1932.
As we cross into Wapello County, we approach the location of the former village of Cotton Grove.
Little is…
