Lee County, Iowa

County: Lee

State: Iowa

Lat/Long: 40.6500, -91.4833

Lee County in southeastern Iowa borders the states of Illinois and Missouri and contains 528 square miles. Prior to the establishment of the county, the United States government agreed in 1824 to a treaty with the Sauk and Fox peoples which created a reservation for mixed-race Sauk and Fox, (a so-called “Half-Breed Tract”) within the current bounds of the county. In 1834 the U.S. Congress relinquished the United States’ interest in this land, granting title and the ability to sell their lands to the mixed-race occupants of the reservation. This vesting of title set off a flurry of land speculation in the region, and with it litigation over titles to the lands. At the time that Lee County was created in 1836 by being split off from Des Moines County, it was part of the Wisconsin Territory. Courts for the new county were to be held in Madison (later Fort Madison) and Fort Madison was affirmed as the county seat in 1838. Lee County became part of Iowa Territory when that territory was established on July 3, 1838. Ten years later, the Iowa General Assembly split Lee County’s district court functions between Fort Madison and Keokuk, making both cities in effect, the county seat.

Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1997), 525-26; Nelson C. Roberts and S. W. Moorhead, eds., Story of Lee County Iowa (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1914), 1:49, 55-57, 73-74, 78, 83; Charles J. Kappler, comp. and ed., Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904), 2:207; “An Act Dividing the County of Des Moines into Several New Counties,” 7 December 1836, Laws of the Wisconsin Territory (1836-1838), 76-78; “An Act to Establish the Boundaries of the Counties of Lee, Van Buren, Des Moines, Henry, Louisa, Muscatine, and Slaughter; to Locate the Seats of Justice in Said Counties, and for Other Purposes,” 18 January 1838, Laws of the Wisconsin Territory, 381-84; “An Act to Relinquish the Reversionary Interest of the United States in a Certain Indian Reservation Lying Between the Rivers Mississippi and Desmoins,” 30 June 1834, Statutes at Large of the United States 4 (1846):740; “An Act to Divide the Territory of Wisconsin and to Establish the Territorial Government of Iowa,” 12 June 1838, Statutes at Large of the United States 5 (1860):235-41;“An Act Fixing the Times and Places of Holding the District Courts in the First Judicial District,” 24 January 1848, Laws of Iowa (1848), 51-52.