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The population
of Sac City is now estimated to be 800. The place is one of the most
flourishing in this section of Iowa. The present town officers are:
Mayor, John Alexander; Recorder, Charles L. Early, Trustees: R. H. Lamoreux, Phil Schaller, P. H.
Hankins, N. R. Flack, Jos. H. James. .
In 1856 Sac City was laid out on land
belonging to Hon. Eugene Criss, and was selected as the seat of
government for the county. It is situated on the Coon River, about
five or six miles northeast of the center of the county. The
business part of town lies on level ground, on the first rise from
the bottom lands along the river, while the residences are
principally on 'higher ground, overlooking the business streets.
The town site is handsome and picturesque.
In fact, it would be difficult to find in our prairie country a more
beautiful location for a town. The Coon River, lined by a narrow
strip of bottom land, half encircles the town. Native forest trees
are scattered over the whole town site, so that even the later
comers may have enough shade around their homes to take away the
disagreeable bareness usually belonging to a new residence in a
prairie country. It would be difficult for even the most fastidious
to find fault with the appearance of Sac City, taking its age and
size into consideration.
Sac City was incorporated in 1865, and
Judge Criss, the founder of the town, was, quite appropriately, its
first Mayor. The town is, in every respect, in a prosperous
condition growing rapidly and gaining every season in handsome and
permanent buildings, and last, though not least, it is out of debt
and has money in its treasury.
Judge Criss built the first house in Sac
City. It was a log house and was built in 1855 and is still
standing.
The Sac City Creamery was established in
1879. It was formerly situated one and one-half miles from town. The
proprietor, G. M. Parker, has subsequently built a fine brick
building 24x40 feet, with ice-house 20x32 feet, steam power engine
and washroom 16x30 feet, erected in 1882. The creamery is to be
supplied with all the modern improved machinery. The cost of
construction was about $5,000. It is to be run on the cream
gathering plan. The new creamery is to be known in future as the
Pearl Creamery, and will begin operations in April, 1882.
The classification of business in Sac City
is as follows: General stores, three; groceries, three; dry goods,
one; boots and shoes, one; clothing, one; fancy goods, one;
millinery, three; hardware, two; drugs, three; meat markets, two;
blacksmiths, three; wagonmakers, two; banks, two; furniture, two;
photograph gallery, one; restaurant, one; hotels, two; physicians,
four; attorneys, four; harness, two; livery, two; shoemakers, two;
tailor, one; lumber and coal, two; elevators, three; cigar factory,
one; mattress factory, one; stock dealers, three; saloons, four;
iron foundry, one.
The Court House is 84 x56 feet, solidly
and handsomely built in brick, with limestone foundations and is one
of the best county buildings in the northwest. It cost $30,000. The
first floor is fitted up for the county officers, with vaults for
the county records, etc. The upper story has the court-room,
jury-rooms, etc. With the court-room fitted up for a session of
court there are about 400 sittings, but in use as a hall for
lectures or political speaking, there is sitting room for 600
people. The basement is only partly in use. One room is fitted up
with floor, stove, chairs, tables, etc., and is in use as a jail. A
cage of boiler iron, containing two cells, fills about half the room
and makes the jail a pretty secure one.
On Coon River, adjoining the town, and
only a quarter of a mile from the Court House, are the City Mills,
the property of Hon. Eugene Criss. The mills have three run of stone
(including one for the manufacture of patent flour), and are run by
water power. Judge Criss, in 1857, built a steam saw mill, and in
1862 dammed the Coon and used the water-power for his saw mill. The
building of railroads, and the consequent cheap transportation of
pine lumber, made the saw mill no longer a necessity, and in 1872
the conversion of the Sac City Mill into a flouring mill was
completed and in December of that year the first "grists" were
ground. Since that time it has been the leading mill, and one of the
most important institutions of Sac County, as well as a source of
profit to its proprietor.
Sac city has a very pleasantly situated
cemetery, just at the north edge of town, and on the bank of the
Coon River, but abut ten feet above high water mark. It has quite a
number of native oak trees, and some of the burial lots have had
considerable care bestowed upon them.
Sac City, has but one newspaper, and has
been able to give it a fair living support. As a rule, it is the
fault of the community if the local newspaper is a poor one. Give it
a better patronage and it will be improved. It takes money to make
any kind of business" go." The Sac Sun was first issued July 11,
1871, as a seven column folio, and was enlarged July 1st, 1878, to
an eight-column folio, its present size. It is, and always has been,
Republican in politics. Always among the handsomest papers in the
State, typographically the Sun has also been always carefully edited
and with special attention to those matters which are the life of
country newspaper. Mr. James N. Miller has been the editor and the
publisher during its whole existence, and the Sun itself is the best
evidence of his qualifications for that position.
Sac City had two newspapers for about six
weeks near the close of the year 1877. Kelly & Yarham issued the
first number of the Reporter at Sac City on the 22d of October of
that year, but removed it to Odebolt on the 6th of December. |
