Lake, in order to prevent the flow of water from the lake until it reaches a given level. This was done to promote the fishing interest. Another event worthy of note as occurring during this period is the burning of the courthouse, which took place in February, 1872. The origin of the fire is unknown. The upper story was occupied and used as a school room at that time, and a singing school was held there the night of the fire. The records in the recorder's office were fortunately saved, but those of the treasurer and clerk of the district court were mostly destroyed. At the time it was burned the courthouse was insured in the Mississippi Valley Insurance Company. The company was immediately notified and payment demanded. "This was refused on the ground that the building had been used for other purposes than were mentioned in the policy. Upon the refusal of the company to make payment, suit was brought against them by the county. The company took a change of venue to Clay County, where the case was tried and the county obtained judgment for something over $2,600. The company appealed, when the judgment was reversed and the case sent back for a new trial. Pending the trial the matter was compromised between the Board of Supervisors and the Insurance Company at about fifty cents on the dollar. After the burning of the courthouse the question of removal of the county seat was discussed in some quarters, but the movement was not strong enough to lead to any practical results. An endeavor was made by parties in the south part of the county to prevent rebuilding on the old site, but it was not heartily supported and a contract was let to T. L. Twiford for rebuilding upon the old foundation according to plans and specifications furnished by him. This was done in the summer of 1872 and it was taken possession of by the county authorities the ensuing fall. CHAPTER XXVII. A PERIOD OF PROSPERITY- -POSTOFFICE AT LAKE- TRACT FROM J. A. SMITH'S PAMPHLET THE BUY SEED GRAIN-COMMISSIONERS FOR DISTRIBU TION-$15,000 COVERED BACK INTO THE TREAS- T HAS BEFORE been stated that the period from 1868 to 1873 was a period of the most general prosperity enjoyed by the early settlers. The development of the country was at this time quite rapid. The vacant land. was all claimed under either the homestead or preemption laws and was being improved as fast as the limited means of the settlers would permit. A daily mail had been established from Spencer to Jackson and other mail facilities had been secured in other regions sufficient for their immediate wants. A postoffice had been established at Lakeville, where a lively settlement had sprung up and another one at Silver Lake. All of the congressional townships in the county were organized as civil townships. Schoolhouses were built and educational facilities provided for on a scale of the greatest liberality, and people were beginning to feel that a period of prosperity was opening before them, and were looking forward with high hopes and bright anticipations for the good time coming for which they had waited so long and labored so hard; when they should realize a substantial reward for the many dangers they had braved, the hardships and privations they had endured and the obstacles they had overcome and surmounted. All this was beginning to seem a thing of the past; a new era was dawning which bade fair to gladden the hearts of those staunch pioneers who had devoted the energies of their youth and strength of their manhood to the work of opening up and developing this, one of the fairest regions God's sun ever shone upon, for the occupancy and enjoyment of those who should come after them. But from this dream of happiness and prosperity of growth and development the infant settlement was destined to a rude and rough awakening. The summer of 1873 will ever be memorable in the annals of northwestern Iowa as being the time when that terrible Scourge, the army of grasshoppers first commenced their depredations upon a scale that threatened to interfere to a material extent with the growth and prosperity of the country. The extent of the calamity which befell this country in the grasshopper raid of 1873 to 1877 has never been fully comprehended or understood except by the immediate sufferers. The almost total loss of four successive crops in any agricultural country would be considered a calamity that it would require years to recover from, yet that was just what befell the counties of northwestern Iowa at this period. Previous to this time there had been two invasions of the grasshopper into northwestern Iowa, neither of which did much damage or created much alarm so far north as this county. In 1867 and 1868 they were quite thick in the neighborhood of Sioux City and up the Floyd Valley. That season they came as far north as the southern portion of this county, but it was so late in the season that the damage done by them at that THE GRASSHOPPER INVASION time was inconsiderable. 343 That season they also did a vast deal of damage in Humboldt, Webster, Hamilton and Greene Counties, and other places between the Des Moines and Missouri Rivers. The army grasshopper, or as it is sometimes more appropriately designated, the Rocky Mountain locust, is indigenous to the barren table lands along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. D. A. W. Perkins, in duscussing this question in the history of Osceola County, says: "In Wyoming, western Nebraska, Texas, the Indian Territory and New Mexico, the broods were annually hatched. In their native haunts they attained an enormous size, many specimens being three inches in length. Scientific men who have studied the habits of the grasshoppers state that each succeeding brood degenerates in size and after three or four generations the weaker are obliged to swarm and seek other quarters, being driven out by the larger and stronger insects. These exiles rise and go with the wind, keeping the direction in which they first started, stopping in their flight for subsistence and depositing eggs in a prolific manner during the incubating season, which lasted from the middle of June to the middle of September." The advance guard of this invading army first put in an appearance in this county about the middle of June, 1873, coming from the southwest. The first seen of them was a huge black cloud which was none other than a huge swarm of grasshoppers. Their movements were accompanied by a dull roaring or buzzing sound that terrified the ears. They swarmed in such vast numbers as to obscure the light of the sun, giving everything that weird, sombre look that is always noticed during a solar eclipse. The phenomenon of stars being visible in the day time, by reason of the obscurity of the sun, was observed by many. The buzzing, roaring sound by which their flight was accompanied was ominous of approaching disaster. They settled down on the fields of growing grain in such numbers that it soon became evident that nothing could escape their ravages. They semed endowed with an intuition or unerring instinct that directed them to the nearest grain fields, no matter in which direction they were located. If by chance they happened to alight on the uncultivated prairie a movement would immediately commence in the direction of the nearest growing fields. Their first appearance was alarming and their devastations were appalling. These grasshoppers had crossed the Missouri River and commenced foraging in the bordering Iowa counties, devouring everything as they went. By harvest time there was but little left to harvest and that of an inferior quality. The grasshoppers deposited their eggs in countless numbers. The greater portion of the land under cultivation was thoroughly impregnated with them. Land that had been cleared of all vegetation suited them best. In such places the number of eggs that would be deposited on a given surface was thoroughly astounding. These eggs were in cells containing from twenty-five to fifty each and were deposited about half an inch beneath the surface. They were deposited in the late summer and early fall months and remained on the ground during the winter, when they were hatched out in the spring by the warm rays of the sun acting upon the sandy surface of the ground. The more sand in the soil the earlier they hatched out and the more vigorous the "hoppers." The following extracts from J. A. Smith's pamphlet on northwestern Iowa conveys a very intelligent idea of the situation: "Early in the spring of 1874 the eggs deposited the season before commenced hatching and the soil looked literally alive with insignificant looking insects a quarter of an inch in length but possessing great vitality and surprising appetites. As if by instinct their first movements were toward the fields where tender shoots of grain were making their modest appearance. Sometimes the first intimation a farmer would have of what |