Person:Anson Brassfield (1)

Anson? He was the first county treasurer and recorder of Wright Co.,Iowa. His wife Elizabeth donated a half acre for a cemetery.) The latter gentleman building the first house on the town site. In 1858 a spendid two-story building was erected for a court-house, for which purpose it was used until 1865, when the county seat was moved to Clarion.

Shown on the 1856 Census, Wright County IA, Eagle Grove Township including wife Elizabeth and daughter Sarah, age 4.

WRIGHT COUNTY was established by act of the General Assenbly in 1851 and named for Silas Wright, a New York statesman and Governor Joseph A. Wright of Indiana.  The county lies in the third tier south of the Minnesota line and in the sixth west of the Mississippi River.  It is twenty-four miles square and contains five hundred seventy-six square miles.  The Iowa River runs through the eastern portion of the county from north to south and the Boone River flows through the western tier of townships in the same direction.  Excellent borders of timber are found along the banks of these rivers while the land between was, in early days, a vast rolling prairie of great fertility. The first pioneer who made a home in the county was Major Anson Brassfield who, in 1854, made a claim on the banks of the Boone River in what is now Liberty township.  The following year he constructed a dam across the river and built the first mill in the county.  S. B. Hewett, his son, S. B. Hewett, Jr., and N. B. Paine of Massachusetts, in 1854 settled at Eagle Grove near the Boone River where they opened farms.  H. B. Martin settled the same year near the mouth of Otter Creek where he laid out the town of Liberty.  The same year three families located near the Iowa River, not far from where Belmont stands and William Stryker made a claim at Bach Grove.  In 1855 Dr. L. H. Cutler, A. Dumont and T. Oliver took claims near the Iowa River in the vicinity of Belmont.  In July of the same year William Gray, H. Luie and A. Overcracker settled near the Iowa River in the northeast corner of the county.  C. H. Martin located on the Boone River in the northwest corner in 1855. The first meeting to organize the county was held at the cabin of S. B. Hewett in Eagle Grove in the spring of 1854.  At an election held in August the following officers were chosen:  David Dean, judge; C. H. Martin, clerk; Anson Brassfield, recorder and treasurer; S. Crapper, sheriff; S. B. Hewett, Jr., surveyor, and N. B. Paine, prosecuting attorney.  In 1856 John Melrose built and opened the first store in the county at liberty which was the first county-seat.  A town was laid out on the Iowa River in the summer of 1856 by A. Dumont, J. Elder and E. Rogers and was first named Crown Point, afterwards changed to Belmont.  A dam was constructed across the Iowa River where a saw and grist-mill was built by Dr. L. H. Cutler, who also built the first house in the new town.