Bancroft County, Iowa, was a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in what today is the northern portion of Kossuth County. The county was established in 1851 by the

Iowa General Assembly The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of Repre ...

, but then abolished six years later. The area was joined to Kossuth County, leading to it being roughly twice the size of adjacent counties. The reason that it became a part of Kossuth County was because the area was wetland, consequently making it unsuitable for farming. Now, only a small amount of the wetlands remain, mostly at the Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge. The remainder of the land is arable by modern farming standards. The county was named for historian and statesman

George Bancroft George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian, statesman and Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts ...

(1800–1891). There never was a county seat established or the organization of a county government.

Background

On May 13, 1870, Crocker County was formed out of the same area as Bancroft County, the 12 northern townships of Kossuth. The county seat of Crocker was Greenwood Center. Many southern Kossuth settlers were unhappy because they did not want the county to be divided, hoping to have the honor of being the largest county. However, it later merged back into Kossuth County when it was discovered that Crocker was unconstitutional as it was under 432 square miles of territory, the minimum according to the Iowa Constitution. https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/TB/1039404.pdf

Attempts of re-establishment

On February 22nd, 1913, legislation was introduced again to create a new county in the northern area of Kossuth. The proposed region would be called Larrabee County named after governor William Larrabee.

References

Geography of Iowa Former counties of Iowa Kossuth County, Iowa 1851 establishments in Iowa 1857 disestablishments in Iowa {{KossuthCountyIA-geo-stub

Background

Attempts of re-establishment

See also

References