This is township 90, range 6, and was created Jan. 6, 1851, taking at the same time the name of Richland.  The voting place was the house of Stephen R. Reynolds.
     Richland is in the northwest corner of the county, having on its western and northern boundaries Buchanan and Clayton counties respectively.  Coffin's Grove Township is on the south of Honey Creek Township on the east.  When first settled large tracts of timber were to be found here.  Much of this has been cleared and good farms developed.  North and northeast of what is known as the "Devils Backbone" the surface is rather hilly, so that the country is better adapted to orchard, timber, vineyards, or small fruit culture.  However, Richland, is fairly well settled and her people are prosperous.
     The Maquoketa River enters the county in Richland Township and flows nearly southeast, finally leaving the county in South Fork Township.  Above Forestville the valley for some distance is a rock-walled gorge and this appearance obtains two or three miles below that village.  The affluents of this stream afford plenty of water for stock and good drainage for the land.

     William Turner and his father (name not known) were the first to settle in Richland, choosing for a location a tract of land in the east half of section 22, on the east bank of the Maquoketa River.  They built a sawmill in 1847 and in the year last mentioned Stephen R. Reynolds became a settler here.  Mr. Reynolds had the honor of giving the township its present name.

     Hiram D. Wood located and made preparations for a new home, on section 26, in 1848.  In the spring of 1847, being then nineteen years of age, he enlisted in a cavalry company and served until the end of the Mexican war in 1848.  After his discharge he came to Delaware County and located his land warrant upon the land where he resided so many years.  Mr. Wood was one of the prominent citizens of this community, held a number of local offices and served as county surveyor.  He was the father of a number of children, sketches of whom will be found in the second volume of this work.

     C. R. Davis settled on a farm in section 5, in 1850.  Forty acres of his land contained excellent limestone, which Mr. Davis converted into the commercial product, having at one time three kilns in operation.

     Henry W. Graves came with his parents to Delaware County in 1851, first settling in Colony Township.  Later they took up their residence in Richland Township.  Mr. Graves married Nancy Cuppett in 1866, and in 1867 settled on section 24.

     Franklin Emerson, a native of New York, located in Dubuque in the '40s.  In October, 1852, he came with his family to this township and settled on a farm.  He had previously served as sheriff of Clayton County.

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     William B. Smith, with his family, came from Nova Scotia to the United States in 1850, and in the fall of 1853 located in this township on a farm consisting of 315 acres.  His son Henry is now one of Manchester's prominent business men.

     John Scriben, of Pennsylvania, came with his parents to the prairies of Delaware County in 1853 and settled in Richland Township, where he married Rozella Bliss in 1857.

     George C. Hawley, of Kane County, Illinois, married Aurelia Lake in 1855.  Two years previous, however, he settled on section 20 in this township, where he raised a large family of children and became one of the progressive farmers of the community.

     Edward Rolfe left England in 1851 and first settled in Illinois.  In 1853, coming to Delaware county, he chose a tract of land on section 18 as his future home.  This farm he cultivated and brought to a high state of improvement.  Mr. Rolfe was a veteran of the Civil War.

     E. D. Stone, a Vermonter, settled in the township in 1854.

     S. A. Thompson took up land on section 6 in the fall of 1854 and at once began to improve it.  For many years he was justice of the peace and a member of the Methodist Church.

     Thomas Clark was born in England in 1830.  He immigrated to the united States and settled on sections 14, 11 and 24 in 1854.  In 1855 he married Elizabeth Wharton, who was also born in England.

     John Durham, of Yorkshire, England, crossed the Atlantic in 1828 with his parents, who settled in Lower Canada.  Mr. Durham married Mary Dunham in Vermont and in the spring of 1854 found his way to Iowa, settling on section 13 Richard Township.  At the time there was not a house between his and York.  On his first trip to Delhi to pay his taxes, he stopped where Manchester now stands to get some crackers and cheese but there was none to be had.

     William J. Millett was a pioneer of the '50s, coming from Illinois in 1855 and settling on section 7.  Mr. Millett enlisted in the Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry in 1862.  Returning from the war, he resumed farming and was elected to positions of trust in the township by his neighbors.

     George Hebron, with his family, came from England to this country in 1853 and immigrating from New York State to Iowa, settled in Richland Township on section 1, in 1856.  Here he carried on an extensive dairy business, having at one time forty cows.

     E. S. Cowles, one of Richland's prosperous farmers, entered land in that township in 1856 on which he resided for many years.  He was born in Wyoming County, New York, Sept. 27, 1829.  Through his efforts the Campton Postoffice was established in 1857 and he was appointed postmaster and held the office so long that he had the distinction of being one of the oldest continuous postmasters in the county.  He was sheriff of the county from 1878 to 1881.  He served in the Seventh Iowa Cavalry and now, at the age of eighty-five, is quite vigorous, living at Lamont, not far from the old farm.

     H. D. Cowles was a native of Massachusetts and came to the county in 1854, where he married Sarah Emerson in 1859.  Mr. Cowles for many years was in the creamery business and manufactured both butter and cheese.  He is a brother of E. S. Cowles and was also a member of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry.

THE "STAIRWAY" AT THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE
IN RICHLAND TOWNSHIP

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     William Hebron, also of England, settled in this county in 1857, locating on section 11, Richland Township.

     John Dubois came to Delaware County from the State of New York in 1857 and first settled in Delhi, where he married Marian Walters. He later settled in this township and in 1861 enlisted in the Twenty-first Iowa Infantry.

     John Seward was born in England, immigrated to the United States and settled in Richland Township in 1857, where he first worked as a common laborer for about a year and then rented a farm for himself.  He was soon able to purchase forty acres of land, on which he settled and began to improve.  He broke the forty, fenced it and erected a shanty 14 by 18 feet, in which he made his home for eight years, when a better home was prepared.

     W. P. Sheldon, a native of New York, immigrated from Wisconsin to Delaware County in 1858, where he married Julia A. Smith in 1862.  For many years he held office in the township and was highly respected by all who knew him.

FORESTVILLE.

     Forestville is one of the towns that have been forced to give way to the inexorable laws of the trade.  For some years it was quite a busy little place and drew from a large area a paying clientele.  But that has passed away and today all that remains of the place is a few houses and about fifty inhabitants.  The town was laid out on section 22, in April, 1854, by Joel Bailey, surveyor, for Daniel Leonard, proprietor and the plat was recorded July 15, 1856.

     The first one to settle here was William Turner, who located on the east bank of the Maquoketa River, in section 22.  Here he built a sawmill and in 1847 Stephen R. Reynolds became his neighbor.  The mill was swept away by a freshet in 1851, but immediately.

     William Turner opened a store at his home in 1850 and in the following year he kept the postoffice at his house, the office then having been established.  Mail was brought from Coffin's Grove and Marcus Phillips was mail carrier.  D. Leonard purchased the Turner Mill in 1852, including the claim, and opened a store in Forestville.  In 1853 he put up a grist mill near the sawmill and his days were busy ones keeping up with orders for lumber and corn meal.

     The first tavern in the village was built in 1852 by Charles Hall, who came from New York.  He afterwards put an addition to the house in which he opened a general store.

     In May, 1852, the first schoolhouse in the community was built of logs, on Lee's farm, in the southwest part of the township.  That summer school was opened, for the few children of that section, and was presided over by William Wilson.  The next school building was a better one.  It was a frame, erected at a cost of $300 in 1854.  Elihu Andrews was the contractor and builder.  Part of this large (then) amount of money was raised by taxation and the rest was borrowed of the school fund by H. W. Wood, who mortgaged his land in the transaction.  This schoolhouse stood just outside the town plot on the east side and the school was first presided over by Mrs. Brayman.  Fire destroyed the building in the winter of 1870-1, but the summer of that year saw a new brick building in its place, built by Contractor Henry Doyle, at a cost of $700.  In 1872 Forestville became an independent school district.

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     Rev. John Brown, who located at Rockville and built the first caravansary there, preached the first sermon in Forestville, in the log schoolhouse, in June, 1852.

     At one time there were four creameries in Richland Township.  The first established was by Hiram D. Wood, near Forestville, in the spring of 1874.  Large quantities of butter were made and shipped to the eastern markets.  Loomis & Housman had a creamery in the southwest part of the township in 1875; H. D. Cowles in the western portion in 1876; and John Hollister in the northeast part.

     Among others who held the position of postmaster here were Thomas Hickox, Enos M. Littlefield, Nathaniel G. Luken, Franklin Emerson, Hiram D. Wood, Charles F. Vincent, William H. Church, Henrietta Van Kuren, Walter Moon, David M. Noland, Volney Wheeler.  The first has long since been discontinued and Forestville is scarcely a memory.

DUNDEE.

     Dundee is a small station on the Chicago Great Western Railroad, situate on section 27, just south of old Village of Forestville.  It came into existence a short time before the postoffice was established, which was in 1887.  There is now a population of about one hundred.  The town has a general store, a bank and shops.  H. D. Wood was commissioned postmaster, Jan. 14, 1887.  The names of his successors follow:  Gertie Larrabee, July 27, 1889; Maggie Wood, October 30, 1891; Ollie A. Hazelrigg, December 11, 1894; J. L. Gilbert, September 14, 1897; A. O., Stone, November 26, 1900; Nelson Gilbert, September 11, 1902.

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