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Chapter XXV
Malaka Township
Pg. 309
Location and Organization - Land Entries
- Personal Tax Valuations - Enterprising Spirit
This is the largest
township within Jasper county. It is situated
centrally east and west and is on the northern line of the
county, bordering on Marshall county, with Mariposa and
Kellogg townships at its east; Newton township on the south
and Sherman and Independence on the west. It has
forty-eight sections of land, and comprises township 81 and
two tiers of section of township 80, range 19, west.
This township was organized in February, 1857, by the
then county judge. The record of its formation is as
follows: "Commencing on the northeast corner of
township 31, range 19; thence west on the county line to the
northwest corner of section 2, in township 81, range 20;
thence south on the section line to the southeast corner of
section 12, township 80, range 19; thence north on the range
line to the place of beginning."
According to the census reports of 1905 taken by the
state authorities, this township had a population at that
date of six hundred and twenty-four.
Robert H. Snyder entered government land in the
northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 23,
township 81, range 19 on November 16, 1852; Greenberry
Bridges, the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter
of section 27, on the same date.
This is one of Jasper county's almost exclusive prairie
townships and is now well developed into valuable,
high-priced farms with a happy, prosperous and contented
populace. However, it is without railroad or near by
town market places depending upon the city of Newton largely
for such accommodations.
This township became the seat of the famous Wittemberg
Manual Labor College, mentioned at length in the Educational
chapter.
The taxes paid on the personal property in this
township in 1878 amounted to $90,680, inclusive of the items
of 849 head of horses; 51 head of mules and asses and 2,333
head of cattle over six months of age. The year prior
to that (1877) the total tax of the township, personal and
realty, amounted to $5,760, while the total valuation was
placed at $370, 400.
Several other items connected with the history of this
township will be found under their proper headings in the
general chapters, including the churches, schools, etc.
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