It was over 160 years ago that the first white people came to this area. Before that time the Pottawattami, Ottawa, and Chippewa Indian Tribes roamed the land. During the year 1846 the Pottawattamies sold their lands to the government by the treaty of June 5, 1846 they relinquished this territory and removed to Kansas.

Hardly had the Indians left when the Mormon wave rolled in, having been expelled from Nauvoo. This people seems to have been victims of a most relentless persecution, commencing back in the '30s at Kirtland, Ohio, where they had organized and built their temple.
Up to this time and later the country had not been surveyed and consequently the occupants had only a squatter's title, but this was good as long as they occupied it, and a quit claim was a valuable asset to a purchaser provided he continued to occupy it in good faith.
This applied to the farming community as well as that of the city, and "jumping" one's claim was a dangerous proceeding.

At this time the whole of Pottawattamie county, which was much larger than at present, as well as considerable adjoining territory, was under exclusive control of the Mormons. They made public sentiment, controlled election of all public officers, and representatives of their faith sat in two sessions of the state legislature.In 1849 the great wave of California immigration set in, and hundreds of trains and thousands of men assembled here and camped while laying in supplies, and Kanesville became a great outfitting point, and the merchants reaped a rich harvest. The farms furnished abundance of grain, while steamboats arrived almost daily with large stocks of goods for the merchants, and the rush was so great that at times emigrants had to wait for days for their turn to be ferried across the river. Not only that, but the Mormons saw money in it and proceeded to establish ranches along the trail, and ferries across the rivers.

This great movement of the California immigration in connection with the gradual exodus of the Mormons soon wrought a great change in affairs. Some of the emigrants, on seeing the wonderful fertility of the soil, with its fine groves of timber along the streams, changed their minds, traded part of their outfits to the Mormons for their claims and settled here permanently. Also there were many Mormons who considered Brigham Young an usurper, and young Joseph the true prophet. These rejected the doctrine of polygamy and those that remained here organized churches, which they still maintain, and are as good an element as we have in the present community.

This, with the natural influx of Gentiles, so changed matters that its character as a Mormon community was lost forever. In fact, their whole doctrine, religiously and politically, being contrary to all our traditions and teaching, could only be temporary.
Whether this change was morally beneficial is debatable. Under the old dispensation -the saloon, gambling and "bawdy house were not tolerated, but now blossomed out in full vigor, and as there were no state laws or city ordinances in force (at least not more than at present), in fact, the city was what would now be called a wide-open town.

The first settler in the Macedonia Township was Thomas Jefferson Ring. He was born in Massachusetts May 24, 1804. Came west and reached Louisiana, Missouri, in 1848, and came overland from there, and arrived at old Macedonia May 1, 1848, in time to raise a crop of corn that year.
The next settler after Mr. Ring was one by the name of Jacob Myers, from Ohio, who built a saw mill and then a grist mill in connection with one housed at the old town of Macedonia. This mill was built in 1848 but was washed out in the great flood that followed its construction, and after this Mr. Myers went to Michigan, and was lost sight of. Previous to this, however, J. B. Stutsman, of the firm of Stutsman & Donnel, (the latter being at St. Joseph) one of the first merchants of Council Bluffs, had bought a half interest in the mill and Wm. Martin the other half, and in 1851 they erected a saw mill and in 1853 a grist mill, which was managed by Joseph Z. Losh, an experienced miller, for a year and by others until another flood in 1861 which took the second mill out and the site was abandoned. But for a long time before and after the place was called Macedonia it was called Stutsman's Mill.

Old Pottawattamie County was organized Sept. 21, 1848. The first Counblessadurty Commissioners were: A. H. Perkins, David D. Yearsley and George D. Coulton. They held their first session in the house of Hiram Clark in Kanesville. T. Burdick was the first Clerk and also the first County Judge. Alexander McRea was the first sheriff.
When it was first organized it was a very large County and included all of what is now Cass County and parts of all the counties adjoining on the North and South of these two counties as they are formed today. In 1852 it was divided into three Civil Townships; Rockford, Kane, and Macedonia. Rockford was located in the Northwestern portion, Kane in the Southwest portion and Macedonia, the largest of the three, comprised all the Eastern portion.

With the end of Mormon supremacy the people began to look about to see where they were. The county, which was much larger than now, was reduced to its present size, an election held, and A. H. Perkins, David D. Yearsly and George Coulson were elected the first commissioners. The first clerk was James Sloan, and its first county judge was T. Burdick, elected in 1851. The first term of the district court was held May 5, 1851, James Sloan presiding as district judge, with Evan M. Green as clerk and Alex McRae, sheriff. Orson Hyde was one of the practicing attorneys in this court.
After presiding one year Judge Sloan resigned and the governor appointed Judge Bradford, who presided until the people elected S. H. Riddle.

That same year, a mill was erected by Joseph Losh on the west side of the Nishna Botna River, west of Carsons' present location. Here wheat was ground into flour and corn ground into meal then shipped as far away as England. During the Civil War, a four- horse team was used in hauling flour to Council Bluffs, where it was sold for a high price. The mill was shown on the early maps as a land mark.
J. Z. Losh had previously been conducting a mill for Mr. Stutsman when in 1853, his eye fell upon a mill site several miles above that, near the south line of Sec. No. 3. It was here he erected what long afterwards was known as Losh's Mills, and not long afterward, the new town of Carson sprang into existence only a short distance east of the mill. Several families built homes on the hill near the mill. There was a store, post office, and school on the hill, farther west. The mail was routed from Glenwood to Avoca. Losh's Mill (abandoned) was a hamlet on the West Nishnabotna River, near the present town of Carson. It was a post office from 1871 to 1875 and 1878 to 1880. Gradually, people began building on the east side of the river.

The first alumni banquet for Carson School graduates was held in 1905 in the Masonic Hall. The following is an excerpt from the records: "About 50 persons were present, consisting of the graduates from 1892 to 1905, with their husbands and wives and the present teachers of the school."

This Christian church appears to stand at the corner of Locust and Broadway,early 20th century.

Carsons' first school, built in 1882, burned down on Thursday, Dec. 6, 1906


A photo dated 1908 showing the Christian and Presbyterian churches in Carson.