Home to a president, a historic highway and Cow Wars

Birthplace of President Herbert Hoover. Photo Courtesy Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

By Judy Baldwin

Cedar County has the unique distinction of being the only Iowa county to produce a president of the United States. In 1874, Herbert Hoover, the 31st president, was born in West Branch, the location of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum and the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Prairie.

History is everywhere in West Branch. Its historic downtown is dotted with 14 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Before the Civil War, areas in and near West branch were stops on the Underground Railroad. Abolitionist John Brown once stayed at a farm east of West Branch. 

 Many of the county’s larger communities, Stanwood, Mechanicsville and Clarence line Highway 30, known as the Lincoln Highway, a highway that stretches across Iowa from its origin in New York to its end in San Francisco. The Union Pacific Railroad runs parallel to the highway.

 Tipton, the county seat, is the largest Cedar County community. Downtown Tipton, with its city square and gazebo, is the quintessential American small town, resembling a scene from a Hollywood movie. Tipton continues to grow, including an expanding business park on the south edge of town.

Tipton was the scene of the first skirmish of the 1931 Cedar County Cow War. No, cows weren’t fighting each other. Local dairy farmers fought the state government, which declared that state veterinarians were required to test cattle for bovine tuberculosis, which could pass to humans who drank infected milk.  Sick cows were required to be destroyed. Farmers received government compensation of only two-thirds of a cow’s value.

 With the intensity of the Great Depression, farmers couldn’t afford the financial loss. When legal means to change the law failed, hundreds of Cedar County and Tipton area farmers gathered on one farm after another to prevent testing. When they pelted local sheriffs with rocks, the governor ordered 1,800 Iowa National Guard soldiers to Tipton and that ended the protests and the Cow Wars.

Cities in Cedar County

Bennett pop. 395
Clarence pop. 1008
Durant pop. 1677
Lowden pop. 794
Mechanicsville pop. 1173
Stanwood pop. 680
Tipton pop. 3155
West Branch pop. 2188