December 18, 2006: “The oldest courthouse in continuous use in the state of Iowa” will continue to be so if Lee County Supervisor Ron Fedler has his way.
According to both the Burlington Hawk Eye and Fort Madison Daily Democrat, one Lee County supervisor has decided to start the ball rolling on removing all county seat services from Keokuk and making Fort Madison the sole county seat. Naturally, the two supervisors from Keokuk have a problem with this. Three readings of the ordinance are needed, starting tonight, and the process would be completed by Nov. 14, according to the Hawk Eye.
Earlier this summer, there was a split-the-baby option floated of making Montrose the county seat with a new building, but that might have fallen by the wayside.
Fort Madison and Keokuk were 34th and 35th in Iowa population in the 2010 census, the former switching places with the latter as top dog in Lee County.
There has not been a change in county seats in Iowa since 1919, when Cedar Rapids wrested the Linn County seat away from Marion. (Marion had it just long enough for the original route of the Lincoln Highway to touch, but then the Mount Vernon Road cutoff was built.)