Another road was the Marion-Mt. Vernon road, as well as the Western road, and the Mt. Vernon-Ivanhoe Bridge road leading to Iowa City. The Code of 1851, referring to the State roads, directs that these roads shall be maintained by the respective counties but that such State roads shall not be discontinued or diminished in size.--Sections 557, 558, Code of Iowa, 1851. At this time roads were under the supervision of the county court. Later they came under the supervision of the county supervisors. For many years it was believed that a certain hill overgrown by trees near the Milwaukee tracks in the edge of Kenwood had been a fortification erected by the United States government in the early days for defending the settlers from Indian attacks. A school house was later erected on or near this locality and was known as "Ft. George School House." Many of the old settlers remembered this locality and called it the old fort. An investigation was made and the following letter written by Samuel W. Durham explains itself: "The house was built by a man by the name of George, of German descent, and afterwards bought and occupied by Ambrose Harland who gave the little irregular tract and house the name of Ft. George in honor of its first owner and its having the appearance of being constructed to resist, not Indians, but cold winds as they swept up Indian creek. Harland was a character, born in Kentucky, removed to Crawfordsville, Indiana, and was the sheriff of that county. This was the home of Lew Wallace, the author of Ben Hur, and also the home of Henry S. Lane who first named Abraham Lincoln as president in a convention in Chicago in 1860. Harland moved to Linn county succeeding Hosea W. Gray as sheriff, and was succeeded by me in that office. He was a six-footer and large and would fight, but once fell heavily before Perry Oxley's huge fist." The person who erected the house which appeared like a fort was no other than George Hesing, who owned the land and was a peculiar character in his day. He did plant cottonwood trees around the house and also scraped up dirt so as to keep out the wind and snows as much as possible from his yard. In a few years the trees grew up and the rubbish accumulated, and they gave the place the appearance and made it look like an old abandoned fortification. It is said that a certain Mr. Willard having charge of the erection of a school house near this location named it the "Ft. George School House," which name it bore as long as it stood there.