William Sturgis was the first permanent white settler in Black Hawk County. He came here in 1845 and built a double log cabin where the Ice House Museum now stands. Claiming land and water rights on both sides of the river, including much of what is now downtown Cedar Falls, he named the area "Strugis Falls."

Sturgis and his wife, Dorothy, were soon joined by his brother-in-law, Erasmus Adams, a cabinet maker from Ohio. Adams built a log cabin and claimed the land farther south, near Dry Run Creek. The first white child born in the county was Sarah Jane Sturgis, nicknamed Jennie, On October 1, 1846.

Sturgis sought to build a brush dam and sawmill on the Cedar River. Lack of money and man power, however, prompted Sturgis to sell his 280 acre claim to John Overman in 1848. Sturgis then moved his family to Minnesota, and the town was renamed Cedar Falls the following year.