Hawley was a stagecoach stop between Alden and Newcastle. It was located in SE Sec 36-89-24 of Blairsburg Township on the Maria McNabb farm. Hawley was laid out on Dec. 7, 1857, by four Webster City men, in anticipation of the possibility of a railroad coming through from the east. These men were Thomas McCartney, George Grechneck (who was a surveyor), and Walter C. & Sumler Willson. They intended to build several buildings here, but the coming of the railroad was delayed.

Walter Willson did arrange for the Western Stage Company to use Hawley as a stage stop. The stage route was established in 1855 and ran between Alden, Iowa and Newcastle (later renamed Webster City.) The president of the Dubuque & Pacific Railroad in 1857 was a man named Edwin Hawley, and the four men figured that flattery might work in getting the train to pass through their new town.

George Castner ran the stage stop and served as postmaster for Hawley. The station master's desk has been preserved and is on display at the Depot Museum in the Wilson Brewer Park in Webster City.

The stage coach operated at Hawley for only the last nine of its fourteen years. This stage ran weekly in the beginning, then three times a week, and finally by 1868, it was running daily. When the railroad finally did arrive in 1869, John I. Blair was the chief engineer. When he met with the plat owners and they refused to make special concessions of land and money, Blair went west and created his own town of Blairsburg instead.

It is interesting to note that W. C. Willson must not have been troubled too much by the rejection, since he had the contract to actually construct the railroad from Alden to Webster City. The need for Hawley disappeared after the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad was completed to Webster City.