The following links will take you to the respective sections of the Elma Centennial History Book that was prepared and published by the Elma History Book Committee in 1986. You will need Adobe Reader to view these pdf files, and some of the files are rather large and may take several minutes to download (depending on your Internet connection).

Table of Contents

The History Book Committee

Chapter 1 - Howard County History

Chapter 2 - The Chicago Great Western in Elma

Chapter 7 - Elma Disaters

Chapter 9 - Lemuel Potter family

The entire book is over 300 pages and only portions have been scanned and presented here with the permission of the History Committee (specifically Avis Roethler and Sam Kramer). Many thanks to Dick Offerman who patiently scanned these pages (October 2008). If you want to see if you have any ancestral information in the book you may contact Dick Offerman and he will look through it (time permitting) and scan any results.

Aerial photo of Elma in the 1970s