Future researchers into the life styles of our pioneer forefathers might well conclude that much of their time was spent in founding towns and establishing post officers. Support for this theory came as I sought material for this book for, indeed, the names of fifty-one such turned up – a formidable number in a county which, in 1895, had a population of but 15,187, of which only 5,607, or 37 per cent, were listed as urban.
When the work was started it was assumed that there were at most half a dozen bona fide former towns and perhaps an equal number of discontinued post offices. So the listing of these which follows this, was a revelation to the author, and will be possibly to the reader. These do not include the early-day rural churches which, while outside the original classification for the listing, were frequently neighborhoods of note, although not strictly towns. It soon became apparent as the list of names of former towns grew that some had started with one name and, in time, changed to another. One such in fact, had a total of four different names at varying times. All but one of the present active towns started with a different name than that now used.
The number of post offices, at least sixteen without a town connection, is not so strange when we reflect that rural free delivery did not come to Mills County until the turn of the century, and thus it was a real service for farm neighborhoods to have a nearby post office, more often than not in a farm house, to which mail would be delivered daily by a star route. Thus nearby farmers, or patrons, could get their mail more easily than by a trip by horse or wagon to a more distant town.
Since Mills County is not generally considered a “historic” place (no battles of consequence were fought on its soil), location of material for such a record as this offered some problems. The History of Mills County, 1881, the last complete history of the county to be published, was a good source. Limited amounts of material were yielded by Johnson Brigham’s Iowa: Its History and Its Citizens, published in 1915 and several community history books, such as the Centennial History of Emerson, Iowa, published in 1972; History of Silver City, Iowa, published in 1954; Paddock’s Brief History of Malvern, published in 1916 and the Hillsdale and Wesley Chapel church histories. A number of old atlases helped: those of 1875, 1892, 1904 and 1910, the 1891 and 1910 volumes also providing some excellent plats and historical sketches.
Of special help were the bound newspaper files of The Malvern Leader, which were complete from 1879 until present day with the exception of the year of 1899; The Glenwood Tribune, from 1901 until its merger with theGlenwood Opinion; a few copies of the Opinion and some copies of the Glenwood Opinion-Tribune, especially its centennial issue. Microfilms of the Council Bluffs Nonpareil files, The Palimpsest of the Iowa State Historical Society and Annals of Iowa of the State Department of History and Archives also supplied material.
Acknowledged with very sincere thanks are the good help and courteous encouragement given by so many friends that I hesitate to list them for fear that some may be missed, but I feel they do deserve my direct thanks: Lulu Potts (Mrs. Gordon) Abbott, Earl Bass, Vira Bayes, Ann Beckwith of the Malvern Library, Jason Benscoter, Ronald Barnes of the Glenwod Opinion-Tribune, Dora Borene (Mrs. Galen) Boles, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Boyce, Maude Plumer (Mrs. J. A.) Burgoin (who gave permission to use her very interesting sketches of the Plumer Settlement, Salem Lutheran Church and the Stage Coach Inn), Charles D. Costello, Mrs. Howard Curry of the Glenwood Library, Glenn Dalrymple, Joe Doyle, Peter H. Graham of The Malvern Leader, Kenneth Graves, Frances K. Godsey, Horace Greenwod, Lee Honeyman, Louis Leu, Darrell Mayberry of the Mills County Abstract Company, Ona McNay, Howard Palmer, Cliff N. Kelly, R. W. Salyers, John Watson, Otha D. Wearin, and Mrs. Ernest White; and the Council Bluffs and Red Oak public libraries.
And a special thanks to my wife, Zelma, who had to put up with my room cluttered for many weeks with piles of old (and very dusty) atlases, books, stacks of old pictures and folders of manuscript scattered over not only my normally untidy desk but on every available chair and chest as well; and for her valuable help in editing and copyreading the completed copy.
This is a good place to suggest, too, that it’s fun to work on such a record as this, and that there’s a place for the non-professional historian: i.e., everyone should set down facts and memories of his community and life which are of interest and such records, even if not immediately published, will be good material for some future need.
One coincidence encountered was of interest: Mrs. Abbott has been at work for some years on a fictionalized story of life in Hillsdale. When I asked her to check the first draft of the chapter on Hillsdale, she was quite intrigued, as was I, to find that both of us had planned to use that verse from Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village. But since she is working in California and I in Iowa, we thought it could served both without suspicion of plagiarism.
Perhaps I should anticipate that the day after this is published, an additional former town, or post office, will turn up. If it does, I can only ask the reader to add it to his copy of the book.
This is a good place to suggest, too, that it’s fun to work on such a record as this, and that there’s a place for the non-professional historian: i.e., everyone should set down facts and memories of his community and life which are of interest and such records, even if not immediately published, will be good material for some future need.
One coincidence encountered was of interest: Mrs. Abbott has been at work for some years on a fictionalized story of life in Hillsdale. When I asked her to check the first draft of the chapter on Hillsdale, she was quite intrigued, as was I, to find that both of us had planned to use that verse from Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village. But since she is working in California and I in Iowa, we thought it could served both without suspicion of plagiarism.
Perhaps I should anticipate that the day after this is published, an additional former town, or post office, will turn up. If it does, I can only ask the reader to add it to his copy of the book.
