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1887 History of Story County, Iowa by W. G. Allen

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FROM THE STORY COUNTY ADVOCATE 1857
Page 23 of 493

Also that Nevada Star Lodge of I. O. of Good Templars meets every Tuesday evening in Nevada Hall, W. E. Aldredge, W. C. T., and J. W. Davidson, W. S. Also that Geo. A. KELLOGG, J. L. Dana, John Scott, J. S. Frazier, R. H. Mitchell, Wm, offered their services as Land Agents. Also that Drs. A. Wiley, V. V. Adamson and J. W. Davidson, having permanently located in Nevada, respectfully tender their professional services as Physicians and Surgeons.

In the same number is noted that E. G. Day is appointed a Justice of the Peace, vice, W. E. Aldredge, resigned, that Melvin Swift "has got his goods out of the meshes of the law, and is going to sell them off cheap;" that Webster County has been divided, and a new county called Hamilton has been erected; that the second quarterly Meeting on the Nevada Mission will commence on Saturday, January 31st., and that Rev. J. F. Hestwood "requests the friends of the place to how themselves true-hearted to the cause of religion by assisting to feed and entertain the brethern from a distance.

By an article descriptive of Story county we learn, among many other things, that there are six townships in the county, to-wit: Nevada, Indian Creek, Washington, Union, Lafayette, and Franklin; that Nevada is thirty miles from Des Moines, and one hundred and fifteen miles from Iowa City, the nearest railway station; that a good Court House has been erected; that no less than fifteen grist and saw mills have been built in various parts of the county; that Nevada boasts of many neat and substantial buildings "mostly erected after the steam saw mill was erected, in the fall of 1858; that arrangements are being made for putting up from seventy-five to a hundred buildings the next summer; that Iowa Center, Cambridge and New Philadelphia are thriving places; that Prairie City, Fairview, Albany, New Bloomington and Defiance have been more recently laid out and are mostly in the future; (which we now see was a mistake, for even at that early day several of them were already in the past;) and that many expect the Central Iowa Air Line Railroad will be built to this place in four or five years.

From the advertising columns it is seen that M. Swift, E. Schoonover, Moore & Bell, Aldredge & Prouty, Adamson & Davidson. J. H. Talbott, Alderman & Rhodes, and T. E. Alderman are each doing a thriving business in various lines of trade. The latter announces in large capitals that there is "Great Excitement at the Cheap Cash Store," and that "all the earth, and the rest of mankind are invited to come to the far-famed emporium of fashion," &c., &c., at the N. E. corner of Court House Square.

The next number was issued March 4th, after a wintry sleep of five weeks, on thin wrapping paper, of a brown color, and apologized for its non-appearance "on account of the failure of paper arrangements." This wrinkled faded, and mouse-eaten half-sheet informs us that the first house in Nevada was raised on the eighth of September, 1853, by T. E. Alderman, on lot 5, in block 17, and that

Page 23 of 493

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