are Mr. Shugan, Mrs. W. R. Kirk, J. G. Tanner (1887), D. V. Thrift, L. Lockwood (1888), R. J. Silliman, Dr. T. J. Jeffry, Edwin Reid (1889), John Briggs and Rev. Danner (1890).
The post-office has been filled in appointments as follows: T. E. Alderman, January 14, 1854; J. C. Harris, December 6, 1855; William Aldridge, March 25, 1856; James Hawthorn, November 22, 1858; W. G. Allen, April 25, 1861; James S. Blickensderfer, March 14, 1864; Otis Briggs, February 16, 1865; E. D. Fenn, September 3, 1866; L. Irwin, May 28, 1869; John Beatty, January 27, 1873; T. J. Ross, June 28, 1881; E. D. Fenn, August 7, 1885; F. D. Thompson, May 28, 1889. The growth of its business is illustrated by the report for the week ending May 12, 1890: Letters, 2,086; postals, 514; foreign, 13; second-class matter, 4,119 pieces; third class, 46; other matter, 169; total pieces, 6,947, weighing 4,541 pounds; postage paid, $52.91; to be collected, $.48. This was not the week for the sub-issues of the Highway office.
Story City, with its diminutive annexed parent, Fairview, on the east, is a kind of Americanized Norway and Denmark. It is the home of the only Danish cousul in Iowa, W. D. Gandrup, and its population of about 800 is very largely Norwegian, with a liberal sprinkling of the Dane. Indeed, as the quaint, awkward skeleton of the old Scandinavian windmill, with its sails long since. blown off, rises above the busy stores of Broad Street, and looks down on the neat residences along the 140-foot Park and Elm Avenues, it seems a type of the steady absorption of the Scandinavian into American customs, which latter may be illustrated in the slender, shapely wind-mills which tower above the surrounding farms. As a center of a wealthy and industrious foreign population, it became the objective point of two railways-the predecessors of the North-Western and the Story City Branch of the Iowa Central. Its founders laid out its streets with a lavish hand, making the business street-Broad-100 feet, and the two park streets 140 feet, to provide for a line of trees and lawn in the middle. It has its share of the flowing wells near by.
This is the second town in age in the county, and has had two periods in its career, which may be called the Hoosier and Scandinavian, the former covering the years from 1855 to the war, and the latter the time since then. On January, 5, 1855, George W. Sowers entered the land on the Fairview site, and on the following June 25, and March 14, Lacount Lambert and Miles White entered the Story City site. Messrs. Lambert, Sowers and George S. Prime were Indianians, and on June 4 they platted a few acres on the southwest corner of the northeast quarter of Section 12, which, from its beautiful, unobstructed view, was named Fairview. Very soon Richard E. Jenness built a log house on the west street of Fairview. During 1856 he erected a frame and opened a store. William Estell next built on the northeast of the plat a frame store, in 1856. F. W. Rhoades opened business, and on November 29, 1856, was commissioned post, master, and the name made Story City, because of the existence of another Fairview in the State. John J. Foot erected a frame on the plat too. About 1857 Messrs. Prime, Harding and Smith brought on a steam saw-mill, which enlivened business; then they made special inducements, such as giving town lots to those who would build. The second of those who took this offer was Capt. (now) W. A. Wier. D. L. Stultz and T. A. Squires located about 1859. The Rhoades' store passed through the hands of William Margason, Prime & Harding, Carl Smith, and was finally closed up, so there was little or no business by 1860, and during the war the mill was removed.