On March 1, 1966, the Tjelmeland & Tjelmeland Agency began as a partnership by two brothers, Gary L. Tjelmeland and Keith E. Tjelmeland. This insurance agency was purchased from H. M. (Hank) Bakka, who had been in the business for 40 years. In addition to insurance, the Tjelmelands added real estate to their line of business in June 1966.
On February 13, 1968, Tjelmeland & Tjelmeland Agency expanded, opening a branch office at 524 Penn Avenue, Story City. Having purchased the Harold Henryson Insurance Agency at Story City, Gary and Keith offer the people of Roland and Story City a complete insurance and real estate service.
Gary Tjelmeland resides at Story City with his wife, Janice, one son, Monte, and one daughter, Jana. Keith Tjelmeland resides at Roland with his wife, Clare, one son, Kelly, and one daughter, Angela.
It has been 100 years from the date of the application for a post office for the Roland community before a building specifically designed for postal operations was obtained. Many sites have been used as a post office during this time. The first was in the home of the first postmaster, Jonas Duea, located one-half mile west of Main Street on the south side of the road. Mr. Duea later changed locations to the corner south of Bergen Church, in the Grange Store. He officially described this location, in his report dated January 8, 1882, as 4 mile east of Bear Creek and 36 rods south of the railroad. As the Main Street grew, Postmaster John J. Stokka moved the post office to a location he describes as 4 mile east of Bear Creek and 400 feet south of the Iowa Central Railroad tracks. From this time until the present, the Post Office has been located in the main business block of Main Street.
A copy of the original application, including the map showing the location of the mail route and location of neighboring towns, shows that there was no village to the east at that time. After the railroad reached Roland, the report of 1882 lists Latrobe as 5 3/4 miles to the east, and the report of 1899 shows the name changed from Latrobe to McCallsburg.
The original application proposed that the name of the post office be Roland and that it is not a village or town but will serve approximately 70 families.
The post office was to receive and dispatch mail on route number 11.239, being the route from Nevada to Lakins Grove. The mail was carried on horse back twice weekly by Nels Torrison, the contractor. The addition of the Roland Post Office to this route would not change the distance traveled, and the other offices, Story City, Randall and Lakins Grove (now Ellsworth), would not be affected.
The arrival of the railroad in 1881 resulted in many changes. It was no longer necessary to carry mail by horse back, and the Roland Post Office now received and dispatched mail to the Iowa Central Railroad which made its
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